When Andy Murray won Wimbledon for the first time, there were a lot of headlines about something that really didn’t matter: the money. “Win means he is set to make a mint,” wrote The Times. “Murray to be the £100m man,” predicted the Daily Mail. Yet nobody who ever saw anything wonderful on the field of sport put finance first. Mohamed Salah, Rory McIlroy, Emma Raducanu. In the moment, nobody asks how much they got for that, because the correct answer is: who cares?
Yet at 4pm on Sunday, five Premier League clubs will fight it out for money alone. That’s all. No trophy. Nothing that can be seen, nothing that can be paraded, nothing that can be held aloft, nothing historic. Someone will come third, fourth, and fifth, and those positions bring Champions League money. And modern football is obsessed.
That’s what so many conversations were about post-Bilbao. Manchester United were not mourning a lost trophy, more the lost money. A berth in the Champions League would have given the club greater financial reserves, and football is now skewed towards this being all that matters. It’s as if trophies are for show now, just good for the Insta reels, to make the socials work. The obsession with profitability and sustainability, with balance sheets, with avoiding the charges and fines the Premier League delights in pursuing, has turned even fans into accountants.
“I’d finish 17th and take the FA Cup next year, no worries,” posted Matthew Martin, a Tottenham Hotspur supporter on The Times website. It seemed almost archaic. Steady on, Matthew. You don’t get Champions League money for winning the FA Cup, you know. You just get one of the greatest days of your life, and entry to the Europa League. And everyone knows there’s no money in the Europa League, unless you win it. So what’s the point? Fun? Untrammelled joy? Memories that last a lifetime? You can’t put that on a balance sheet, Matthew. Get real. Call yourself a fan?
It was always about the money for the owners, of course. Their money. They wanted it invested well, and wisely. They wanted to win, yes, but as not everyone can win, profit was good too. Football economists have been acclaiming Tottenham as the best-run club for years, even throughout many of the 17 without a trophy. They’ve been eyeing up Tottenham’s points against their wage bill, looking at financial ratios, value per pound spent. Not a trophy in sight but that’s not the game any more. If football’s new order could, they would replace the league table with profitability and sustainability rankings. “There’s only music so that there’s new ringtones,” sang the Artic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, and football is going the same way. The results are just a guide to the more important matter of finding out who’s in profit.
So United lose and the takeaway is not so much the performance but what it does to the numbers. Ruben Amorim’s rebuild is now in jeopardy because a club owned by billionaires — plural — may fall foul of the latest entirely arbitrary financial regulations. And some argue this is simply the clubs’ fault, that United or Leicester City have made rotten decisions, wasted fortunes and placed themselves in difficulty.
And, yes, they have. United have recruited poorly for too long now, and could soon make another mistake because — as Jamie Carragher astutely reasoned — Amorim’s 3-4-3 system is unusual and, if it doesn’t work after the next round of spending, he will leave and whoever succeeds him is probably going to want to play a completely different way. Yet that’s football. It’s not an exact science.
And why everybody fixates on finance now is that the rules no longer allow a club to make mistakes. That’s all United have done. Made mistakes. Backed managers who weren’t up to it, bought players that failed to deliver. In the past they regroup with, they hope, better decision-makers, and go again. But they can’t, because Profitability and Sustainability Rules don’t allow that.
They say that United have spent the money and must now accept their fate, or sell to buy. And there is an offer of £100 million for Bruno Fernandes from Al-Hilal that would solve a lot of problems — but that would be an enormous loss, not just to the club, but our competition. Yet the Premier League does not seem to care. Now consider Leicester. United may lose finals and status and league position, but at a club of Leicester’s size getting it wrong means relegation and, now, further points deductions even in the leagues below because the modern Premier League is nothing if not incompetently vindictive.
Only badly run clubs fall foul of the rules? What about Aston Villa? From nowhere to the Champions League quarter-finals, where they gave Paris Saint-Germain a much better game than Arsenal. They are one of the clubs fighting for those big-money places but, if it doesn’t work out, will be perilously close to a points deduction. Jhon Durán, Moussa Diaby and Douglas Luiz were all sold to avoid that last season and already it is presumed that the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez will leave.
And this is a team that exceeded all expectations in the Champions League last year, and may qualify for it again this season. Villa are not inept. Unai Emery is one of the best coaches in Europe, they have good players and owners who wish to invest. But they can’t, without securing that money.
So, now, everybody’s an accountant. They see something wonderful, and wonder what it is worth. United turf loyal fans from seats they have occupied for decades, because they can sell them at a premium and justify it because every penny counts. Tours to far continents bookend the season now because the product — and therefore the players — must be squeezed for every last penny.
And Tottenham’s win in Bilbao truly was the perfect storm. They didn’t just get the trophy, they got what matters: the money.
Saudi’s could end up with all-star XI under Fifa’s ill-advised loan system
Fifa’s attempts to graft star quality on to its Club World Cup grow increasingly desperate. Now it will be possible to loan players in for the tournament, up to six per club, as long as the loans are not between tournament participants. With Lionel Messi already involved through Inter Miami, Cristiano Ronaldo could be parachuted in from Al-Nassr, who are not playing in the tournament.
The hope is that he could be bolted on to a strong European entity with ambition, such as Chelsea or AC Milan. The more likely move is considerably more problematic. Saudi Arabian clubs are not autonomous. Four are run by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr — and four more are in the hands of state-owned projects such as Aramco (Al-Qadsiah), the Royal Commission for Al-Ula (Al-Ula), the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (Diriyah) and NEOM (Neom SC, formerly Al-Suqoor).
Michael Emenalo, the sporting director of the Saudi Pro League, as good as apportions foreign arrivals between the state-run clubs to ensure progress and competitive balance. So given Al-Nassr are not involved in the Club World Cup but Al-Hilal are, what is there to stop the Saudis moving Ronaldo like a chess piece to Al-Hilal for the summer?
Indeed, given that six loan players are allowed, what is there to prevent any Saudi Arabian entrant turning into a Pro League representative XI? As well as their own foreign players including João Cancelo, Rúben Neves, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Kalidou Koulibaly and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, might Al-Hilal take Ronaldo, Jhon Durán and Sadio Mané from Al-Nassr, and Roberto Firmino, Ivan Toney and Riyad Mahrez from Al-Ahli, or Fabinho, Moussa Diaby and Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad?
No English club would help Manchester City or Chelsea land Fifa’s enormous prize — there is even a debate over whether Liverpool would wish to aid Real Madrid by releasing Trent Alexander-Arnold early for a fee — but Saudi Arabian football is run differently. There would be enormous national prestige, too, if Al-Hilal were to go deep into the competition. Maybe Fifa hasn’t thought this through; or maybe Fifa has and, considering who is bankrolling it all, simply do not care.
Auckland in Oceania, Asia and now in limbo
Having won Australia’s A-League in their first season Auckland FC, owned by Bournemouth’s Bill Foley, should have headed into next season’s Asian Champions League Elite. That they are not is because Fifa allows countries to play fast and loose with their continental home, but don’t afford clubs the same privilege. Australia are members of the Asian Football Confederation and Australia’s champions do have a berth in the Champions League Elite competition, but that opportunity is not afforded to A-League members from New Zealand.
Meaning, for international purposes, Auckland remain in Oceania. Except they also cannot represent Oceania because they play in Australia which is, for football purposes, in Asia. So they’re in limbo.
The team representing Oceania at the Club World Cup is Auckland City. They recently lost to Auckland FC’s under-21 team which does not bode well having been placed in the same group as Bayern Munich, Benfica and Boca Juniors.
In other words, it’s a dog’s dinner. There is some suggestion of an Oceania Pro-League encompassing teams from the entire region and backed by money from Saudi Arabia, but Auckland FC will only be able to send their youth team and, then, only if two teams are permitted from the same city.
There is similar confusion and inconsistency around the hosting of the 2038 World Cup. As the 2030 edition is taking place in Europe, Africa and South America (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina) and 2034 in Asia (Saudi Arabia), Fifa’s rotation system leaves the Concacaf and Oceania regions as the only possible hosts. And Australia could hold a fabulous World Cup; except it’s in Asia, leaving New Zealand scouting for partners. Too small to host the tournament alone, there is talk of a pan-Pacific tender with the United States, including Hawaii, and another stadium built in Fiji.
Yet this would give the United States part-ownership of two World Cups in 12 years and put even greater travel pressure on players and fans, not to mention expense. Los Angeles to Auckland, for instance, is 6,518 miles and a flight time of just under 13 hours. New York to Auckland is 17 hours, 40 minutes. It is one of the longest commercial flights available.
Australia only broke from Oceania because Fifa was giving the region half a World Cup place — so they always had to play off against a team from another confederation to qualify — but with the expanded tournament that has changed.
Oceania is now guaranteed a spot, so shouldn’t Australia return and help build the sport in their own region; or shouldn’t Fifa stop pretending Australia is in Asia and deliver a World Cup in 2038 that makes sense?
Ferguson’s place in the Goodison memory bank
In all the farewells to Goodison Park, one detail leapt out — and it wasn’t even about Everton. Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall’s assistant, was talking about the famous win over Bayern Munich. “After the game, Alex Ferguson came in and said it was like a band of brothers out there,” he recalled.
What is special? Well, the match was on April 24, 1985. And Ferguson did not take over at Manchester United until November 6, 1986. So on the night Everton beat Munich he was still with Aberdeen and took a seven-hour drive, each way, just to watch a good game of football. He even stayed long enough to visit the dressing room after. He wasn’t on a scouting mission — Aberdeen couldn’t afford those players — nor was he Scotland’s manager at that time. This was just his level of commitment. Take a good look, because there’ll never be another.
Not dead yet: from Orient to Stockport, clubs able to survive without a regulator
Leyton Orient and Charlton Athletic contest Sunday’s League One play-off final, an occasion which rather casts shade on the need for government regulation. Here are two clubs that have experienced the consequences of poor ownership. Charlton fell from the Premier League to the third tier with fans up in arms, spending eight of the past nine seasons in League One. They finished 16th just a year ago.
For Leyton Orient it was worse. In 2016-17, they were relegated from League Two under the disastrous stewardship of Francesco Becchetti and had six managers in one campaign. They spent two seasons in the National League, before embarking on the long road back. Here they are, one win from the Championship.
The resilience of football clubs is why the need for regulation has always been overplayed, and the top six in League One this season demonstrates that. Birmingham City are the 111-point champions having previously been run into the ground by poor owners. They have bounced back with strong financial support and an ambitious plan. So, too, second-placed Wrexham, who spent 15 years outside the league before a Hollywood takeover revived the club and the area with back-to-back-to-back promotions. Below them, Stockport County, another club that fell out of the league — 11 seasons, dropping as low as a 14th place finish in Conference League North in 2013-14 — before local businessman Mark Stott steered their return.
Better owners are what is needed, not regulation from on high. All of the most successful clubs in League One this season have been restored by improvements within. Outside, there has been a path back everywhere from Macclesfield to Southend and, for others, it will come. The demise of Bury was treated as standard, rather than as an anomaly. Yet if AFC Wimbledon — who will contest the League Two play-off final with Walsall tomorrow — can rise from the Combined Counties League Premier Division in 2002-03 to the fourth tier in 2011-12, there is hope for Bury yet. There can never be guarantees — Bury got involved in one of those Judean People’s Front rows with splinter clubs, which have delayed any hope of a swift return — but the nature of football is that clubs go up, and down. For one to happen, so must the other.
Eddie Izzard joked that, horseshoes being lucky, all horses should be joint-winners. “In the fifth race today, every single horse was first equal … one horse threw a shoe, came in fifth, five ran …” This seems the type of football we are trying to create, where nobody fails, everybody wins. It’s impossible. Clubs rise, clubs fall, some get the football wrong, some mess up the business. Then, with better ownership, narratives change. And guess who’s back in the Premier League next season? Sunderland. Turns out, they didn’t die.
Deadline day’s early night
Poor lambs, they must be exhausted. It has been announced that the summer transfer deadline will be brought forward by four hours, to stop Premier League, FA and club staff having to work long, antisocial hours — for one day.
What once closed at 11pm will now shut at 7pm, so nearer normal business hours. Some employees were having to stay past midnight, it was revealed, as if they’d been sent up chimneys. And, of course, immediately fear takes hold. Are we handing advantage to Europe, who will have another four hours to wheel, deal and steal a march on snoozing Premier League rivals? Maybe. Equally, if you’ve had until September 1 to shape a squad and still haven’t got around to it, maybe there genuinely never will be enough hours in the day.
