When Does an 'Interest' Turn to Influence?

So no surprise at all that Gus Hiddink did actually meet (for coffees) with Roman Abramovich on a few occasions. In fact, following these meetings (that were definitely, absolutely nothing to do with Chelsea) it has been announced that he has extended his contract as manager of the Russian national team to 2010. According to reports, Abramovich apparently does not want to upset the Russian people by stealing away their manager. This despite the fact that the billionaire is bankrolling the Russian Football Federation and indeed the Russian oligarch is helping to 'find' the finance for a new national stadium.

But this raises some intriguing questions as to the extent and reach of powerful football men and organisations. In addition to his interests in Chelsea and the Russian Football Federation, Abramovich did, through his companies, sponsor CSKA Moscow to the tune of something like $30 million per annum - this for a team whose annual revenue was barely in six figures and would represent the equivalent of Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United being sponsored for billions rather than their current tens of millions. The logical conclusion being that this must have had an influence on competition within Russian football, in much the same way as his bankrolling of Chelsea has in the English Premiership. Indeed during that period it brought them three Russian Premiership titles.

UEFA investigated Abramovich's apparent conflict of interest and concluded that no rules were contravened as 'interests' are normally defined in terms of ownership. However, you have to wonder what would have happened if Chelsea, needing a certain result to go further in a competition, had played CSKA at that moment. But these levels of dubious influence are not confined solely to Chelsea and Roman Abramovich. All the big four have tie ups with other clubs such as Arsenal and Beveren in Belgium. In fact, Peter Kenyon was the architect of these types of deals when he announced that Manchester United were hooking up with the New York Yankees baseball team (a 'deal' that made United shares go up in price but never really came to anything). The truth is that these 'arrangements' (for want of a better word) are often announced with a fairly serious PR machine behind them only to disappear into the 'fog' that surrounds them over time. The main reason to have these arrangements seems to be a way for English clubs to recruit non-EU nationals.

Alongside this, you have the situation, following the Ondigital collapse, where the loan of players to Championship, League 1 and League 2 clubs is at an all time high. This was not a bad thing in the short-term given that so many clubs were left out of pocket by the collapse. But, we now have the increasing situation where richer clubs buy up the best young talent and farm it out on loan, even to to other Premiership clubs.

This adds more distortion to what is supposed to be genuine competition and can seriously hinder the development of young English players. Glen Johnson was a promising young player at West Ham and England. He was bought by Chelsea in 2003 and spent the next four years or so in the reserves or on loan - in this case to another Premiership club, Portsmouth (a practice RTG is completely against). His England career appears to be, temporarily at least, over. The point being, this is another anti-competitive influence that powerful people in football can exert almost without being questioned. Again it should be stressed this practice is not confined just to Chelsea. How ironic then that in possibly the most crucial weekend last season, Tim Howard was prevented from playing for Everton (by agreement) against Manchester United, his previous club. His replacement made costly errors which turned a two-goal advantage into a four two deficit while Chelsea could only draw.

We at RTG believe that the maximum size of a squad should be fixed. Changes can be made in the mid-season transfer window, but only within the numbers stated. Any additional players can go out on loan but only to lower division or foreign non-European involved clubs. There should also be limits on the number of loanees any one club can make or take and subsequent parity agreed across the whole of UEFA. The EU must also equalise its rules with regard to allowing non-EU nationals to play within member countries.

Most importantly, it is time that FIFA and UEFA draw up a new, comprehensive set of clear rules as to what constitutes an individual or corporate 'interest' in a football club and how that is to be monitored, if genuine competition is to be maintained.

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.