As the English football campaign has come to an end it is now time to reflect on the position of the English game and where it can be improved. Quite a few people have had their say on the way the game is managed and the way the ‘business of football’ is taking over from the where it must be; on the pitch.
Over the last decade there has been a huge flood of investment into football teams in England. A great deal of this investment has been from overseas with good and bad effects. The well-known ‘top 4’ as they were called (Tottenham have now broken into that spot) are all now under foreign possession which leads us to suppose that the English game is getting further away from it’s roots and changing towards a more American system of Franchises. What is meant by this, is that in the American sports system the numerous sports teams across baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey have a continuous circulation of players, managers and owners. If you look at the line-up for one season it is completely different for the next as there are huge amounts of money mixed up when trading players to these Franchises. However this is not the scary piece, lots of American Franchises have moved location in order to get more supporters and revenue, our own instance is Wimbledon FC who went from FA Cup winners and regular Division 1 entrants to moving their club to Milton Keynes. Will this become more common?
A lot of Franchises For Sale opportunities are available in America, whoever comes in makes significant alterations and can even move the team to another area of the country if the terms are appropriate. I am not saying that this will happen in England but with the constant big money being spent at the top tier of football, some or most of the smaller teams in the lower leagues may have to look at the option of moving. Most of these clubs are managed as a small businesses and cannot compete with the money that is now invested, many are managed like a Home Based Franchise, with the smallest outgoings and operating everything in-house.
We found this last year when an owner has not complete their duties and promises the fans will rise up and try to move the owner on. An example is Newcastle United where the supporters were very unhappy with the performances on the pitch and so turned on the ownership. The owner did put the club up for sale but could not discover a buyer as the asking price was awfully exaggerated, they have made it back into the premiership and now the clubs fortunes may alter. We are now looking at every club in English football has a price, the same as all the Franchises For Sale choices in America. If the correct person with enough money presented the money for any club then it would be taken.
It now does not matter if the owner is foreign its just as long as they have the money. Is this correct? The days have disappeared where you have a so called ‘Home Based Franchise’, where the club is managed as a family and everything is dealt with within. The Franchises of America are managed in an open marketplace for everyone to see and that is the way we have gone. Is this beneficial for the game in England or have we lost our family orientated game and moved to a more commercial, business game?
