Modern football is lost in a sea of economics, money and power. Football clubs that were once owned by the fans or individuals with ties to the clubs roots, now lie in the hands of businessmen, who see the players as nothing more than commodities, readily available to be bought, sold, traded or cast aside. Football isn't and cannot be treated like any other business enterprise, it's hard to image 60,000 Tesco shoppers turning up to their supermarket singing "who are ya!? who are ya!?". Football has a passion and a following bigger than any other sport and this passion has been converted in Pounds and Euro's by club owners. I'm not suggesting that a football club shouldn't have a business plan, that would be a one-way ticket to liquidation, but when you have a club that is owned by an individual or consortium they run a football club like any other business model, with the goal of making a profit, a profit that is not put back into the club.
Take Manchester Untied for example, a club with a great history and a worldwide fan base.. Manchester United was once a PLC (public limited company) and shares were owned by their fans until a buyout from Malcolm Glazer in 2003 forced United fans to sell their shares or they would become worthless, this caused uproar and Manchester United lost fans, including myself. As a result of this privatisation, the price of match tickets risen, interest from the occurred debt grew and United's profit margins decreased. You only have to ask any United fan about the whereabouts of the £80 million from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to understand the detrimental effects of the growing trend of billionaires buying our football clubs.
What I find alarming is that more and more fans are welcoming buyouts from consortiums and billionaires, in the hope that this will put some silverware in the trophy cabinet. This may be the case, but in the world of modern football, nothing is free and all the trophies in the world cannot buy back the soul of your club.
Mes que un club.
0 comments:
Post a Comment