Near Post Blog

Not the sport, not the players, not the talent. But, I’m afraid that big spending clubs like Manchester City are going to bankrupt the game if something isn’t done to cap the amount of spending, or at least make spending a proportion of revenue brought in. Manchester City have recently announced an annual loss of nearly $150 million, eclipsing the English record for club losses during a season. According to the story at soccernet.com, These figures do not account for the money that City spent this summer, bringing in Carlos Tevez, Kolo Toure, and Joleon Lescott, as the fiscal year ended May 31, 2009.

I’m a little torn here, because I hate the fact that American sports is all about parity. The worst team in the NFL and NBA generally get the first pick in the upcoming draft for each sport, somewhat leveling the playing field for the following season. Now, this doesn’t always work, but the idea of rewarding a team for finishing last sucks, plain and simple. So, when big money owners come to town in football (soccer), a team gets an instant boost from the money that is injected. Just have a look at Manchester City. They have brought in world-class players that would have never joined up had they not had tons of money waved under their noses, and with the idea that the vast amount of money in the club will now attract other world-class players, making city a world power in the near future. Now, City have even signed a world-class manager in Roberto Mancini, further showing the club’s ambition of breaking into England’s Top 4, and becoming a destination for players like cross-town rivals, Manchester United.

But, at what cost does this occur? Portsmouth have been unable to pay their players for the third time this season because there’s no money. All the while, Manchester City can shrug off losses of $150 million, without even blinking. The reason I feel like football is dying is because, eventually, if a club doesn’t have an owner that can put millions, and maybe billions if the transfer market continues to inflate at the rate it currently is, that club will either a) be relegated because they have lower-tier players, or b) go bankrupt just trying to keep up with the big spenders.

I believe there needs to be some form or regulation on how much money a club can spend, or risk the implosion of the game. My idea is to force clubs to only spend a percentage of revenue that is brought into the club  through tickets sales, TV money, money won from competitions, merchandising, and transfers. This would force clubs that have owners with endless bank accounts to view the club as a business, and not a toy. Now, I know there are some flaws in my idea, because the bottom half of the table in England don’t have as much revenue as the bigger clubs in the country, making them less likely to bring in players that could compete. But, what it would do is stabilize these clubs, vastly reducing the risk that a club, like Portsmouth, would go into administration or be bankrupt.

But, at the rate the game is going at the present, debts are soaring which could spell doom for the game in England. Let’s hope something is done about it quickly.