The papers are full of reports of angst at the proposed creation of a European Super League for football this morning.
The government is, supposedly, planning draconian measures to prevent it happening. Even the freedom of movement of footballers is at risk, which must make them the first wealthy people the government has threatened with such restrictions, which Priti Patel has otherwise reserved for the rest of us.
There is, however nothing that the government should be surprised about in the move to create this league. As I have just tweeted:
The European Super League plan is about four things. Greed. Making monopoly profit. A group of the already wealthy helping each other perpetuate that wealth. And massive indifference to who gets trod on as a result. Like the government’s approach to coronavirus contracting then.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) April 20, 2021
Football is merely copying the government's example. When government's, like Johnson's, send out the signal that economic exploitation is both acceptable, and without penalty, others will of course follow.
Football has now done so.
And let's not forget that others will be more blatant as a result.
Corruption permeates, quickly. We have a government that is utterly indifferent to free competition and the regulation that maintains it. Instead they promote abuse.
Certainly get angry about the government. But as I argued in another tweet, last night:
For those who oppose the European Super League, please understand that this is the sort of abuse of you as a customer and member of society that large companies do everyday, except it’s not quite as obvious. Get angry, but about more than football, please.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) April 19, 2021
And get angry with this government and the politics it espouses that permits this, too.
If we want fair play it's much more than the European Super League that we need to oppose.
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“Get angry, but about more than football, please.” EXACTLY.
I think there is also something else going on here. I suspect that the creation of the Super League was more to do with exerting leverage over the Footballing Authorities to get a better deal within the EXISTING framework……. but they went too far and their bluff has been called (if we believe the political hullaballoo). Having been “found out” it will be much harder for them to throw their weight around again as they try to hoover up more money from income streams that ultimately depend on a bigger infrastructure than just them. Indeed, the smaller teams, collectively, might stage a fightback! (Football on your own is not much fun…. although Charlton would still struggle to score!).
And, once again the parallels in the “real” world are telling. Big companies have been bullying governments for years but government CAN and SHOULD push back.
Even I would say unkind to Charlton…
But agreed
And I like your anger
Exactly Clive. Some fans might find this is difficult to believe, but there more important things in life than football! So by extension, we should get more angry about the monopolistic behaviour of the big tech companies, the corruption and dishonesty of Johnson’s government, the misinformation spread by anti vaxxers and climate change deniers, and so on.
Richard
To me, this is a case of the 0.1 per cent being fleeced by the 0.01 per cent.
The Premier League has been normalised as the status quo. Very few under 40 have any memory as to football pre-Premier League. And nobody will risk being depicted as nostalgic for hooliganism and sub-standard facilities. The Premier League was football’s Clause IV moment.
In the past day, I understand that in recent years the TV money for the whole of Scottish football (including the Glasgow Old Firm) was less than what Burnley received.
I don’t know what alternative business model could work for British clubs. The German model of 51 per cent non-corporate ownership works well enough where there’s no large diaspora of supporters.
How would fan ownership work for the likes of Manchester United with their 10s of millions of fans in the far East alone?
It is an extraordinary indictment of the capacity of the world, and electorates especially, to work out priorities of fairness; that football (it seems to me scarcely a standard-setter of ‘fairness’, although I am glad to say I know little about it) sets a standard for immediate and universal ‘pushback’ against unfairness. Meanwhile, surveillance captialism marches on its merry way, setting a standard of ‘capturing the system’ to which the football “elite” (ie. monopolists) cannot even aspire to dream. I find it extraordinary, but I only wish it was hard to fathom.
There’s a company heading for monopoly power, may already have it, that I refuse to buy from even if it means paying a bit more. It’s tentacles are everywhere. You search for a product, a coffee grinder in my case, maybe look at “reviews” (many are just promotions) and there’s an innocent looking button after each version of the product: “Check the price” and guess where that takes you.
Yes, companies have been bullying for years, but they’ve also been broken up and would be again if we had a courageous government.
I don’t know what the legal rights over the words “football club” are. But in my view the government should legislate to say that it is a criminal offence to use the word football club in your name unless the club is controlled 51% by fans of a members club with a minimum of 1000 members required.
🙂