Source: Socialist Party
Professional football in Britain is stumbling from one crisis to another. After repeatedly failing to deal with racism, attention returns to financial malpractice. In one week, two of Britain's most famous clubs, Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers have gone into administration.
In both cases short-term club owners have taken a cavalier attitude to their responsibilities to run the clubs in a financially prudent manner, neglecting to make adequate provision to pay tax and other liabilities. The victims, again, are the communities the clubs are based in, the supporters, charities such as St John's Ambulance and small businesses.
In the premier league era, attention has focussed on some players' inflated wages. The real story however has been off the pitch.
Clubs in Britain have been attractive for speculators and their retinue of agents, accountants, solicitors and other advisers, looking for windfall profits if they can get them into a higher league or European competition. And speculators find that the Football League welcomes them with open arms.
As the Football League explained: "At all times following its takeover of Portsmouth, Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI, the owners), complied with the requirements of the owners' and directors' test as set out in the regulations of the Football League".
The League failed to mention that its 'test' is largely self-certification and the absence of any fraud convictions. They don't say that the majority shareholder of CSI was prevented by the Financial Services Authority from gaining a UK banking licence. If speculators' plans don't work out, taxpayers and the local community pick up the losses.
Many people have an obsessive interest in football. With the increasing harshness of everyday life for workers and young people, this is no surprise. Football should provide some light relief.
Portsmouth and Rangers fans should demand genuine open inquiries into financial mismanagement. These inquiries should primarily involve supporters, non-playing staff, players' representatives and elected local authorities. They need to expose how the clubs have been run.
The football leagues should also be exposed as a cabal of owners rather than organisations with football's wider interests at heart.
Football should be controlled by the fans. This will require building on the achievements of fans-owned clubs such as AFC Wimbledon and FC United of Manchester.
Dave Maples
Showing posts with label Socialist Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socialist Party. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Book review: Reclaim the Game!
Source: Socialist Party
Coming out just days after the chief executive of Liverpool FC announced proposals to keep even more of the money from TV rights for the richest clubs in the Premier League, the timing of the latest edition of John Reid's book Reclaim the Game could not have been sharper.
As John says: "For fans everywhere the match is the highlight of the week. When your team loses you are depressed, when they win you are on top of the world. Football has been transformed from the people's game into a multi-billion pound arm of the leisure industry."
This is the first full edition for two years and reflects the growing impact of the economic recession on football. While generally ticket prices have increased dramatically, some clubs have been forced to temporarily freeze or reduce ticket prices to try to get more fans through the turnstiles. John also mentions some reheated plans such as having Premier Leagues One and Two, involving Celtic and Rangers from Scotland, in an attempt to boost the income of the clubs involved in this.
This pamphlet is packed with statistics that highlight the increasing grip of the super-rich on football worldwide. It touches on the protests in Brazil against the costs to the public at holding the 2014 World Cup while the multinationals rake in profits.
It also shows how fans on lower incomes are being priced out of going to matches as ticket prices soar while players' agents profits increase dramatically and the top players' wages spiral ever upwards .
There are sections in the pamphlet that deal with racism in football, women's football and the takeover of football clubs by multi-billionaire owners like the Mittal family of John's beloved QPR.
The growing concern that many fans feel about the multi-billionaire ownership of their clubs is shown in this following quote from an Ipswich Town fan on the "Those were the days" fan website about the attempt by the millionaire owner Marcus Evans to buy the freehold to the ground: "The ground should stay in public ownership - then at least there's always a stadium (however dilapidated it gets) into which a club can be formed. I follow ITFC not Franchise Evans."
But football fans have not taken these attacks lying down. John describes the rise of FC United in Manchester and AFC Wimbledon set up by respective fans. There are also fans' movements set up to save their clubs, the latest being Plymouth with fans of different clubs from around the country recently taking part in a fans reunited day.
What is different though about Reclaim the Game is that whilst many other books on football many describe the role of big business in football, very few it offers an alternative as to how football could be run. There is whole section at the end of this pamphlet both with immediate demands to change how football is run but also how football could be run under a socialist society. Chris Newby, London Socialist Party.
Reclaim the Game
£3.50 inc p&p
Bulk order deal - five copies for the price of four
Socialist Books
020 8988 8789
bookshop@socialistparty.org.uk
Coming out just days after the chief executive of Liverpool FC announced proposals to keep even more of the money from TV rights for the richest clubs in the Premier League, the timing of the latest edition of John Reid's book Reclaim the Game could not have been sharper.
As John says: "For fans everywhere the match is the highlight of the week. When your team loses you are depressed, when they win you are on top of the world. Football has been transformed from the people's game into a multi-billion pound arm of the leisure industry."
This is the first full edition for two years and reflects the growing impact of the economic recession on football. While generally ticket prices have increased dramatically, some clubs have been forced to temporarily freeze or reduce ticket prices to try to get more fans through the turnstiles. John also mentions some reheated plans such as having Premier Leagues One and Two, involving Celtic and Rangers from Scotland, in an attempt to boost the income of the clubs involved in this.
This pamphlet is packed with statistics that highlight the increasing grip of the super-rich on football worldwide. It touches on the protests in Brazil against the costs to the public at holding the 2014 World Cup while the multinationals rake in profits.
It also shows how fans on lower incomes are being priced out of going to matches as ticket prices soar while players' agents profits increase dramatically and the top players' wages spiral ever upwards .
There are sections in the pamphlet that deal with racism in football, women's football and the takeover of football clubs by multi-billionaire owners like the Mittal family of John's beloved QPR.
The growing concern that many fans feel about the multi-billionaire ownership of their clubs is shown in this following quote from an Ipswich Town fan on the "Those were the days" fan website about the attempt by the millionaire owner Marcus Evans to buy the freehold to the ground: "The ground should stay in public ownership - then at least there's always a stadium (however dilapidated it gets) into which a club can be formed. I follow ITFC not Franchise Evans."
But football fans have not taken these attacks lying down. John describes the rise of FC United in Manchester and AFC Wimbledon set up by respective fans. There are also fans' movements set up to save their clubs, the latest being Plymouth with fans of different clubs from around the country recently taking part in a fans reunited day.
What is different though about Reclaim the Game is that whilst many other books on football many describe the role of big business in football, very few it offers an alternative as to how football could be run. There is whole section at the end of this pamphlet both with immediate demands to change how football is run but also how football could be run under a socialist society. Chris Newby, London Socialist Party.
Reclaim the Game
£3.50 inc p&p
Bulk order deal - five copies for the price of four
Socialist Books
020 8988 8789
bookshop@socialistparty.org.uk
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