STATE OF PLAY – FOOLBALL

I can’t help but reflect on the state of the game today and the uncertainty of tomorrow. Football is a sport but with the passage of time the beautiful game has morphed into a business of sport. Fair-play reforms, commercial and financial powers are failing to safeguard the future of the game. Disparity between the elite level and grassroots is out-of-control and increasingly resembling society at large. From a financial perspective, no facet of the sport is safe from players, clubs, leagues to associations. State ownership operating within the confines of fantasy football are also not risk averse. Hopefully the financially elite have implemented backup plans in case owners mismanage, get bored or run out of funds.

The pandemic has without question publicised how financially fragile the football institution is across the globe. The domino affect has been observed and experienced by all levels of football on-the-field and off-the-field. No one club can sustain long-term stability minus fandom. The powers that be need to be flexible about generating increasing profits with the ongoing political, societal and cost of living crisis of today and who knows what tomorrow. Fans should be appreciated, respected and managed as fans, not just customers and or cash cows.

Fandom is integral and profit is integral but they cannot singularly exist without each other. Ticket pricing, match day functions, merchandise and televised costs should be subsidised to support fandom. Subsidisation should be the norm for the present and the future, and not reserved for moments of disarray or political tokenism. Elite clubs outlay gargantuan funds for salaries and personnel so why cant they subsidise respective fandoms? The increasing cost of match day attendance and television viewership is not only encouraging but vindicating the use of piracy.

Grassroots should not be a poster child for crumbling infrastructure. In fact grassroots must be appreciated and celebrated with better funding and support, and not left to evaporate as is custom of the past and present. In the immediate future we could be left with just the top tiers of the game across the globe. The sad fact in most cases, fandom is keeping grassroots ticking along but for how long? Time is precious and time is money, a prolonged cost of living crisis will severely impact grassroots football. Associations must be mandated and regulated with spreading the wealth across the footballing spectrum to safeguard inclusivity, integrity and viability.

Hopefully the impending deployment of the much needed UEFA Financial Fair Play 2.0 will instil faith, stability and shore-up fair play rule manipulation and discourage fantasy football. Financial fair play has to adapt and evolve in order to succeed because the greed that is profit and the hunger for overnight sporting success is not stationary in any form. I realise we have no fool proof sporting system but doing nothing and living in the moment is inexcusable. Bundesliga is rightfully revered and a great reference point but no one model is perfect. Ideally you need a mix of the German ideology and the competitive nature of the Premier League. We don’t need the same two teams overwhelming the league sportingly and financially.

Associations and clubs have to take the initiative and adopt a blueprint of long-term sustainability otherwise fans may have to pause fandom to demand change of mindset and change of methodology. What if fandom stopped attending games, buying merchandise and cancelled televised subscriptions? You can pretty much guarantee sporting associations and clubs would hastily make adjustments like no tomorrow. The powers that be ought to be proactive not reactive. Radical cooperation, coordination and peaceful action by fandom maybe the only way to preserve inclusivity.