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Back
in the ‘60s, when the war in Vietnam was at its height, so
was the peace movement - we used to be awake back then. One of the
big slogans that the anti-war protesters used to use was “What
if they gave a war and nobody came?”
The Establishment, the politicians, the commentators, they sneered
at such naivety and thought it typical of the drippy hippy. But
it’s time we grabbed hold of that slogan and applied it to
the Premier League.
“What if Chelsea had a game and nobody came?”
Football has gone through many changes over recent times, some good,
some bad. The advent of the Premier League has brought many of them,
and it often gets the blame for helping the rich to get richer.
That’s partly true, not least because of the way everything
is skewed by the huge disparity in “prize” money.
But what really turned the tables on the game, what really made
it impossible for anybody to “do a Forest” or “do
a Watford”, to come into the top flight and challenge for the
title almost immediately, was a change that happened before the
Premiership came into being.
The big clubs - no prizes for guessing - came to the conclusion
that it wasn’t fair that they should have to share the income
from home games with the visitors. Either we let them keep the lot,
or they were going to go off and play in their own little Super
League.
The rest of football caved in. We should have told them to get lost
and play eight times a season. And dumped them out of the FA Cup.
See how much fun that would have been, and how quick they’d
have come back if we’d denied them access to European competition
as well.
Instead, we have the grotesque situation whereby the away team has
to travel to the opposition ground, often stay in a hotel overnight,
trek all the way back and have nothing in their wallet at the end
of it except for a few bills, in spite of producing half the entertainment.
Let’s look at Manchester United and Wigan Athletic, 20 or so
miles away from one another and let’s assume an average ticket
price of £20 per game. Wigan’s crowds are around the
15,000 mark. United’s are up at 75,000. So that’s 60,000
more people at £20 per head for 19 games. Before we’ve
started, Manchester United are £23million better off than
Wigan. Every season. That offers the same odds as Mike Tyson competing
in a boxing tournament for 6 year olds.
“But”, say the big teams, “we are more successful
and people want to come and watch us, so we should have the money!”
In which case, when it comes round to Wigan having to play Manchester
United, they should refuse to go, because clearly they’re irrelevant.
Take the 3-0 penalty for refusing to field a team - which is about
the result they’d get anyway - and save the hotel bills and
travelling costs. And then perhaps Manchester United can explain
to their season ticket holders, who have already paid to get in,
don’t forget, just why Cristiano and his mates have lined up
against an empty half and are having a kickabout amongst themselves.
If the “small” clubs don’t turn up, the big clubs
can’t play. If the big clubs hold the rest in such contempt,
maybe the “Little 15” should threaten to set up their
own league where we do things properly and reward and respect the
opposition for turning up by splitting the gate money after expenses
with them. Just like we do in the FA Cup. Then we’d have a
proper competition where everybody has some hope of winning games,
when football would become a sport again rather than a business.
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