THE SHIFT IN POWER IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL : A FAN'S VIEWS

 

Football, the sport we love, the players we adore. Football gives us strength, courage, hope, a plethora of emotions like anger, happiness, sadness all within a span of 90 minutes. Football, as we know should always be for the fans. Fans or as I like to call them, the supporters should be the heartbeat of our wonderful sport. But lately, in the last decade or so there has been a shift in power in the footballing landscape in Europe, the hotbed of football. Its not a surprise that whatever happens in the European football scene is likely to influence the world football in some way or the other. Amid a raging pandemic and the rise of economic power houses entering this domain of the beautiful game, here are my views on the shift in power that has been so apparent in the last few years ;

1. The Economic Condition of the Players

Football is for the players who play it, there's no two ways about it. For a footballer, its his job. They are lucky enough to turn their passion into their profession. But gone are the days where you could get undying loyalty from a player. Remember how Totti rejected so many big clubs including Real Madrid even at the height of his powers? Players like him are scarce these days. And can we blame the players? Don't we all want a good job in life? A good income to fulfill our wishes? The players are nothing but humans like us. The recent transfer of big names like James Rodriguez to Al Rayan, Matheus Pereira to Al Hilal, and a host of players like Hulk, Oscar, Gomis, Alderweireld moving to Asia for bigger contracts is proof that money is slowly becoming a bigger factor over quality of football. The current news that Lorenzo Insigne , one of Napoli and Serie A's star players can move to Toronto FC is another dent in the already breaking face of these historical clubs. He's been offered 10 million euros a season, compared to 3.5 million offered by Napoli. The gulf in difference will only grow over the years.

2. A Trip Down The Memory Lane

Well its not like that money has only recently become a huge factor while moving clubs. Lets go back to the summer of 2009 when Real Madrid ushered in the Galacticos 2.0 . They bought Kaka for 67 million euros, Benzema for 30 million Xabi Alonso for 35.5 million and paid the world record fee of 94 million euros for Cristiano Ronaldo. In all these transfers although  money was an important factor, the pull of a club like Real Madrid played a factor too. Back when teams like Porto and Inter won the Champions League under Mourinho, they didn't spend much. In fact for the traditional big teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona the focus was more on the youth players. Their academies had a huge role to play in their success and it was the main source of talent. But now-a-days, no sooner do the young players start performing well, they are coaxed into signing for big clubs. If they fail to adapt quickly, which most often is the case, they are deemed as failures, which can be shattering at their age. Remember when Leicester won the Premier League in 2015-16 season? Stories like that happening again look grim.

3. The New World Order

Which 2 teams come to your mind when I say filthy rich? Man City and PSG, right? Well its no surprise that these 2 state owned club owned by City Football Group of Abu Dhabi and Qatar Sports Investments of Qatar respectively have been so successful in the last few years. PSG was taken over in 2011 by QSI and under their president Nasser Al-Khelaifi have been the dominating force in France domestically. They also reached the Champion's league final in 2020 loosing in the final to Bayern Munich. Since the takeover, QSI have spent over 1.3 billion euros on transfers, most notably Zlatan, Neymar, Cavani, Mbappe and the likes Beckham as well. Although they have tasted enormous success, their main objective, the UCL has eluded them. They are also running into loses, with a loss of 124 million euros in 2019-20 season.

Manchester City, on the other hand were at best a mid table team before the Abu Dhabi based City Football Group took over in 2008 after their previous owner was forced into selling the club. Their ambition was clear from the get go, with their owner, Sheikh Mansour [worth a reported 17 billion euros] signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record 32.5 million euros. They targetted big players like Kaka and even Cristiano Ronaldo whom they tried to sign from their city rivals for 134 million Euros. Like PSG, they have tasted enormous domestic success notably winning 7 premier leagues and are now a popular destination for talent worldwide.

The problem with both these teams is the net profit. Football is now a business and like any business a profit is mandatory to sustain the operation. Both these clubs, though immensely successful are scarcely popular outside their country. PSG's acquisition of Leo Messi and Sergio Ramos is a move aimed at not only improving the team, but to also appeal to a larger audience world wide. The main target for both these teams is finally to win the coveted Champions League.

4. The Old Guard and The Rise of the Super League

Although times are changing, the old guard, the traditional European powerhouses are still going strong. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are arguably 2 of the biggest clubs in the world. The funny thing is, although extremely wealthy, both these clubs are not owned by anyone in particular, but members or socios. In Madrid the President is chosen via voting and he looks after every operation of the team. Real Madrid's main source of revenue is commercial revenue stream, along with merch and sponsorships. The club spent 911 million euros in player purchases in the last decade, and made a net profit of 347 million euros. Madrid were the highest earning sports team in the world till 2018, because in 2019 Barcelona replaced them at the top with an earning of 837 million euros in 2019. Barca's profit over the last decade stands at 143 million euros. On the other hand, Bundesliga with its 50+1 rule is essentially fan owned and hence fans have the last say in every decision the clubs take.

The lingering thought that football has essentially become a business was solidified when in 2021, 12 breakaway clubs from England, Spain and Italy formed the super league, a football league with no relegation. Florentino Perez, Joan Laporta and Andrea Agnelli were thought to be the masterminds behind this project which would have greatly harmed the smaller clubs. Investment firm JP Morgan supported the ESL and pledged 3.25 billion euros for 23 years to the clubs, but later backed away in the face of public criticism. Although the super league idea has been dropped after several fan protests, the idea is far from dead.

5. Financial Fair Play ( FFP )

The FFP was implemented in 2011-12 to protect clubs from going bankrupt. The main rule of the FFP was a club can't spend more on transfers than they earn in revenue, so that they don't have to take extensive loans and a balance can be maintained. But it was dealt with criticism from the smaller clubs who thought this would hamper their chances to attract quality players. Big clubs like Manchester City found ways to go past these regulations by increasing "sponsor money" . But do state owned clubs like PSG and City really get that much sponsor money? Or is this just a way to ward away the accusations? The monopoly of UEFA and a looming 2 year world cup are all signs that our game is indeed just a business right now.

6. The Effect of The Pandemic

The pandemic ravaged through the footballing world. The leagues were suspended, and even after the restart matches were held behind closed doors. Players had to take a salary cut and the debts of the clubs just piled up. Barcelona, without any doubt are the biggest club affected by both the pandemic and gross economic mismanagement which has resulted the club being in 1.35 billion debt as of 2021. The club's former president, Bartomeu made some strange transfers which were definitely overpriced. Take for example the 142 million euros they are still paying for Coutinho, or the 145 million overall for Ousmanne Dembele, the transfers of Malcolm, Kevin Prince Boateng, Arthur, Pjanic and so many others just don't make any sense. Inspite of them being the highest earning club, they now battle bankruptcy. Clubs like Juventus and Real Madrid have had to decrease their wage bill, while the pandemic still looms at large. The English clubs on the other hand have almost miraculously spent a lot this summer and somewhat created an aura of economic dominance of the somewhat smaller clubs.

7. What The Future Holds

Honestly, the future looks grim. Big clubs, rich clubs getting richer, the poor sharing the scraps. Take a look at City, even in a pandemic they spent in excess of 100 million in both of last seasons. Teams like Arsenal and Manchester United have had spend big as well in order to stay in the race. Teams having good academies and great young players like Ajax and Borussia Dortmund are being raided by the big clubs. Free transfers are becoming the norm, and them along with player swaps will be the future.  Add to all this, agents like Mino Raiola and their policy of transferring a player every 2-3 years in the hope of a bigger commission is harming the legacy of these players in the long run. On top of that, the dictatorial nature of UEFA and FIFA, inventing new tournaments just for the sake of revenue and completely ignoring their main job, to promote the beautiful sport, will all lead to a doom in the near future.

Football is wonderful, its beautiful. Its for the fans, the players, the staff and everyone. It can't become a business, there are people who love this sport more than anything else. A footballer visiting a hospital, the kids getting to meet their idol, the dream they dream, can this be measured by money? Fans or as I say, supporters should play an active role in the decision making of the clubs, the small clubs, the feeder clubs should be supported, football at every level, football for every gender, football for EVERYONE!!

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POSTER CREDIT- SAYAK MAITY

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