"The challenge for those who govern football is how to keep it alive as they attempt to tackle the sports’s debt crisis.
There is no more optimistic day in the sporting calendar than the opening weekend of the Football League season, when clubs of every size and every budget can justifiably claim the dream is still alive. But analysing how to protect that fantasy is a serious challenge as Financial Fair Play begins to take hold.
Southampton’s summer of sales has underlined just how difficult it is for supporters to keep on dreaming in an era when big clubs with big funds can cherry-pick the best players, even from rivals who appear well-run and well set up. But the rise of the south coast club from League One to the top eight of the Premier League has also been a huge encouragement for any fan whose team is currently languishing in the lower divisions — but who has faith that one day it will be ‘their turn’ to rise through the ranks.
Such dreams used to be a keystone for all Football League clubs — the belief that even those at the bottom of the pyramid were only one great manager and one great team away from a mesmeric rise. Every supporter from Plymouth to Darlington routinely clung to a vision their club, if properly managed and properly funded, could ‘do a Wimbledon’ and go from non-league to the FA Cup final.
Only recently Wigan recreated that scenario by lifting the famous trophy at Wembley 18 years after playing League 2 football. And Southampton, a significantly bigger club but one that had been in administration and dropping down the leagues, recovered to seriously challenge the top six last season.
What was important about both of those achievements is they were inspired by a business model that seemed accessible to other clubs. Both teams required a benefactor — inevitable given the sheer cost of running a football club in the 21st Century — but success was also down to careful management, a commitment to sensible, sustained growth and a wider vision that went far beyond the first team.
If a club like Wigan that played in front of 3,000 fans not so long ago could win silverware, while a club like Southampton that produced its own players rather than having to buy them, could challenge Arsenal, Liverpool and United, then why not Crewe one day? Why not Rochdale? Why not Brentford? That dream is at the heart of the game in England, so the challenge for those who govern the sport is how to keep it alive as they attempt to tackle football’s debt crisis by introducing new Financial Fair Play rules.
The rules, more associated with Uefa’s Champions League, are now being adopted in the Championship for the first time, which means small well-run clubs with small crowds may find their spending power severely restricted at a time when the golden goose of the Premier League is tantalisingly close — even though they will be competing against relegated teams who still benefit from huge ‘parachute’ payments that hide their own financial mismanagement.
The problem is that promotion to the Premier League is worth up to €150m (the kind of money it would take 30 years to earn in the Championship) and that, last season, 20 out of the 24 Championship clubs made losses (their combined debts topping €1bn) as they grew increasingly desperate to get there. So new rules are certainly required — but they may also have unforeseen side effects.
Protecting fans from unscrupulous owners who overspend, leaving clubs in debt or administration, is laudable. But creating a glass ceiling for clubs who do things the right way but need extra cash from a wealthy owner to grow and achieve their dreams, is different. Where would Chelsea and Man City be if the drawbridge had been pulled up a little earlier? For Brentford, for instance, it has been a long, long wait for the good times to arrive. Although finishing fifth in the top flight in the 1930s the club has spent only one season in the Championship in more than 50 years and is likely to have one of the lowest average attendances in the division this season — even if, as the club hopes, it touches 10,000.
But the model being developed at Griffin Park in West London is interesting. Owner Matthew Benham, a Brentford fan, has invested almost €60m so far not only in new signings but in the structure of the club — transforming the club’s youth system, building a Level 2 Academy, bringing in new coaches and consolidating community links. A new 20,000-seater stadium is due to be unveiled in 2016, transforming Brentford’s income potential, while activity in the transfer market has focused on young talent that can be developed through good coaching and then sold on.
The Bees have no doubt studied Southampton’s club structure during the process, attempting to instil a ‘Brentford way’ of playing throughout its teams at youth and reserve level, and ramping up its scouting system. The appointment of new director of football Frank McParland, the former Liverpool academy director who brought through Raheem Sterling, underlines that fact.
The team includes Irish stars such as Jonathan Douglas and Alan Judge, as well as Northern Ireland’s Stuart Dallas, who all featured in Saturday’s 1-1 opening day draw with Charlton, which gives an indication of the breadth of the club’s talent net. And yet, under Financial Fair Play, the dream of one day reaching the Premier League is a serious challenge .
Under Financial Fair Play rules, Championship clubs must submit their accounts each December and are limited to a £3m (€3.7m) loss each year, or up to £8m (€10m) if an owner makes up the difference. But those figures are due to drop over the next two years.
Owner Benham describes the new rules as “badly thought out” and has doubts over the fairness of parachute payments. But, thankfully, it doesn’t prevent him planning for success. “Every club in the Championship would like to get to the Premier League at some point, so we are no different,” he said. “At some point we are going to try to make a push for it. I don’t want to say publicly when. But, yes, it is achievable.”
That is a dream worth protecting — for everyone.
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