Privatised Profit & Social Loss in Football
The recent development in football that has taken us a step closer towards a franchise European Super League should come as no surprise to anybody who has paid attention to how the sport has been run by the bigger clubs since the 1980s. The move towards the commerce dominated, business orientated style of sports management has been taking football away from the communities, that the teams supposedly represented, for several decades now. The original breakaway league was the English Premiership in 1992 at the behest of the leading clubs in the old first division, including Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in order to increase their incomes from television revenue, rather than share it more equitably amongst the broader Football League. Those who have grown up since that inaugural season have sadly become anaesthetised to this unashamed hoarding of resources for those who were already rich. It is interesting to listen to the indignation and surprise from coaches, players, pundits and fans alike who have both supported and benefited from this overt commercialisation of football. The accusation aimed towards the ‘big six’ of clubs in England and the others from the continent of being greedy is much like that famous quote in the classic film Casablanca. When Captain Louis Renault felt pressurised to shut down Rick’s Cafe he exclaimed, ‘I’m shocked, shocked to find gambling is going on here,’ whilst simultaneously being handed his winnings by the croupier.
In order to keep up to date those who haven’t been following this story, twelve clubs from three countries have signed up to form a breakaway European Super League, different to that of the existing UEFA tournaments. These include six clubs from England; Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Additionally, the bigger teams from Spain, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus from Italy have also stated their selfish intents. All of these clubs have done well in continental competitions in some shape or form, with Real Madrid and Liverpool being particularly successful. However, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal have never, in fact, won the European Cup. The former of these two North London clubs are still looking for it’s first Premiership title in the almost three decades since its inauguration. The only thing that makes these two clubs elite is the financial acumen of the board of directors. Spurs have, for several years, placed a higher emphasis on finishing in a Champions League qualification spot instead of winning an actual trophy because of financial benefits that come with this. Nottingham Forrest, who are currently playing in the English second tier (and not invited to participate in the European Super League) have won more European Cups than several teams who have signalled their intent to participate, which highlights that this concept has no relevance to tangible achievement or quantifiable success.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club have released a statement on their social media platforms and described a format to the competition.
- 20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
- Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
- An August start with clubs participating in two groups of 10, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.
The statement continues,
“As soon as practicable after the start of the men’s competition, a corresponding women’s league will also be launched, helping to advance and develop the women’s game.
The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs. In addition, the competition will be built on a sustainable financial foundation with all Founding Clubs signing up to a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic.
Florentino Pérez, President Real Madrid CF and the first Chairman of the Super League, said: “We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.””
There’s a lot of unpack there, so let’s get into it. The President of Real Madrid has found himself in charge of this franchise competition and claims that the move away from UEFA and FIFA, the continental and international governing bodies, in order to get back in touch with their fans. There is a conceit to this statement in that they are the only organisations who can succeed where others have failed. I suspect that this arrogance moves into ignorance because these businessmen are unable to distinguish between fans, clients and customers. In terms of recovering from the Covid-19 Pandemic, the clubs based in England, at the very least, are incredibly rich, with significantly more money going towards the team that gets relegated from the English Premier League than the team that wins the Scottish Premiership. These clubs have never been relegated from the current incarnation of the top tier that they compete in and therefore I struggle to fathom that they are struggling in the same way that the majority of other teams have been since March of 2020. This is not about economic recovery, it is about the expansion of riches. If these football companies had any sort of social conscience then they could have started a European Super League with their respective women’s teams in order to provide equal pay between the genders, but they haven’t because they don’t care about these ideologies. These businesses and their chairmen claim to be benefiting football and the fans, but if they did they would be looking to approach community sport with a more socially engaged mindset.
Football Clubs ceased to exist in the community sense when the playing, coaching and support staff started getting paid by share based business organisations set up in the name of the community club. There are a few different methods of creating professionalism in sport, though. Let’s explore these now…
1. Public Liability Companies (PLC’s) — the method used predominately in men’s football
2. Co-operative Fan Based Ownership
3. Social Enterprise/Community Interest Company (CIC).
Men’s football got on board with professionalism and business early doors. Public Liability Companies where created, or were used to take over football clubs so that board members and directors were able to make some money for the first time and to also re-invest money back into the business and the club itself, in order to make the club more profitable. This was unheard of at the time. Up until the 1960s and 1970s football clubs were meant to be hobbies for local businessmen to lose money, gain prestige and bolster their egos, by being the neighbourhood ‘Billy Big Bucks’. This turn to PLC’s helped to move the game forward in quite a short period of time. This turn to big business helped to improve stadium design (at the prompting of the British Court system after the Hillsborough disaster), created a huge number of new jobs in an ever growing section of the sports industry, used marketing to open the game to a diverse new audience. Eventually players were offered bigger salaries, thus attracting higher quality players over to the English leagues, as well as giving a method for working class players to make a living above the national average, and generally making British football all the more enjoyable — a better spectacle, a stronger product. The issue with this is that a lack of regulation has allowed the financial aspect of business to have too much power and influence. Major tournaments and competitions have been compromised and changed in order to benefit the financial earnings of those who have invested in the clubs, instead of those want to develop sports from a community and competitive environment.
Co-operative run, majority fan run and/or fan owned clubs have become more and more well established within football. Supporter based groups have been investing into and/or taking over their local clubs all over the United Kingdom, as well as other countries. In the men’s game Brentford FC, Wycombe Wanderers FC, Exeter City FC, AFC Wimbledon and FC United of Manchester have all shown that the community can run clubs for the boroughs and regions that they are based in. Depending on how much investment into the club that the fans have made, this can allow the supporters to have varying degrees of control. FC United of Manchester and AFC Wimbledon were both set up in protest after what the larger local club had done in terms of big business. They have been largely acclaimed at putting a friendly face back on the game of football in England. Football fans no longer have to put up with large co-corporations when engaging with their local club. The eagle eyed reader may have noticed that there are no German teams currently in the plans for this European Super League, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both seem to have removed themselves from this nonsense. It may or may not be a coincidence that there is a regulation within German football for clubs to have a minimum 51% share holding held by fans and supporter groups. The average standard of the Bundesliga is arguably behind that of the English Premiership, but the teams are still based within their respective communities, with important input from those who invest their souls into the clubs.
Community Interest Companies (CICs), or social enterprises, are businesses that looks to make money, but all of the profits are re-invested into the communities that they are based in and serve. CICs have been described as businesses with a conscience. Employees are paid a salary and can ask for a competitive wage, but no money is given to shareholders, because there aren’t any, therefore the ethos of the company can be that of what is best for the local area, the staff, the relevant industry and is able to generally conduct positive work practices, without worrying about pleasing profit driven shareholders. It is run for the benefit of the local community and even makes money for the people that I’ve within, but is run like a business in order to provide sustainability. This is something that I don’t believe has been introduced into sports business at the top end. I am not aware of any sports club that is set up in this manner, apart from Spartans Football Club. Spartans are based in the Scottish Capital City of Edinburgh and field a number of semi-professional, amateur and junior sides in and around their community. Their first teams play in the lower leagues of the men’s pyramid system, as well as the Scottish Women’s Premier League. They don’t just focus on the top end of things, but put teams into Sunday league styled competitions as well. The club also organises a social enterprise that deals with issues that are relevant within the local community of Granton. They run youth projects, programmes and initiatives that benefit people from all walks of life, as well as providing valuable healthy activities through sport. This is funded through a variety of sources, from donations, to sponsorship, to other revenue sources within the business side of the club.
The European Super League represents the privatisation of profit and the socialisation of loss. The rich owners of these football franchises make money on the promotion of business dealings, whilst the fans of these teams have lost and continue to lose their community clubs. Who is to blame? Well, many of us are, including myself, who have invested in the pay-per-view television channels, the over priced replica shirts and paid far too much for a crap seat in the corner of the upper tier of a stadium. How can we change things? There are many avenues that we can go down; coach a grassroots kids team, go to a game instead of watch on the telly, actually financially support your local lower and non-league teams. Reclaim the stands and terraces of local clubs in any and all sports. There is a variety of top competitions around the world in field hockey, ice hockey, basketball, netball, volleyball, rugby, as well as football and so much more. I urge all fans of sport to broaden their horizons, to get involved and invest your time in your local team of any competition. Join the sports community, meet new people, broaden your horizons and I promise you that you won’t regret it…
