Audacity of Hope Dashed by Commercial Reality

The opening Saturday of the football season was once the most eagerly awaited day of any football supporter’s calendar. At three o’clock precisely on the given Saturday, at 46 different locations around the country, all 92 clubs embarked on their own history-making venture. The paucity of any football news during the summer months, with some broadsheets literally reporting no football news for weeks, only accentuated the drama of a new season. At many clubs, the first sight supporters had of a new summer signing was when he took to the field for the first match. Compare that buzz of anticipation with the modern game where 24 hour, 365 day football coverage has led to such over-exposure that we even know now what the club cat had for its dinner that morning. The mystery and suspense has all but disappeared. Staggered season starts for each league and first games spread over two to three days, to aid TV scheduling, has not lent itself well either to the crescendo of anticipation.

Back then, most home team match programmes would fuel the mindless optimism of both home and away fans. “Every team will be equal at least until 20 to five this afternoon”, they would intone. If the last season had been successful and a trophy (any trophy) had been won, you would bask in its reflected glory for a season or two as a ‘successful’ club. If last season had been woeful, then this one would surely be better, wouldn’t it? For nearly all supporters, there was hope that your team would challenge for honours or promotion, or, at the very least not to be embroiled in another relegation battle.

That was a time when the audacity of hope was reflected in the achievements, and failings, of individual clubs. In the 1960’s and 70’s, eleven different clubs won the English title, two of which were newly promoted, and only one club managed to defend successfully its title. This also included a run of seven different clubs winning the title in seven successive years in the early 1960’s. Contrast this to the four clubs who have won the past 19 top flight titles in England. Northampton Town took five years to gain promotion from the Football League basement to the top level, a similar feat performed, but executed with more success and longevity, by the Wimbledon team of the early 1980’s; culminating in Wimbledon becoming the only team to have won both FA Open and Amateur cup competitions. ‘Smaller clubs’, in particular, were able to foster these hopes, as Derby, Ipswich, QPR and Nottingham Forest’s, among others, proved beyond doubt. Supporters’ dreams therefore were more than just fashioned from pipes.

Nowadays, most supporters are forced to be more realistic about their expectations. After all, they’ve had their team’s prospects raked over and rated for virtually the entire summer by an armada of pundits and writers, not to mention the millions ranting and rambling on the internet (ourselves included). Supporters can see a couple of billionaires spend unlimited amounts of money in attempting to buy honours. A handful of other clubs attempt a futile effort at parity but all are having to deal with the trickle down inflationary effect of these billionaires. More and more clubs are getting into debt in an attempt to maintain their competitiveness. Since the inception of the Premier League, 53 Football League clubs have gone into receivership: 13 of them following relegation from the top level.

Apart from supporters of the two clubs who benefit from their owners’ largesse and maybe a handful of others (for now), most should be worrying about whether their club will still be in existence in a few years time. Gone are the days when supporters could experience that first day of hope beyond hope unless you’re one of those fans that relies on your club finding a billionaire benefactor. No true supporter could surely harbour that dream which is as much a form of cheating as any doped up athlete pounding around a track. The inequities of first the Premier League compared to the Football League, and second, the Champions League compared to the ‘others’ in the Premier League, have created financial chasms that not even the most optimistic of supporters can ever dream of crossing.

And thus we have ended up with a competition where the inevitability of a Chelsea/Manchester City duopoly in the Premier League – not withstanding the sheer bloody mindedness of a certain knighted Scot – will prevail. Add in the possible levels of debt that newly promoted clubs must take on in any vague hope of competing and it’s easy to see why that opening day excitement has vanished, as success and glory have been replaced by more money requirements and more financial insecurities. One season you’re cheering on a cup win, the next you’re battling relegation with points deducted. One season you’re celebrating promotion, two seasons later you’ve had to sell half your team because you can’t afford the inflated wages on lower league revenues. Not much to dream about…..Help us to allow every supporter to dream again. Reclaim the Game.

Platini's Aims Laudable but Need Concrete Proposals

In a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper, Michel Platini talked about his concerns, expressed in a letter to all heads of EU government, regarding the “rampant commercialism that assails it” [football]. Interestingly enough, our own ‘gorgeous’ Gordon Brown was the only head not to reply. What a surprise! With all the talk and wringing of hands over recent sporting failings, how interesting that several commentators have identified that the UK government’s lack of interest in football, and sport in general, is reflected by the UK being one of the few leading nations in the world that does not have a sports minister in the main cabinet. Indeed, Australia’s failing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where they won only one gold medal, and finished well down the medal table, resulted in a permanent cabinet position being set up. At Athens in 2004 they won 17 gold medals and finished fourth in the medal table.

Despite no comment from Gordon Brown, Richard Scudamore, Premier League Chief Executive, commented in the Financial Times (note, not a paper with a great sporting tradition) that Platini’s ideas, “do not rise much above the view of people in the corner of the pub.” Actually, Richard, your comments reveal exactly what you think of us – your paying “guests” that you so patronisingly referred to us as. We’re all those supporters in the corner of the pub and we pay your exorbitant wages.

Platini replied through the Guardian by saying, “I prefer to speak with the fans in the pubs.” Great. This is a very encouraging sign. He does appear to be saying all the right things and RTG wholeheartedly supports his sentiments. He has, since his election as President of UEFA, originated some interesting and controversial proposals – not all of which RTG has agreed with (see earlier posts re Champions League qualification for FA Cup winners). But, his letter to the heads of government did not appear to make any concrete proposals. And how easy would it be to fight the money men in actually getting through any proposals, anyway, when his organisation, and FIFA, are rife with rumours of financial impropriety?

Let’s stress again, RTG believes (as Platini seems to) that sport has to strike a workable balance between the financial side of matters and its role in civilisation as a cultural and recreational activity. This is not going to be an easy fight for Platini but RTG believes that we, supporters of football, should give him our backing. That’s why this blog exists and why we need you to lend your support by signing the guestbook.

Reclaim the Game – The Week’s Events

• The ambivalence of both Richard Scudamore and the UK government, as mentioned above, is unlikely to help England’s cause in winning the 2018 World Cup bid. It beggars belief how the FA and Premier League continue to walk around with their feet permanently in their mouths.
• Next week sees the launch of the new 24/7 Setanta Sports News Channel. Great. Now we can look forward to Kelly Dalglish (ex of Sky and still of Kenny) delivering yet more WAG stories and over-sensationalised, trite items on an already dangerously over-exposed sport. Now, we’ll have the pleasure of Sky and Setanta being able to bid for the privilege of showing the England plane taking off for the World Cup (if they get there).
• The World Cup 2010 organisers have announced lower priced tickets to matches for residents of South Africa in order to encourage the full cross-section of the South African population to be able to attend. Applaudable if it is being taken up by genuine South African football supporters. What RTG suspects will happen is a rampant black market where the corporates get all the tickets they want and national supporters’ associations get hardly any. Think about the mark-up they will be able to make from tickets purchased at £9.65 each (the proposed price). Sadly, RTG can not really offer any solution at this point.
• When Tom Hicks and George Gillett first took over Liverpool, RTG expressed our dismay at how most Liverpool fans (in the hope that it was a chance to be more competitive) welcomed them in with open arms. The recent spat between the owners and Rafa Benitez is a wake up call to the reality for Liverpool supporters. What a pity that neither Hicks nor Gillett were in the country to see the supporters’ march before their crucial game against Porto last night. RTG supports those who took part.

Supporters' Earnings Funding Owners' Assets

Mohammed Fayed celebrated 10 years as the owner of Fulham Football Club over the weekend. But did you know that he was, in fact, the first 'foreign' owner of a Premiership football club? He may well have celebrated with a fancy dinner dance, but is it a cause of celebration for football fans?

Since then a further nine Premiership clubs have changed hands, eight of which have passed into foreign ownership. Apparently a further nine Premiership clubs are being targeted. Arsene Wenger, speaking in an interview with the respected France Football magazine, highlighted the fact that the new owners were corporate buyers with little connection or emotional attachment to the club itself. To football outsiders this shift may appear to be subtle and irrelevant but to Reclaim the Game it makes up the main driving force behind our current angst - and hence this campaign.

Roman Abramovich and Mohammed Fayed are different in the sense that neither is (yet) seeking to make money out of Chelsea or Fulham respectively. We've yet to establish exactly what their true motives are. Worringly, in particular the cases of Liverpool and Manchester United, owners are using the 'cash cow' to fund their purchases (the cash cow being made up mostly of supporters' loyalty). Note also Arsenal's recent announcement of a record £200M turnover, and operating profits of £51.2M, a large chunk of which is swallowed up in interest payments - but at least they have a brand new stadium at the end of it. In Manchester United's case the servicing of an £800M plus debt is estimated to cost the club in the order of £60-70M per year - with nothing to show except the transference of the club to the Glazers for the future milking thereof.

Either way, at RTG, we feel there is a need to re-emphasise just how different is the attitude of the modern owner, the scale at which they operate and what they are trying to achieve. Remember Manchester United nearly sold out to Michael Knighton in 1989 for approximately £12M. The Glazers bought the club 15 years later for over £800M. So we are operating on a completely different scale now. Our experience of people this wealthy is that they are self-centred, egotistical and controlling, with little or no interest in the views of ordinary people. They are driven by their own aims and achievements and at best pay lip service to football supporters. It is hard to imagine many Chelsea supporters delighting at the idea of Abramovich being in the dressing room at all, let alone helping to pick the side and discussing tactics. One visit to the Shed, surrounded by your minders, doth not a football fan make! Perhaps, equally disturbing is the ostrich-like attitude of The FA Premier League to what is going on. May we remind supporters of all clubs (all coldbloodedness aside) that if Abramovich pulls out of Chelsea tomorrow, the club would be bankrupt.

Look, it needs 15 clubs to change Premier League rules on important matters such as TV rights, relegation issues etc. It will only require a few more clubs to change hands for the prospect of major, unwanted changes to be realised. For instance, no promotion to/relegation from the Premier League, once seen as an unwelcome Americanisation of our sport, suddenly becomes a genuine possibility - and not in a future generation but soon. Why? Because what successful businessman, in their right mind, would deliberately choose or risk the major loss of income associated with relegation?

Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events

• In a throw-back to the good old days of 'jumpers for goalposts', laced footballs and all-standing stadia, Portsmouth and Reading raised the average goals per game this season in the space of a single match (11 goals no less). England new boy Nicky Shorey would surely have taken two goals and a missed penalty if offered to him pre-match. This had RTG looking in the record books to see if a fullback had ever scored a hat-trick in the Premiership. We can find no evidence that they have.
• Tough luck on Leeds failing to break their record of 1973 with eight straight wins. The 'Peacocks' imploded somewhat after losing season heroes Kandol and Beckford to red cards and it was always going to tough after that with only nine men. Bit cheeky for taxi-driver beating Dennis Wise to complain about the referee's language after also being sent to the stands. Just a word of warning to Leeds fans: last season, Rotherham started brilliantly despite a 10 point penalty finding themselves in the play-off positions at Christmas time only to be relegated at the end of the season.
• Good on the Chelsea supporters who tried to register their protest by walking out of the Fulham match at half-time. Sadly, despite an extensive leaflet drop, the bar seemed to lure more people away from second-half play than them. Another reason for a co-ordinated supporters' effort in these matters.
• Bloody hell. Germany won the women's World Cup for the second time on the trot. For us bluff old traditionalists, Germany doing well comes as no surprise but what was a surprise is the standard of football which has improved immeasurably. Not that it stopped us flicking over to West Brom v QPR or Milan v Catania, or marvelling at some of the appalling goalkeeping errors that made Scottish keepers look like Banks, Yashin and Cech rolled into one. But nevertheless, slightly disappointed to watch the whole tournament pass by without one shirt-off celebration! Booooooooo!

Hats off! Take a Bow (or not)

Player of the Week - Michael Mifsud. Scored two goals at Old Trafford to create a Carling Cup upset, and rescued a point for the Sky Blues against in-form Charlton.

Hero(es) of the Week - The Handful of Chelsea fans who at least did their bit and walked out at half-time

Villain(s) of the Week - Atletico Mineiro defenders. Yeah, it was showboating of an outrageous nature but maiming the opponent is not really the done thing!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOWeKsLqSs

Cliche of the Week - "More bad news for [insert team name here] and for England...as [insert injured player name here] was ruled out..."

Shock of the Week - Hull 0 Chelsea 4. Well lets face it with all that's been going on, and it being their only win in six matches, it might just have been the Tigers night.