“According to a report published by European football’s governing body in February, English Premier League clubs have a combined debt of 3.8 billion euros, more than the combined total of all the other European top flight clubs.” – Agence French Press, April 14, 2010
How long will it be before the English Premier League teams do something about the financial crisis occurring in their game? Can they take the measures needed to make their clubs financially stable? Or, are traditions and clan club rivalries more important in the end?
I love Football (the round kind). I agree with Michel Platini that something is wrong. Let’s take my beloved Hungarian Football as an example. The clubs there are struggling and the most popular club in the region – Ferencvaros almost melted down financially a few years ago. It took a rich Englishman to pull them from the abyss. The reality of the purchase was for the real estate deal on the club’s current property rather than for purely football reasons.
Why are Hungarian Clubs trying to compete against each other for the hearts and minds of 10 million and shrinking population? If you look across the border to Austria where their population is even smaller and shrinking, you could ask the same of their clubs. Isn’t it time for Football in these regions to consider changing their structures and breaking down the borders? Why not have a Central European Football League where there are maybe 1 or 2 super clubs from each country competing each year?
They will not because traditions will win out at the expense of the game. The rivalries are so great that the individual clubs’ egos would never allow the cooperation needed to develop such a league.
Here is where MLS comes in. There has been much criticism by many here in the United States that the single entity system is no good. The reality is, it is the future of the game. The single entity system of MLS allows it to maintain tight cost controls on players and salaries without bankrupting the league or its clubs.
It makes you wonder why FIFA kept its fingers out of the recent contract negotiations. I am sure they are using MLS as a possible model for how football should look in the future. Business management is the contribution American Soccer may make to the world game. All our sports leagues have made the necessary changes to become profitable leagues.
If Europe does not wake up to its excesses, it may find itself out of business soon. While MLS, may find it becomes the league that survives and prospers. Why? There are fans in this country and last summer demonstrated that people will go watch games, if there is talent on display.
I say Major League Soccer is poised to become what it says it wants to be when it grows up. A top league in the world competing for top talent to display.
