The BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast phone-in on Tuesday, 9th of February asked the question "does the Premier League need a club to go bust to teach it a lesson?" The consensus was that it would be a very sad day if this happened but there have been serious deficiencies in UK football for some time now and there were undoubtedly lessons to be learnt. There are clouds hanging over several Football League clubs at present including Portsmouth, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and my local side Notts County, and it will be a surprise if there is not a victim during 2010. I have supported the Magpies since 1968 when I used to go down to Meadow Lane with my Grandfather and Uncle, and like so many supporters up and down the country would hate to see clubs with such history be lost forever.
Alan Sugar, the entrepreneur, well-known media personality and former owner and benefactor of Tottenham Hotspurs FC said at the start of the phone-in that too many football clubs have been irresponsible over the way they have been running their finances. It was inexcusable that some clubs were spending up to 90% of their income on salaries.
What has exacerbated the situation over the last ten years has been that the teams at the top have expanded out of proportion to those below. In the Premier League at present there is an elite "big 4" of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool and the teams below are desperately trying to hang on to their "coat tails". This has had a knock-on effect throughout all the other Divisions of the Football League and even out into the grass roots of park football.
As one gentleman commented on the phone-in, "if you had someone on your road who earned over £100k more than you did, you shouldn't be trying to keep up with them." Yet even though clubs outside the "big 4" hadn't got the revenue or resources this is exactly what they were trying to do. Manchester United are reputedly paying Wayne Rooney £90k a week, Notts County are paying £15k a week to keep their goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and even some park football teams are paying their players £500 - £1,000 with the pretensions of beginning to climb up the football hierarchy. Sport is now so inbound with the quest for success that a lot of the innocent enjoyment has been lost forever.
The funding at the highest level has been by one or two very rich, mainly foreign, benefactors and media coverage but underneath there is a sticky cauldron of debt and of course ticket prices are now largely out of synch with other entertainment. As with other sectors of business, during this period of recession, a correction is now overdue. The cracks are beginning to appear and can't be covered up any more.
So how has the situation got so bad? Well, part of the problem is that football is still seen by the Government and the Football Association, the body that regulates football in the UK, as sport. Unfortunately, for the last twenty years, the Premier League football clubs should have been treated less as sport clubs and more as big corporations. The regulation surrounding these organisations should have evolved proportionate to their increasing size and complexity. During this time though, there has been a feeling that football has elements that transcend normal business, the people in charge have been slow to acknowledge that rules set in other areas of business should now be applied to themselves.
The other problem of course is that several of the big investors in the top football clubs are not true football men. Unlike directors of old who cared about the state of the game and the effect this was having on the local community, the new owners care more about investment potential, multi-national branding, players as assets on a balance sheet rather than individuals and the effect on their own individual ego.
Big money has also resulted in the influx of foreign players, which has had a detrimental effect on home grown talent. Boys who go to their local club academy are rarely given the chance to progress through the ranks to the top, as there is a lack of opportunities. The English Premier League has become a showcase for the top footballers of the World and this in turn is not helping the national game and may eventually harm the national team if it has not already done so.
I was looking at the Notts County's website recently and it bought back fond memories of players from the past. It brought it home to me how the game had changed when I saw five of the stars from my youth; Brian Stubbs (486), Pedro Richards (485), David Needham (471), Don Masson (455) and Les Bradd (442) had amassed so many appearances for the club. All of these five British players had playing careers with the Magpies spanning over ten years. This just would not happen nowadays.
A number of different ideas have been suggested to improve the current crisis:-
1. The 'big 4' are taken out of the Premier League and form part of a new European Super League.
2. More stringent 'fit and proper' tests for directors.
3. New potential owners will have to satisfy more extensive due diligence.
4. Finances more closely regulated with regard to solvency, debt ratios, etc.
5. Point bonuses for clubs achieving financial targets.
6. Point penalties for clubs failing certain minimum financial requirements.
Some of these ideas have already been tried, some may be too controversial to implement, but it is inevitable that changes are going to continue to happen.
Away from the worries of finances the clubs continue to compete on the field, at least for the time being. This weekend I am going with my 17-year-old son by train to see Notts County compete in the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup against Fulham. The Magpies last got as far as this in 1992 when they lost to Norwich City 3-0 in the last sixteen. The previous year they had gone a step further when losing in the quarter-finals to Tottenham Hotspurs 2-1. The fans have waited a long time for another good run in this competition and about 5,000 diehards will be descending on Craven Cottage intending to enjoy themselves, whatever the result.
Notts County currently in Division 2 of the Football League (the 4th rung of the hierarchy) are the oldest club in existence having been formed in 1862. This week the ownership of the club changed as Lincoln businessman Ray Trew took over for £1. By doing so he has inherited a balance sheet, which at the latest count has £3.9 million in debt. The new owner has impressed with his plans to reduce the creditors and hopefully secure a brighter future for the club. Certainly the pressure is on as there is a winding-up order, which will be served on 24th February in the High Court if a tax liability of £324,000 has not been cleared.
Following your local team has always been a matter of enjoying the aspiration. Even though success may be short lived for clubs like Notts County, days like this Sunday are so important while we can keep dreaming. Long may they continue.
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