The Premier League Whore

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Friday February 8, 2008

The Premier League Opens Its' Legs To The Entire World

The news this week that the Premier League intends to extend its' season by one game per team with these extra matches to be played in whichever foreign city gives it the most cash has caused a mainly angry response from fans throughout England. Nobody should really be surprised by this development, however.

It has been apparent for quite a while that the prime motivating factor for the people running the Premier league is money and although the balance between money and sporting considerations is just about acceptable at the moment English football, as represented by the Premier League, is rapidly moving towards the point where the only thing that matters is money.

It is hard not to laugh out loud at the supporters of Premier League clubs who have raised voices in objection to the latest plans. They should have realised by now that they are no longer fans but consumers. They should also realise that their value to the Premier League is going downhill faster than Franz Klammer.

After all, Blackburn Rovers fans might not be happy about their team having to play a game in Melbourne but so what? They only get 20,000 when they play at Ewood Park. Why not move all their games to the other side of the world where, apparently, there are countless millions of people with nothing better to do than watch English football?

Personally the idea nauseates me. Why exactly does English football have to be a global brand? What is the problem with people all round the world watching it on television if they love it so much?

If they want to watch one game of Premier League football a season then why don't they just save up and fly over and watch one at an actual English ground? Surely that would be a better experience for them and of more benefit to the economies of all nations.

Of course no matter how this move is rationalised by those making it the only real purpose is the squeezing of another wodge of cash out of the nearest available wallets.

The only reason the Premier League wants to take its' "product" abroad is because there is nowhere left over here to grab any more money.

If there is foreign money to be had then lets get out there and grab it for ourselves.

It is possible to argue the wrongs and rights of this move but basically I can't really be bothered.

You could wonder whether the Premier League is taking a gamble giving everybody a really close look at what it has to offer.

After all the whole of China might be screaming for more if they get to see Manchester United take on Arsenal and the two sides serve up a cracker but they might be pointing nuclear warheads at us if they pull Bolton Wanderers and Derby out of the hat.

The man at the forefront of this move is the Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore.

My first thought when I heard the proposal and his name together was along the lines of "Fucking whore."

To be fair I now realise that that was totally unfair. Scudamore is the pimp and the Premier League is his whore.

I think most people would consider the pimp to be more worthy of contempt than the prostitute and this is how I view these two things.

Of course plenty of people will be thrilled by the idea. The owners of the Premier League clubs will be wetting themselves about the prospect of that extra £5 million a year. That will increase the possibility of selling their club to the next foreign body that comes along with more money than sense and allow them to get out with an even more bulging bank account.

Failing that they can spend the five million on a ten million transfer fee or a similar amount on some foreign blokes wages for a dozen or so games running around their midfield.

This is the point I can't really understand about this desperation to get money. What real good is that money doing? Is it making our football clubs more financially secure? Is it improving the standard of life in the local community? Is it making English football better (by which I mean people who are actually English)?

Is the money of any real long term benefit to English football or England generally or is it just being used to line the pockets of a few shrewd businessmen and a selection of footballers from around the globe?

English football can already afford the biggest names in world football so what good is an extra five million quid anyway? All it means is that a few people are going to be even more grotesquely overpaid than they already are.

Fans of Premier League clubs may react angrily to the proposal but they will be completely ignored. Most will then shrug their shoulders and go along with it.

One set of fans have already acted against the growing commercialisation of football by forming their own side and entering at the bottom of the footballing ladder.

These are the Manchester United supporters who set up FC United of Manchester in response to the takeover of "their" club by the Glazers.

I was interested to see Alex Ferguson voicing concerns about the latest proposals but Fergie must learn to understand that he can't always have his cake and eat it too.

Ferguson is a man with football's best interests at heart; the way it should be played, its' traditions and its' history.

He also happens to be manager of Manchester United, however. Whether he likes it or not his club is one of biggest driving forces in leading English football away from its' roots. He might think that his presence at Old Trafford will be enough to stop the Glazers from radically altering the ideals of the club but he is wholly mistaken.

To be fair to Fergie he didn't jump into bed with the devil, the devils jumped into with him (and they weren't Red Devils). He could have jumped straight out of the bed but decided to stay and hide under the covers.

Devils want only one thing from anyone, their soul. They've got yours' Ferguson and sooner or later they will have the clubs' as well.

It really annoyed me a few weeks ago when Ferguson responded to supporters still demonstrating against the Glazers by basically saying that they should bugger off and watch FC United.

He then moans because the people inside Old Trafford aren't getting behind the team enough. You can't have it both ways Fergie. The people who really want to get behind your side and raise the roof of Old Trafford are the same ones that are pissed off about the Glazers and will be pissed off about this proposal to take game overseas.

They have done what they can about it. You've just carried on as normal and, in doing so, have encouraged these things to happen.

Some Manchester United supporters therefore have already taken action against the rampant commercialisation sweeping through the Premier League and so far the team they set up has been an outstanding success. Hopefully this will continue and these people will be prepared to stick to their principles even though it means they watch a vastly inferior standard of football than they were accustomed to at Old Trafford.

Is there anything else that can be done to safeguard the principles and traditions of English football on a wider and more dramatic scale?

I think there is.

The Premier League consists of twenty teams yet it basically governs the whole of English football. Everything and everybody involved in football in this country dances to the tune of the Premier League.

Clubs outside it stand like little children with their hands out waiting for their weekly pocket money and then go and spend it in the hope that they will be allowed into the big boys playground.

The wages they pay are massively influenced by those paid in the Premier League and they will pay over the odds in the hope that they might end up in the land of milk and honey themselves.

Clubs all over the country are finding it impossible to keep up with the Jones's with Bournemouth the latest club to enter administration this week.

Surely it is time for the Football League and its' members to take action not only to secure the traditions of the English game but to give themselves a better chance of putting their own houses in order and safeguarding their own futures.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of football fans in this country will be against this latest proposal of the Premier League so if the Football League wanted to try and regain a measure of control over our game it is surely a case of now or never.

I would encourage the Football League to breakaway from the Premier League completely. This was suggested at the time of the Premier League being formed and had support but there was no real justification for the move then.

After all the Premier League was just the old first division until Sky started pumping ludicrous amounts of money into it.

Now, however, the position is not the same.

The Football League accepts its' position as poor relation because the members of its' family craves a place at the Premier League table and will often spend beyond their means to try and win a place at it.

If the Football League was to sever all ties with its' supposed kin, however, it would immediately empower itself completely. And the Football League could probably do without the Premier League far better than it supposes.

The poor relation is scared to strike a blow for freedom while it feeds from the scraps thrown from the top table yet if it was to become independent the clubs could run themselves far more economically knowing thet they did not need to compete with the salaries being handed out in the Premier League.

And just how good would the FA Cup be if there were only twenty teams in it every year? How good would the League Cup be with only twenty teams in it?

There would also be half as much interest in the Premier League. Last season the only drama at the end of the season came at the bottom of the table. If there was no relegation it is likely that most seasons would be done and dusted by around Easter and most clubs would have stopped having anything to play for well before Christmas.

Doesn't sound very good, does it?

Of course the Football League would still have the League Cup and could introduce its' own Football League Challenge Cup, both competed for by all the other teams in the land.

There wouldn't be promotion to the Premier League but clubs could battle it out to be champions of the Football League and more than four teams would be in with a realistic chance of being successful.

The scale would be smaller than the Premier League but so what? Football rather than money could be the overriding principle behind participation and, if they became independent, clubs' could run themselves on a more realistic level, not have to worry about survival and actually flourish.

The league clubs would command more power than they probably suppose as well. If they introduced a rule whereby no player or manager who chooses to move from the league is allowed back into it then people would have to think very hard about whether they wanted to go to the Premier League at all, especially English people.

Would it be worth the risk to get fantastic money for two years and know that they might never play a competitive game of football again?

This might sound savage but taking on bullies is seldom pretty.

If the cream of English talent decided that it would be better to stay in the Football League so that they were secure of employment and a game of football then it would actually benefit our game and within ten or twenty years the standard in the league might be as good as or even better than that in the Premier League.

After all, this money might not be around forever and what would the Premier League clubs do if the foreigners all went home and nobody in the Football League would go and play for them?

The Football League could also offer the current Premier League teams the chance of joining the fold. It's unlikely that any would accept, especially those with foreign owners, but one or two might be tempted.

After all, can the likes of Blackburn, Bolton, Middlesbrough, Wigan, Reading, Fulham and Derby really be sure that the Premier League will always want them?

Will there come a time when the Premier League asks Birmingham City and Aston Villa to merge so that there is the possibility of another club being able to challenge the big four?

Birmingham Villa FC might provide better box office in Taiwan than the two current clubs put together.

Of course any team deciding against joining the Football League now would not be allowed in if things did go pear shaped in the Premier League. Or if they were they would be starting at the FC United of Manchester stage.

Alex Ferguson needn't worry. By the time that happens they will probably have bought Old Trafford back from the Glazers and will be able to give him a job cleaning the toilets or something.

This might sound fanciful but I think it would work. Football is our national game, it is loved throughout the country and it did not start with the Premier League.

There was no Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea when the Football League started. The Football League could do without them then and they could do without them again.

Can those four clubs definitely say the same?