A Phoney Phase to a Phoney Competition – Part Two

Last week RTG highlighted the total distortion of competition within the Premier League caused by the unrestricted spending of Manchester City and Chelsea. RTG also highlighted how this distortion is putting additional financial demands on the rest of the Premiership. So much so, that promotion can now be viewed increasingly as a poisoned chalice, with financial implosion and further relegation becoming the norm for those clubs failing to maintain their premiership status beyond a season or two. As RTG writes, recently relegated Hull City is believed to be on the brink of administration following a host of other clubs whose recent history has included a period in the top flight.

RTG believes the time has come to impose financial controls on this unbridled distortion. Yes, UEFA has announced rules that impose some limited constraints, but as RTG has previously pointed out before, these are very limited and will allow the continual subsidy of clubs living beyond their means until at least the 2019/2020 season! Also, they will continue to allow the purchase of clubs via leveraged buyouts, thus waving in more Glazers, Hicks and Gillettes into the English game.

Salomon Kalou made the back pages last week by asserting that Manchester City won’t be able to buy the league title. That, coming from a player whose team has already had around £700 million of subsidies from a Russian Oligarch, says much about the hypocrisy and lunacy pervading the upper tier of English football. And there’s more to come. Since Abramovich’s subsidies, Chelsea have finished in the top two in each of his six seasons as owner, winning three titles – this for a team that had finished in the top two only once in the previous 98 years. Sorry Salomon, you really can buy the title and you can buy success. You may not be able to do it by the Real Madrid ‘Galactico’ method – which in the end is more to do with a vanity ‘fantasy league’ project, than a serious football-winning team building exercise.

People have argued that the additional billions that the game has received from oligarchs and oil sheikhs have made the Premiership a more exciting league, attracting the best talent in the world. RTG argues differently: the additional money has led to absurd transfer and player salary inflation, which has only fuelled the disparity between the rich two and the rest. Yes, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have been able to challenge Chelsea in recent seasons, but these challenges are fading and, arguably Manchester United, without Ronaldo, would not have been able to prevent Chelsea from winning all titles since Abramovich appeared on the scene. As it stands, with UEFA’s so called financial constraints, the title for the foreseeable future will be a contest between City and Chelsea – with the rest making up the annual fodder for these two. It will also mean a lot more clubs going into administration and ruin.

No, the time is now for the Premiership to impose unilaterally its own controls to prevent not only the massive subsidies to clubs, but the obscene leveraged buy-outs which will bring ruin to both Manchester United and Liverpool. In Liverpool’s case, it already has done. Yes, it may mean the ‘best’ talent in the world may bypass the Premiership (and arguably they are doing so already) and it may mean that the Premiership’s recent ‘domination’ (according to the pundits) of the Champions League would end in the short term, but it would make for a far better competition and safeguard the future of clubs for their supporters.

So sign up to RTG to help get a proper football competition! 

The Keeper

…still waiting for the call from City! 

If the Keeper sounds a bit distracted this week then many apologies but it’s down to this new shirt they’ve got him wearing for the new season. It itches like hell. The days when the old green cotton jersey was washed and laid out on the bed in August have long since departed. Now it’s a question of making sure he gets used to at least three different luminous coloured nylon affairs. It used to be the case that the Keeper only had to go through this unpleasant process every few years but actually it seems to be a yearly occurrence now. In fact 18 from 20 Premier League clubs have changed their first team kit again this year so why should the Keeper get off scot free? At least Arsenal and Manchester United have ‘gone green’ by claiming their new replica kits are made from recycled plastic bottles. This does not unfortunately result in the shirts being cheaper to buy for the average football supporter but from a manufacturing production viewpoint, it makes perfect sense. After quenching their raging thirst in the oppressive heat of the sweatshop, a Chinese worker will be able to throw their plastic water bottle in the skip next to their work space safe in the knowledge that it will be back in front of them in a matter of days to be hewn expertly into a Nike football shirt.

Speaking of recycling in sport, the Olympic Stadium for 2012 is the first ever that is apparently totally recyclable. It is designed so that the top tier can be removed and recycled to leave a 25,000 capacity athletics stadium. Or, as talk has it, West Ham may take it over and have their own brand new home ground ready for 2012-13 presumably at taxpayers’ expense. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the recycling doesn’t have to happen. Just think how many peek-a-boo latex bras, crotch-less skin tight knickers and synthetic rubber Rampant Rabbits David Sullivan and David Gold will manage to make out of the recycled running track when it’s ripped up. 

No opportunity for Eduardo to don the reconstituted coke bottles as he thanked his old club Arsenal and departed for Shakhtar Donetsk. The unusual part of his transfer was that he had to learn Ukrainian as part of the deal. This serves as a stark reminder to the Keeper as to why so few English players travel to foreign climes to ply their trade. In three years at Lazio, the best Gazza managed was “uno birra per favour chief” (belch), while in the same time period in Madrid, David Beckham got at best to “grassy arse” and sticking an ‘o’ on the end of any English word he knows (of which, let’s face it, there aren’t that many). The Keeper wonders how many times the phrase “yer know o” was quoted in post-match interviews to the Spanish media.

Closer to home, the saga of Liverpool football club drags on and on. After last season when it seemed that a few scribblings on the back of a fag packet were enough to prove oneself worthy of buying Portsmouth, it could take many months for prospective buyers to prove their own suitability to buy the Merseyside giant while they, in turn, carry out their own due diligence. If this proves too much of a financial strain on Gillette and Hicks it may be that they will default on their loans and Royal Bank of Scotland, effectively a state owned bank, will end up running Liverpool FC. While opposition football supporters the length and breadth of the country have, for many years, taken the piss out of Liverpool folk and their supposed reliance on benefits from the state, having their football club relying on taxpayers’ handouts is surely taking it a bit too far.

39th Game: Premiership Plot or Pawn in World Game?

Just when you thought it was safe to file the ‘39th game’ proposal into the metaphoric dustbin, then FIFA issue a statement which has given encouragement, in some quarters at least, to the proposers of the so called 39th game. Basically, despite FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s initial deep scepticism, FIFA welcomed the postponement of a meeting specifically to address the issue, in favour of a future date – thus allowing the Premiership to put more detail to the proposal. Note that it was the Premiership who made the postponement.

Whilst RTG remains completely against the 39th game, it got us thinking as to why the proposal has become an issue again, having met such resistance not only from supporters, managers, foreign national FA’s, and FIFA regions, but also principally by our own English FA. Putting RTG’s cynical ‘hat on’, and knowing little, but just enough, about FIFA’s and Sepp Blatter’s modus operandi, the only conclusion is that this proposal will become a bargaining chip, to be traded or bartered with the English FA at some future stage. At this precise moment, the big issue for English football is the World Cup 2018. Anything that jeopardises that is a complete no-no for the FA and, rightly so. It is the one matter that supporters agree with their own FA about.

It’s hard to see any additional benefit that the Premiership can promote in adding more detail to the proposal. Certainly, the absolute incredible, lack of prior consultation, a point that Sir Alex Ferguson was considerably vexed about, and the insurmountable problems highlighted in the English FA’s review of the proposal will not be addressed, so why the postponement? The only thing that the Premiership can do is signal their intent in expanding the revenue earning streams from abroad. Is there a way to do this and minimise the impact on distorting the league competition?

Any proposal that adds to the fixture congestion, RTG believes, should be rejected out of hand. You would need to play a home and away fixture against the same team in the same world time zone, preferably in the same week. There would need to be fixed rules for which teams end up playing these games abroad. For example, Premier Champions against Championship play-off winner, second place against Championship runner-up, third place against Championship champions etc. No, RTG doesn’t like it much either and we’ve not even started talking about the disruption to local national FA’s, a point that we have huge reservations over. But at least it’s fair and equitable for all teams.

Maybe though, this is exactly what the Premiership has in mind. Maybe, as is the modern PR way, the initial plans were to draw out the nay sayers and doom merchants before the ‘let’s get everybody so confused that resistance becomes fragmented and we win phase’ is implemented. But maybe, just maybe, they are really incompetent and they don’t know how to handle these matters, as shown time and again. As Groucho Marx once might have observed about the English Premiership: “those guys might look like idiots and they might act like idiots, but don’t let that fool you… they really are idiots!”.

RTG – The Week’s Events

• Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher has joined the list of professional players to get acquainted with Her Majesty’s Police when he received a formal caution over a violent incident this week in Liverpool.
• Alisher Usmanov, the Arsenal share holding Russian billionaire, has increased his stake in Arsenal by a few decimal percentage points, but by doing so is now the single biggest shareholder in the Gunners. He’s only a few decimal percentage points away from the magical 25% level, which would allow him to block any board resolutions. A place on the Arsenal board cannot be far away. Interestingly, he has also announced a year’s sponsorship of Dynamo Moscow, citing, according to reports, that Dynamo is his ‘first love’ and that he fell in love with them the first time he entered the stadium in the early sixties. Sounds a bit familiar to his pronouncements on acquiring his Arsenal shareholding ie he fell in love with English football the first time he encountered it in 1966….

Early Season Excitement Makes Way for the Humdrum

About a quarter of the season has passed and it is only now that we can really draw any conclusions as to how the season in the premiership is shaping up. Now as autumn draws in, all those that wrote off Arsenal's chances pre-season are suddenly backtracking wildly as they sit atop of the premiership, unbeaten and having only dropped two points. Manchester United are within spitting distance of Arsenal, despite having been written off just three games into the new season. Liverpool, heavily criticised for much of the opening phase of the campaign, lie in fourth and still remain unbeaten - no pleasing some people we say! Only Chelsea from the so called Big Four have slipped out of the pole positions in the premiership. It would appear though that Chelsea have now returned to winning ways following the shock departure of manager Jose Mourinho. Time will tell whether the reported internal unrest has a terminal effect on Chelsea's chase for honours this season. However, they remain the wild card, as it would be foolish to predict the outcome of the management changes that have happened at Stamford Bridge.

Elsewhere, a "resurgent" Manchester City lying in third and a disappointing Tottenham languishing in 18th position, are the only real surprises this season. Though RTG finds it hard to understand how a "resurgence" can occur after 36 years! So despite the media hype and over reactions in pre-season and after the opening games, RTG believes it is plus ca change in the premiership. Even the usual suspects for relegation seem predictable enough, although Bolton might argue that they occupy a position that they haven't experienced for years. However, as is often the case when an enigmatic manager leaves a club punching above its weight, the whole character and spirit of the club seem to leave with them. In Bolton's case, the new manager Sammy Lee was the early favourite for the managerial sack race. For once it would appear, the pundits got it right.

This premiership predictability is finally taking its toll on attendances. This weekend, there were vast areas of empty seats at all but three premiership grounds. At Villa, for the visit of United; Everton for the Merseyside derby and at Arsenal - although there were empty seats there too, and indeed Arsenal appear to include 'no shows' in their attendance figures. Listening to the various powers that be, you could be excused for thinking that everything was fine and dandy within the premiership. Attendances have been 'steady' and even shown slight rises in some of the last few years. What the figures don't show is that most of these increases are attributable to the increased capacities at Old Trafford and Arsenal's new home, the Emirates. In addition, the promoted trio of Sunderland, Birmingham and Derby have attendances which exceed the trio that made way for them: Charlton, Watford and Sheffield United.

Of course, it is not only the predictability of the premiership that has an impact on attendances. TV saturation, the rising cost of tickets and travelling costs, varying kick off times and, as shown in the past, the failures at international level all have an impact. However, the most serious of these for the future of the game must be the decreasing level of competition and the humdrum predictability that it accompanies. The vast areas of empty seats seen this weekend are common this season and a dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago when it was virtually impossible for a neutral supporter to attend any premiership match - "all tickets sold" was the common mantra. You can take your pick nowadays - of anywhere but the Big Four of course.

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• It wasn't a good week to be an English sports fan, with failures in Football, Rugby and Formula1 racing. The Rugby was agonisingly close and gives rise to one of RTG's pet bugbears. Namely the use of video for refereeing decisions. Yet again the technology was found lacking and RTG still can't see for sure how the Mark Cueto "try" decision was made. And didn't it take ages for the decision to be made?
• Following Rob Styles' refereeing gaffes at Anfield earlier in the season, Rafa Benitez and Steven Gerrard launched into vitriolic attacks on the poor man. No surprise though that the pair are muted, when they have been the beneficiaries of even worse decisions this weekend in their fortuitous win over rivals Everton. Just goes to show that the old adage of decisions evening themselves out during the course of the season holds pretty true, though Fulham fans are still awaiting theirs.

Hats Off, Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Wayne Rooney. Back in the groove with England and Manchester United. We were getting a bit worried there!

Villain of the Week - Steven Gerrard. No not because of his performance in Russia, he was not alone in performing poorly, but because he appeared to get the ref to send off Everton's Terry Hibbert.

Shock of the Week: An Italian Serie A four - four draw. We know the days of catenaccio are long gone, but we are still not used to it.

Cliche of the Week: "we gave a good account of ourselves" from various pundits describing the immediate 60 odd minutes prior to Russia's equalising goal.