Partner Article

Football and business: is romance dead?

Football is big business these days. Nowhere is it more evident than in the Premier League where rich foreign owners are reaping the rewards of record TV and sponsorship deals that are the result of the huge global interest in the sport.

Is the drive for profit really damaging the foundations of great clubs built on loyalty and passion? Or is it the case that money in the game need not necessarily conflict with tradition and all that goes with it?

Ask a Newcastle United fan, and they’ll probably tell you that the game’s no better for the huge sums of money now involved; that money and passion just don’t mix. Fans of other clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea, meanwhile, have seen their teams skyrocket to the top of club football as their mega-rich owners plough cash into star signings in the pursuit of success.

“Success” is a key word. Football is indeed a business and businesses have varying levels of resource. This isn’t a new phenomenon and can be traced back to the days of Blackburn using Jack Walkers millions to race to the title over two decades ago, or further if you’d care to look.

In terms of the romance of football, we’re talking about the loyalty between fans and their club. This association is strong enough to be considered a personal identity for millions of football fans.

How does money impact? Well, it could be argued that the Manchester Cities of this world now have an increasing number of ‘expectant’, rather than ‘die-hard’, fans. Those that suffered the cold, wet nights in the old Division Two are a lesser proportion of the now global fan base. There is also a very real and palpable loss of connection between the fans and players, with some of the best now earning in excess of £200,000 per week. How can that fail to impact upon the relationship between those in the stands and those on the pitch? It is a valid question.

My personal opinion would be that romance in football is most definitely dead. Owners are driven, at worst, solely by the big numbers that permeate almost every aspect of the game and, at best, by blind ambition to have their play-thing at the top of a lucrative pile of… play-things.

What then for the fans? A disconnect between them and the owners, players and sometimes ambitions of their clubs is at least partially a symptom of the influx of big money into the game.

There is only one possible compensator: success. Unfortunately, only fans of the lucky few clubs - those with the richest, most ambitious owners - will ever get there. For the rest of us, it’s about enduring our clubs’ efforts to maximise revenues, to be efficient with the resources they have and, above all else, to survive. Basically, it’s business as usual.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Stanley .