With ten clubs in the Premier League under foreign ownership we in England tend to review them as a mixed blessing. They have made the league more competitive and thus better, they have brought in big names from other leagues, they have helped promote our league abroad, and, for some fans, have propelled their clubs to heights that they may not have previously thought possible.
But as the dust settles on another price inflating summer and we get down to the season at hand are there more issues that arise as a result of foreign owners? Certainly there have been some radical and unwanted opinions being thrown around recently such as the call for an end to promotion and relegation.
A ridiculous statement that undermines everything the sport stands for. Without the competitive edge sport could not, and would not be the same. Without competition there would be no passion and without the ability for lower league clubs to rise those teams would be condemned to life of mediocrity and subservience to the unattainable heights of the league above.
It has not been announced as to who exactly has called for these changes but personally I can only see it being Blackburn or Sunderland’s owners. Blackburn have been floundering since before they were taken over and are continuing to do so. The owners of both clubs have invested a lot in their teams with little on field success and both have a lot to lose should their early season form pick up.
Always a defendant of anything British, Harry Redknapp has waded into the argument as he told The Telegraph:
“You can’t have to many foreign owners coming in here wanting to change our game. That is where we are at. Eventually they will take the games to where they want to play them. If you have owners from China, India, Russia, America they will take their teams there to play.”
Redknapp goes on to mention how we only need to look at the NFL to see the result of American ownership citing problems such as cheerleaders that could taint the British game.
I must say: I agree with Harry, and it’s not often that I do. But I’m not sure it’s quite as dire a situation as the Spurs manager would have us believe. I personally don’t believe that any English sport could ever convert to anything even close to NFL. The game over there seems to be just part of a show that includes all kinds of other distractions and entertainment. With respect to the American public, I just don’t believe that the British people that go to football games need or want their game to be jazzed up in any way. I know I don’t, and neither does Harry.
The cheerleader type entertainment is something that American’s incorporate in to everything. It’s not like we couldn’t have thought of that without American owners so why now when they own our clubs would we suddenly include distractions like that. The fact that things like cheerleading have been around for ages and the fact that we have never bothered to adopt such habits is surely demonstrative of public opinion on the matter and others like it.
There have obviously been more worrying issues at hand such as the decision of owners like the Venky’s owners of Blackburn to take their team, during the season, to play in India. It is a point that Redknapp raises but I’m glad to say there aren’t many managers as stupid as Blackburn’s that would be willing to force their team to travel to India in the middle of a season when they should be resting and preparing for their next league game, particularly when they are struggling as Blackburn are. I know that it was initially supposed to be earlier, before the season had started, but frankly it was a pitiful attempt at marketing and just over 6,000 fans watched the game – hardly worth the 12,000 mile round trip really was it?
No, I don’t believe that this will catch on, not during the season anyway, and even if the teams travel far away for promotional pre season tours then this is nothing new, and is beneficial to the clubs if anything.
Lastly on the issue of banning relegation I think Harry is making a point but rather than it being a genuine plea not to instil such reforms I think he is having a dig at arrogant foreign owners. Surely nobody really believes that such a change could come into play. The rules state that just fourteen of the Premier League clubs need to approve plans such as that but the FA can still veto such actions even if by some nightmarish miracle there were fourteen owners ignorant and arrogant enough to believe that it was a good idea to change the way English football should be run.
Yes, we should be aware that foreign ownership can be a danger to our game. But it can also bring plenty of benefits if the FA and the Premier League stick up for English football. Few may really trust the FA, an organisation riddled with incompetence, but it could well be the last bastion of English football soon if the remaining English clubs fall into foreign hands.
[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]
