Sunday, 23 January 2011
Football has become showbusiness, fans have become consumers
One of the reasons why I am disillusioned with football, is because there is too much money in the game of football. I believe that this causes football to cease becoming just a game to be enjoyed, played, and watched, but to become a branch of the entertainment industry, and just another business, where supporters are treated as nothing more than consumers. The top clubs in England have got richer thanks to sponsorship money and revenue from British Sky Broadcasting and other News Corporation owned broadcasters, among other broadcasters. In addition, many top-flight players in the Premier League alone have been made millionaires, earning more in a week than many people in the UK earn in a year, and becoming celebrities (in some cases without achieving anything of note, football-wise).A recent trend is that now billionaire businessmen, have started taking over football clubs, mostly Premiership clubs. Fans question whether they truly have the club's interests at heart or whether they are only in the game for a quick profit. Formerly debt-free Manchester United has had debt leveraged onto it from its takeover, eventually some disgruntled Manchester United fans set up their own club, FC United of Manchester. Much like how AFC Wimbledon was set up after the original Wimbledon was moved to Milton Keynes to become the Milton Keynes Dons. I like the idea of fans owning their teams, after all they support their team so why not run the team through a supporters' trust. In Germany, the majority of teams are at least 51% fan owned.
Matches in England are seriously overpriced
I decided to do a very brief sample to compare ticket prices, by comparing top and bottom sides from the Premier League, where prices are really expensive, and the Bundesliga where one can find very good deals. I also decided to compare Chelsea's ticket prices as well. All prices are based on an Adult (able-bodied) ticket. All England prices based on Premier League / Champions League / matches against the top teams (so-called "Category A" matches).The comparison for seated day and season tickets (lowest possible and highest possible prices) is shown below:
| Team | Day ticket (lowest) | Day ticket (highest) | Season ticket (lowest) | Season ticket (highest) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester United | £27 (€32) | £49 (€58) | £513 (€604) | £931 (€1 096) |
| Chelsea | £23.50 (€28) | £75 (€88) | £550 (€647) | £1 210 (€1 424) |
| West Ham United | £42 (€49.50) | £69 (€81) | £585 (€688.50) | £830 (€977) |
| Borussia Dortmund | £12 (€14) | £55 (€65) | £310 (€365) | £720 (€847) |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | £21 (€25) | £34.50 (€40.50) | £268 (€315) | £476 (€560) |
And the standing prices in for Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach are shown below:
| Team | Day ticket (lowest) | Day ticket (highest) | Season ticket (lowest) | Season ticket (highest) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borussia Dortmund | £8.50 (€10) | £12 (€14.50) | £92.50 (€109) | £150 (€176.50) |
| Borussia Mönchengladbach | £8 (€9.50) | £11 (€13) | £102 (€120) | £136 (€160) |
All the prices were based on checking the football clubs' official websites. Note that the prices were rounded to the nearest €0.50 for pound to euro conversion, and to the nearest £0.50 for euro to pound conversion.
Further to this, a Bayern München day ticket can be as low as €15 (£13) if one is standing, or €25 (£20) if seated. For Bundesliga matches, people wanting to go to the game can find very reasonable ticket prices, and since standing is available in Germany, standing can save even more money.
Of course stands were abolished in England following the Taylor Report published after the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989. However, the Taylor Report advised specifically that ticket prices should not skyrocket, and this is no excuse for the sky-high prices charged in England, especially when one compares the lowest rates available in England to the lowest rates in Germany (both seated and standing).
The prices for football games in the UK simply have to come down, to say the least. Attendances are declining, especially for those teams whose supporters feel there is little chance of their team of reaching the top 4 or winning something. The Premier League is very uncompetitive with the same few teams challenging for the title every year.
One would think given there is a recession in the UK, attendances would be severely affected. However, for a supporter of a football team for whom football is their entire life, these supporters would still wish to go to the game and support their team.
Poor quality in Premiership, less great matches than there used to be
The main overriding reason for me, is that in my perception, the standard of football is generally not very high in the Premiership, and there are not so many good games in World Cups as there used to be. And watching the England team in recent tournaments has been boring, with all due respect.Looking at the Premiership, with the honourable exception of Arsenal, who do attempt to play highly technical eyecatching football, and possibly Manchester United, it seems that too many Premiership teams play too much "fast and furious" football at a high pace, lots of hard (sometimes very rough, to say the least) tackling, and there is not much emphasis on technique as there should be, generally speaking.
Furthermore, there are very few English players with good technical ability let alone the class of Joe Cole in top form or the promise of Jack Wilshere, so is it any wonder that so many players are imported from abroad? The style of play, not to mention technical ability, gets worse as one goes down to lower divisions.
The Premiership is also a highly uncompetitve league with the big four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and normally Liverpool but this time either Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur. Furthermore, since the Premier League was formed in 1992, only four different teams have won the title (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers).
In the UEFA Champions League, the standard of play is naturally good, but it seems that the same top teams have the best chances of winning every year. But in my opinion, that there hasn't as many great games as there used to be. There have been some great matches, like Liverpool v Chelsea in 2009, Chelsea v Barcelona second leg in 2004.
However my perception is that the number of great matches is becoming less and less, especially in the knockout stages, and the final. It would be very different if only league champions were allowed to compete in the Champions League, and it would give more of a chance for teams outside the old G-14 group to win (especially if there is a shock result).
However, the top clubs would not be pleased at all to go back to how things were before 1997 when the Champions League really was a champions league, much less the old European Cup format, they want to maximise their chances of competing every year. With the amount of money at stake, it is no wonder that teams in general become more cautious in the knockout stages.
And regarding the World Cup and European Championships, money I think has also had a negative effect, given the prize money and sponsorship at stake, again it is natural for the teams to be more cautious in the knockout stages, with some teams actually playing for a penalty shoot-out. Although for national teams there is no way players can be bought or sold like for club teams (do clubs truly represent their cities?), but players can be naturalised from abroad at a young age.
There have been many great moments and great games in the World Cup and European Championships over the years. For me, the best I have watched was World Cup 1998, Euro 2000, and possibly Euro 2008 too. Otherwise in general, I feel though many tournaments, including the last World Cup last year, started promisingly, but the knockout stages had more cautious matches, and the first international tournament I watched, World Cup Italia 90, was boring with all due respect. I am not saying that every game should be an exciting classic, but the standard should be good, and there needs to be enough exciting games ideally to keep neutrals like myself interested.
Blueprint for a better football (Guardian series)
The Guardian did a series from June 2006 to May 2007, blueprint for a better football, and among the suggestions are:- Curb the power of agents
- Curb the power of elite clubs (specifically the former members of the now superceded G-14)
- Massively reduce the ticket prices everywhere, not just in the Premiership
- Salary cap for players (the NFL has this for American Football)
- Fan-owned clubs such as FC United of Manchester. As well as FC United of Manchester, AFC Wimbledon is another fan-owned club.
- Fans prefer Saturday 15:00 kick-offs
- A debate on whether standing areas should return
- 25 ways to make football better
I would also suggest that the overall footballing culture needs to change in England, especially at youth level so that more skilled players come through. The number of UEFA qualified coaches in England is pitiful. In addition, people need to be more active, eat healthily, and the government should stop selling off school playing fields. Unless this changes, England will not win a single international tournament for a long time, and football matches in England will continue to have mediocre technique demonstrated during matches.
There should be an alternative to penalty shoot outs in knockout stages. The penalty shoot out is an unsatisfactory way of breaking a tie, but it is probably the best method at the moment, the problem is that there is not really a satisfactory alternative that rewards attacking play.
To summarise, I would like to see football improve, become better to watch, and ideally attempt to reward attacking and skillful play. But it should also be affordable to spectators, and fans should be regarded as fans, not as "customers" of some "product" or "brand".
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