The UEFA busy-bodies at Nyon must have been rubbing their hands with delight when news of Aston Villa's £53.9 million annual loss filtered through this week. Yet another English club in a financial position concerning enough for their future in European competition to be cast hastily into doubt.
Their loss comes primarily due to the £24 million they invested in England international striker Darren Bent last year, but then again that seems to be just the sort of thing Michel Platini and his men want to completely rule out of the game.
It is not without just cause, perhaps, the clubs that are spending money they do not have are supposedly gaining an unfair advantage over their more economical opponents, and put that way you cannot help but agree with the principle idea that UEFA have laid out.
But the truth of the matter is that there are a concerning number of loop-holes that only the biggest clubs in Europe are going to be able to exploit. There is no way we are going to suddenly see the smaller spending clubs rising to the very top of the game.
"It is not so much 'selling the soul of the club'... but adapting to the new austerity measures..."
Newcastle United's well publicised re-naming of St James' Park as 'The Sports Direct Arena.com.org.co.uk....' or whatever it is now known as is a case point. There seemed to be a lot of dissent towards the club's owner, Mike Ashley at the time for doing so, but he was left in a catch-22 situation really.
Manchester City did exactly the same thing by naming their stadium after their sponsors in a record deal. It is not so much 'selling the soul of the club', as some supporters so smartly put it, but adapting to the new austerity measures that are coming into place.
Of course it is much more complicated than that, but put simply, football club owners are having to come up with new and innovative ways of ploughing their endless sums of money into the club without upsetting UEFA. By doing it in the form of a sponsorship deal, they are keeping Mr Platini quiet, at least for the time being.
Being an Ipswich Town fan myself, I have noticed the same thing happening lower down the football league pyramid. A few years ago, Town agreed a record shirt sponsorship deal with the Marcus Evans Group – it is no coincidence that Mr Evans just happens to be the owner of the football club too.
Ipswich chief executive Simon Clegg is another football club boardroom member to have been vilified by the fans for seemingly not being able to agree contracts with players who the manager has identified as possible signings.
Now, of course, it is all becoming clear. Ipswich Town are refusing to be held to ransom by their rivals simply to bring in a new player. Instead, the club are going to be ready for when the new regulations kick in at the start of the new season.
For the fans, struggling to afford tickets in this day and age, it all looks rather ugly, and it is easy to see why so many are angry when their club seem to be tightening the belt when it comes to their expenditure, yet steadily increasing season ticket prices year on year.
True, it is very ugly indeed. But that is arguably what football has become, with greed overtaking the beautiful simplicity that existed in the game 40 or 50 years ago.
These are tough economic times globally, let alone for football, so for now, maybe it is just best we sit back and let the clubs get on with bringing their finances back into line. Otherwise, one of these days everything is all just going to come crashing down in an apocalyptic mess.
No comments:
Post a Comment