What's There to Celebrate, Liverpool Fans?

Liverpool Football Club continues to dominate the financial pages with a series of measures and counter measures to decide the future ownership of the club. Later today, club chairman, Martin Broughton goes back to the high court in an attempt to overturn the ruling of a Texas court that yesterday halted the original high court ruling which effectively allowed the club to be legally sold. Apparently, the case all boiled down to a legal precedent set by some poor soul who locked himself out of his hotel room and who subsequently sued and lost his case for damages against the hotel.

This continuing farce reinforces everything that RTG has been trying to illustrate about the dangers posed by the corporate world in threatening the very future of football as a Sport. More and more of the influencing factors that affect football are discussed in the financial pages, rather than the traditional back pages. The sight of a handful of Liverpool fans emerging from the high courts as if celebrating a cup win disturbs RTG even more. What exactly are they celebrating? Are these the same supporters who welcomed Gillett and Hicks as saviours to the club just over three years ago?

These were, after all, owners who in their time have bankrolled, after Chelsea and Manchester City, the highest spending in English football history. Why exactly have these scarf waving supporters, yet again, satisfied themselves that a new set of saviours are waiting in the wings? The prospective new owners come with their PR led platitudes of humble intent and, supposedly, a commitment to a debt free future. Really?

How will a new football stadium, so prioritised as an essential step for Liverpool FC’s future development, be financed? Maybe, the prospective new owners, New England Sports Ventures (NESV), will do what they did for the Boston Red Sox, and CANCEL the development of a new stadium – despite Fenway Park, the Red Sox’s stadium, being the most antiquated ball park in Major League baseball with a paltry 37 thousand capacity. The CEO of NESV, John Henry, has a successful track record within several sports, including another baseball team, the Florida Marlins in maximising revenue streams for his ‘franchises’. He also has a reasonable track record of delivering success on the proverbial pitch (or diamond, court, rink etc). Not a dissimilar reputation, if slightly less sporting success, to a certain couple of other gentlemen of LFC’s recent acquaintance.

Until football and its powers recognise the futility of successive takeovers and the corporate machinations enveloping the game, this will just be one more bean fest for lawyers and other football hangers on, paid for by us supporters. It has to be recognised that any future prosperity of a football club has to be away from the corporate interests that are continuing to ebb away the spirit and essence of our beloved game. All those scarf wavers and “walk alone” warblers have also to realise that you cannot continue to welcome with open arms the next ‘big thing’ – just because their PR agency say they’re good blokes with tons of money. Whatever happens with the high court rulings, it is unlikely that much will change in reality for Liverpool in the next few years.

The Keeper

.…it’s a lonely life between the posts

In those difficult and tedious afternoons in between spit roasts and training sessions, the Keeper likes nothing more than a nice relaxing round of golf. Naturally then he was delighted with Europe’s Ryder Cup victory over the US last week. One of the interesting things about this victory was that European Captain Colin Montgomerie banned all the European team from Twittering during the tournament. The Keeper couldn’t help thinking modern day football managers could learn from this. I mean who wants to be party to the trivial outpourings of disillusioned millionaire footballers. “The Gaffa’s dropped me for Saturday. He’s a c**t.” or “Think we’re going to get stuffed this weekend.” Perhaps what we’re looking for is more along the lines of, “The Gaffa’s just stuffed my mobile phone up my aaaaaaaah!”

No such treatment from within the England camp where early signs were looking good ahead of the Euro qualifiers. Apparently after Robert Green’s recall following his gaff against the USA in the World Cup, he kept a clean sheet in training despite 100 shots on goal. The not so good news was that Rob and Kevin Davies were in a one to one training session together. Looks like Kev’s vow to England fans in The Sun this week that he will comfortably fill Emile Heskey’s boots is beginning to bear fruit.

Emile, of course, will no longer feature in Fabio Capello’s plans but who knows if the next England manager may also try and persuade him out of retirement. Early indications from whoever is in charge at the FA (and the Keeper certainly doesn’t know!) are that the next manager has to be English. I mean there’s a whole crop of eager English guys out there just itching to be given the chance. Stuart Pearce and Sam Allardyce for instance… well, it certainly is probable the next England manager will possibly be English…Steve McClaren and Ian Holloway, to name a couple…I mean he doesn’t have to be English by any means, that would just be the preferred option! Harry Redknapp (assuming he’s not otherwise engaged in rough sex at Her Majesty’s pleasure)?...we’ll do whatever we have to do to get the best manager….English or otherwise!

What is in no doubt at all is that the next Olympic Games will definitely be an English affair. It seems that West Ham (not really from around there) are still favourites to pip North London rivals Spurs (definitely from nowhere around there) to taking over the stadium as their home when the Olympics is finished. Ed Warner, Chairman of UK Athletics said that the West Ham bid was more sensitive to the Olympic Legacy in that it involved retaining the running track around the stadium. Well, if the Keeper had to watch West Ham in their current form every week, he’d want to be as far away from the pitch as possible also. Not only that, the original ‘innovative’ design actually intended to make the top tier of the stadium easy to dismantle and be recycled after the games. What football fans in the 60’s and 70’s would have given for such an opportunity to be able to wreck a ground so easily!?

What is "Fit and Proper" for Football?

Of the 20 Premier League clubs, 10 have changed ownership in the last four years - the majority of those within the last 12 months - and another two are likely to be under new ownership in the next 12 months. There seems to have been very little constructive debate as to what the consequences are for the competition within the Premiership and English football in general. What little there has been seems to focus on the xenophobic aspects given that nine of those clubs are now under foreign ownership. It seems to centre on cultural and emotional aspects rather than asking more relevant questions such as the impact on English football as a whole.

The FA are supposed to have tests in place rating suitability to be an owner of a football club. These tests appear to allow takeovers:

1. Where money used has been sourced through illegal activities (allegedly);



2. By people wanted for criminal activity in their native countries;



3. By people who have been identified as abusers of human rights by official agencies;



4. Where previously financially secure clubs have been mortgaged against future revenue streams where ownership is effectively funded by the fans for the new owners.

Quite clearly the FA are either too lackadaisical or too incompetent to operate the so-called proper "tests". The day when the local pie manufacturer used to also own the local football club have gone. This new breed of owner operates on a totally different scale. Last week, it was announced that David Dein had sold his stake in Arsenal for £75 million. This for his stake which he bought for a reported £300,000 in the early 80's gives us a measure of that scale. This new breed is not going into ownership with the same expectations as the "old school". So what are they really after? Whatever it is, it will not be in the interests of genuine supporters. In addition it will undoubtedly have an impact on the true competitive nature of the premiership and beyond into the England set up and lower leagues.

What is required is a more cohesive response by supporters. Contrast the differing responses by Manchester United supporters in opposing their takeover, to the "welcome with open arms" by other clubs' supporters.

Like us, you may have noticed recently an increasing number of articles in the broadsheets where foreign owners have put their PR machine into operation and are actively stating their credentials as to why the fans should welcome them. They claim to love the passion of English supporters. They claim to have always followed English football and that they really are genuine fans of the sport. Or as one new owner put it : "I've always been a big fan of this franchise". The Premier League also back them up by claiming the game has never been healthier. But the truth of the matter is surely that if wealthy foreign owners really did have the supporters' interests at heart, they wouldn't need to make these claims because it would be obvious. But the fact that they feel the need to sport the club scarf to matches in a very open manner and the fact that they feel compelled to let us know constantly what huge fans of the game they are, leads us to believe we are being duped.

The perverse irony is that, in the short-term, it may lead to a break-up of the so-called big four club monopoly and a more open competition. However, that competition will be between clubs with rich owners while the rest are left to worry about relegation. Then the real agenda will emerge.

Reclaim the Game - The Week's Events

• Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was forced to finally call it a day this week. How refreshing, in this era, that a player stays 11 years at a club, even without being first choice for the majority of that time. He did his job and had the best "goals per minute on the field" record of any premiership striker. Shame that when he truly was first choice, replacing David Beckham in the 2003 championship team, he ran into his career ending injury phase.
• Brian Barwick, FA's CEO: " There aren't a lot of english players playing in the Premier League. That for us has to be a concern and an issue and in truth therefore it has to be an issue for every football fan in the country". Oh dear.... What the hell has the rest of the footballing community been saying for the last n years..? Well at least those that are in the position to do something about it, have finally realised that there is a problem. A step towards the solution?
• Everton football club whose ownership we don't have a lot of problem with in general, appear to be "spinning" their fans a yarn. The "overwhelming" support for a move from Goodison to Kirkby was in fact just under 42%. Nearly 31% voted against and another 27% chose to abstain to the question of 'Move to Kirkby or Extinction'. This must be the only time that Merseyside has adopted a Maggie Thatcher view of democracy.
• Further to our posting last Thursday regarding Platini's proposed reforms of the Champions League, we can state that some of our concerns were addressed (especially the rules regarding runners up etc.). It did, however, miss its main ideal which was to open out the competition to more of Europe. Note once again that there would have been no difference to England's qualifying clubs in the last 10 years. So no difference to the number of English teams and no difference to who they would have been. Very disappointing. And what the hell is the point of a Pre-qualifying Cup Winners Cup Champions League qualification anyway?

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or Not)!

Player of the Week: Ryan Babel. Torres took the plaudits but we think he was the man. Plus he scored the best goal even though the pundits blamed it on poor defending.

Hero(es) of the Week: The 27,000 Leeds fans who still turned out to watch in League 1 despite the enormous deficit they have to make up. Almost makes you want to start liking them!

Villain of the Week: I know what you're thinking. Because we saw him sneaking out early too when they were getting beaten! But, in fact, this has everything to do with him trying to engineer the transfer of Ronaldhino to Chelsea behind the back of his manager. Almost makes you want to feel sorry for Mourinho!

Shock of the Week: Emile Heskey's recall to the England squad. No not an issue of merit, more to do with the point of why we have friendlies. Did anyone spot Emile being tried out in the Germany game? And now Beckham is injured, what options do we have wide on the right?