When is fair play unfair?

Empty seats at the Reebok

There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about the growing predictability of the premier league. A pattern that began in the mid-late 90s seems to have accelerated in recent years, with the gap between the top teams and the rest of the premier league becoming wider and wider.


The forthcoming UEFA fairplay regulations are intended to redress some of the imbalance, limiting clubs spending to a proportion of their turnover. Theoretically, this would prevent rich owners coming into smaller clubs and spending hundreds of millions on new players without a sustainable business to fund it. However, it's a plan with flaws. Clubs will find loopholes, such as signing massive sponsorship deals to increase turnover. This is supposedly limited as part of the plan but as yet Manchester City do not seem to have been called to account for their incredibly fishy sounding stadium naming deal with Etihad. With the regulations pegged to turnover, it also means they essentially protect the status quo even more so than currently. The rules benefit huge clubs like Manchester United and Bayern Munich who have already invested in massive stadia and set up huge merchandising operations around the world. Smaller/medium-sized clubs who have challenged at the top of European football after investment from rich owners such as Villareal would be less likely to repeat their feats.



With this in mind some fans have started to suggest new ways of making the premier league more interesting for those clubs outside of the top six. This interesting idea was suggested on Everton forum GrandOldTeam over the weekend and met with a very mixed reaction by other posters. I was discussing other possible solutions such as salary caps with friends over a few beers on Friday night and once again we were very divided as to whether this would be a good thing.

It seems that in the UK, football fans are very unsure about any schemes that 'artificially' increase competition. For some, it's almost like a form of cheating, penalising success and corrupting the purity of a free game. In the USA systems such as salary capping and the draft system operate in all their major sports and are designed to maintain a certain level of competition. Of course, there are still big clubs and small clubs, but the systems do at least allow some of the less fashionable teams to have some hope of success or the chance to see the best young talent turning out for their clubs.

To me, it seems strange that in the USA, the embodiment of free market capitalism they are happy to accept this type of artificial levelling of the playing field whilst in the UK we're happy to leave our national sport to the mercy of the businessmen. One look at the distribution of Premier League prize money, the recent youth compensation deal and the carve-up that is the Champion's League should allow fans to see that the current powers have nothing but their own interests at heart.

Is it Keen, Venkys or the system that's to blame?

As with all sport, at it's core football is about competition and it's about the dream that this year might just be the year. Without that, you just have 22 men kicking around some leather. People point to the level of interest in the premier league as a vindication that the system works but it's already becoming very predictable, particularly in the middle of the table. At the top of the league and amongst the relative new comers, attendances are pretty strong but if you look at Goodison Park, Villa Park, the DW Stadium, the Reebok, Ewood Park you'll see empty seats growing by the week. This is where the real apathy is starting. Playing Manchester United is no longer a novelty, qualifying for the Europa League a very slim possibility and 'just getting to 40 points' no longer a sufficient reward for a season of weekends invested. Perhaps Blackburn fans questioning why they're losing their appetite should direct some of their ire at the system rather than Steve Keen? A system which is now so skewed that it makes it virtually pointless for a new owner to invest anything at all unless they can invest hundreds of millions. It is you might say, a catch 22 situation.

Unfortunately, i don't have the answer. It could be financial fairplay, a wage cap, a draft system, an alternative method of prize distribution or something completely new. What I am sure of is that as fans we need to abandon this notion that football is any way pure in it's current form and that artificial systems of maintaining competition will somehow sully it. We should put aside our self interest and demand some kind of change before it's too late. Governing bodies should make a stand and enforce rules that have the long term health of the game at heart.