Ban the clubs in debts ?

Amidst all the doom and gloom in the Wall Street right now because of the financial turmoil FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Platini have talked about banning teams which are in debts from the champions league competition. Teams such as Man Utd , Liverpool and Chelsea would find themselves relegated to playing UEFA cup if the voice for banning these clubs becomes strong. Some on one hand might say there is nothing wrong if a business can be started by taking loans and debts and they would be fine if they can repay back the loans or clear the debts with the revenue that they generate for themselves. Some on the other hand are seriously worried about the escalating number of clubs which are landing themselves in financial debts.

I happened to come across a post by a passionate Man Utd supporter airing his views on the aforementioned topic. One can find a few good points in the post and I would request the ABU(anything but United) fans to realize that the poster is a Man Utd fan and hence neglect the negative insinuations about the other clubs in the post.

 

When will the game wake up to these problem and when will governments like the EU realize that they have contributed to this lunacy by not allowing football to govern itself accordingly. Instead stringent and reformist changes are not allowed to happen because they break EU labor laws. What a load of total rubbish. We are dealing with a game and leagues where the main employees are all millionaires. My heart really bleeds for poor Johnny Bosman. Please, bring back some sanity to this game somebody. The problem is a European problem because that is where the money is. To cure the problem you have to inject sanity in Europe before it spreads to the rest of the world.

Two things have to stop for things to improve in the game. Letting anybody with a briefcase and a bank account buy a team especially with loans or credit of other types, and allowing unlimited players from foreign lands to come and play in a given country and then paying them 80 times what their market value is. The game has to become more domesticated and it must cater and service it’s domestic market first and foremost. Honestly, where are the Italians on Inter Milan? That’s Argentina’s practice roster over there. Arsenal has done wonders for French and African players but other than Theo Walcott, what has Wneger done for the British in developing the game? Chelsea are a joke and Roman Abramovich is the Antichrist in this debate. He may not have started the insanity but he has certainly fueled it with his wasteful and irresponsible spending and total disregard for the league and the game he is slowly but surely destroying.

Then you have greedy oil consortium’s like the Man City group and the infamous Dubai group who want to flash around their billions yet I seriously doubt they give a damn about the game, it’s history in England and what this temporary hobby will do to the city of Manchester and to the league that allows them to get away with bloody murder. And what about United? Can we just sit back and wait for the clubs possible or is it imminent collapse due to the fact we allowed an American investor to come and buy the team with bloody loans that are so astronomical that they could have bailed out Wall Street with just the interest payments alone. OK the last comment was major exaggeration but I think most of you are smart enough to get my jest there. Bottom line is the game is setting itself up and structuring itself in the same manner the banks in America did when they started loaning too much money and giving out high mortgages to people who could not afford them.

Right off the top of my head I can think of teams like Liverpool, Man Utd, West Ham, Newcastle, Man City (before the recent buyer), Valencia in Spain and others who have leveraged their future in massive debt just so that they can play with the big teams who have the capital to play the game with ugly greed disregard and carelessness.

One shouldn’t worry too much about Man Utd. They are the biggest club in the world not because of their wealth (remember the massive debt), but because of their popularity and great potential to always make money. Their world popularity will ensure that even if the Glazer’s lose it all and default on their loans, someone like the Dubai Group will come out of the fog to buy the team, save it and probably make it even wealthier than before. But what about the teams less fortunate like Newcastle, Blackburn, West Ham, Everton etc? What happens to them? They don’t have such great world appeal and their licensing isn’t big enough to draw a lot of interest from billionaires. And lets remember, there are only so many of those supposed footy loving billionaires out there. How many teams will be so lucky that when they crash, somebody will be there to build them back up again? Where have all the rich English investors and owners gone? Why does Corporate England not give a damn about there beloved sport enough to invest in it and keep the bloody foreigners out of it? Easy answer to that really. The game has with it’s greed and delusions of grandeur priced these prospective owners out of the picture. Business people are in a business to make money. I’m sure if one looks at the Chelsea books over the past five years they will see a substantial loss in revenue. The have lost a ton of money but Mafia Moneybags has so much money that he considers Chelsea nothing more than a hobby. When will he finally get bored with the hobby? Who knows, but when he does, the Grim Reaper will be knocking on the gates at Stamford Bridge because Roman will find it very difficult to sell a team unless he eats the massive debt. And then I seriously doubt the new owners will be as interested in throwing away money on players who don’t perform or who sit on the bench while Chelsea fans will still be crying for the days of the Special One.

Honestly, what does the FA, The Premier League and FIFA think is going to happen in the future? All teams will be owned by billionaires and the price of tickets for fans will only cost 5 quid? These foreign owners don’t give a damn about a team’s heritage, history or responsibility to it’s fan base. They only care about the team label and licensing the team around the world. Thats where they make money. The game is selling out to tv, marketing and kit sales abroad. They are more concerned about making sure United jersey’s sell for three times the going price in a special boutique in a Dubai hotel. That’s what it’s all about. It’s an ego trip for these foreign owners and it eventually wears off as do all trivial things with very rich people. They have no religious connection with the team they have bought, the city or the footballing community they are raping. And nobody cares enough to see what is happening and try to nip it in the bud before it becomes an incurable cancer.

Sorry for this doom and gloom mega post but I am so pissed off with all this. Ethics, reason and common sense have been flushed down the toilet and replaced by greed, payola and corruption. Just look at where the next World Cup and next EUROS are supposed to be held. None of these countries have the money or proper infrastructure to deal with holding these tournaments but FIFA in it’s cold stupid and ridiculous manner, continues to do nothing and I feel certain that those tournaments are heading for disaster. Can you imagine what the market crashes have done to an already troubled problem with these countries? And then we expect Blatter and his muppets to give a damn about unethical ownership, player movement and escalating transfer fees and wages?