Football in peril Give the people back their game
Leader Sunday June 12, 2005 The Observer These are strange times for football. As fans celebrate UEFA's decision to allow Liverpool the chance to defend their Champions League title, and millions tune in to watch the women's Euro 2005 tournament, disquiet is none the less growing within the game. There is a feeling that football is entering an uncertain era in which one of two antithetical philosophies will prevail. At Manchester United, US entrepreneur Malcolm Glazer plans to raise ticket prices by 54 per cent over the next four years. At Chelsea, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has spent �300 million transforming his side's fortunes. Glazer has borrowed heavily to fund his acquisition of United and sees the deal as a profit-generating exercise based on skilful financial engineering. Abramovich views Chelsea as a cash-draining trophy cabinet. Both approaches are unpopular. Glazer's belief that United's supporters will pay the higher prices necessary to service the club's debt repayments forms the centrepiece of a clinical business plan that has seen fans revolt in their droves. Conversely, fans everywhere resent Abramovich for not treating Chelsea as a business at all but as an expensive folly which has seen his club soak up fines for making illegal approaches to other sides' players and executives. Between these diametrically opposed views, almost every other club is struggling. The gulf that has emerged between the handful of top teams and the also-rans is widening with worrying consequences. A report last week revealed the average Premiership attendance was down 1 per cent last season. Or, to put it another way, 800,000 seats went spare and �24m in income was lost. To compound concerns about the way money is skewing the game, a Football Association investigation, led by businessman Lord Burns, is calling for a new watchdog to investigate the financial dealings of clubs, players and their agents. It is unlikely, given their characters, that those under scrutiny will be troubled by such developments. But they will worry if the tensions threatening the game lead supporters across the country to vote with their feet. This would be a terrible waste. The billions that have poured into English football have made it the envy of every league in the world. Those who want to turn the clock back to an era predating US entrepreneurs and Russian sugar daddies are being naive. But neither Glazer's blithe assumptions about the loyalty of United's fans nor Abramovich's arrogant pursuit of glory offer a model for the game's future. A little less hubris and a bit more understanding is needed. Not for nothing is it called the people's game. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/2xaSZB/SOnJAA/Y3ZIAA/GtUolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Please use [email protected] for general discussion. To unsubscribe send a blank message (from the email account in question) to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Join as a full member of IMUSA today: http://www.imusa.org/join.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imusa/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
