Last month, super-rich football club Manchester City announced that they are filing a court claim against the Premier League.
This season’s champions are trying to strike down rules around large sponsorship deals, which the club’s lawyers claim are incompatible with UK competition law.
This shows just how far the ‘beautiful game’ has been removed from its working-class origins and supporter bases. City’s mega-rich owners are simply trying to guarantee for themselves a super-profitable business, with no barriers in their way.
City’s grievance also includes restrictions on players being transferred (for eye-watering fees!) between two clubs with the same ownership. This practice is becoming increasingly common in football.
City Football Group alone, for example, owns not just Manchester City, but also clubs in Italy, Spain, the USA, and Australia, as well as clubs across Asia and South America.
With seemingly unlimited financial resources behind them, City are aggressively pursuing a position in football that is unchallengeable by smaller clubs. Such is the logic of the market.
Fair play?
City’s attack on the Premier League comes on the back of 115 charges being brought against the club by UEFA (the governing body of European football).
The litany of charges range from breaking rules around ‘financial fair play’, to failing to properly report player fees. 54 of the charges pertain to the club’s failure to provide accurate financial information between 2009-2018.
The arrogance of the club to flaunt such laws obviously comes from its backing by multi-billionaire owners.
Though this is an extreme case, it would be unfair to imagine that such dodgy-dealings don’t happen at the majority of top-flight clubs. At the end of the day, the capitalists – in football, as in any industry – will stop at nothing to squeeze a few more drops of profit from their investments.
‘Our’ game, or ‘theirs’?
Ordinary football fans, however, can have no faith in the sport’s governing bodies – such as UEFA, FIFA, and the FA – to bring these capitalist owners to justice. Especially not when each of them is mired in their own corruption and scandals.
The sad fact for most working-class fans is that ‘our’ game is being further and further removed from us.
Most ordinary fans can no longer afford tickets to games. Clubs and leagues do not pause for a minute to consider the impact of their decisions on supporters.
These entities no longer see fans as the very lifeblood of sport, but simply as paying customers, who can like what they’re given, or move along elsewhere.
An alternative is possible, however.
F.C. United of Manchester, was set up in 2005, when the parasitic Glazers took over Manchester United. It is 100% fan-owned and democratically run, with each member/owner getting to vote on major decisions made by the club – from ticket prices, to who should be deemed an acceptable sponsor.
This example provides a microcosm of what could be achieved if such social institutions were collectively owned and democratically run.
Having started with nothing, recent seasons have seen considerable success on the pitch for this grassroots-based club, alongside the construction of its own ground.
Furthermore, the club takes part in various community initiatives, ranging from fan clothing collections for the homeless or refugees. And during the pandemic, it was used as a foodbank and a centre for north Manchester’s COVID response.
Ownership and control
There are other examples of fan-owned football clubs. Unfortunately, however, in today’s game, fan-ownership can only get you so far, before you reach a limit in trying to compete with richer clubs.
For this reason – and to rid the game of corruption once and for all – we need more than just isolated fan-owned clubs.
Instead, profit should be kicked out of football, with the entire sport brought under the ownership and democratic control of fans, staff, and local communities.
Only in this way will football be played purely for the joy of the game – as long as it’s your own team that’s winning!
