Tweet
Fantastic article in the Guardian, although it is a year old now:
Redknapp didn’t bother with the legal case against QPR, which comes down to alleged overspending, but instead focused on the principle of fair play. “Fair play would be everyone having £30m a year to spend,” he said, sounding like a man who isn’t in danger of mistaking Das Kapital as some unknown side from the Bundesliga.
“To make it fair play,” he added, in case there was any doubt about his egalitarian point, “we should be able to spend as much as Manchester United have spent before we play them on Sunday.”
...
Yet what does a dive here or there matter – after all, referees have the power to punish divers – when the whole business, and therefore game, of football is rigged in favour of the super-rich?
...
The distance between the bottom and top was difficult, but not impossible, to traverse. That’s what accounted for the giant‑killing romance of the FA Cup, and that’s what enabled Brian Clough’s modest Nottingham Forest, as late as the 1970s, to go from the Second Division to the pinnacle of Europe inside four years.
Such a climb is not only inconceivable in this age of sporting oligarchy, it runs counter to everything that the sport is now predicated upon. The first rule of British football in this age is that success should guarantee further success.
...
They are not harbingers of a revolution but they are small signs that change – even if only temporary – is still possible. Because without that football stops being an epic drama and becomes instead a predictable play with a script that is destined to stay the same.
Redknapp didn’t bother with the legal case against QPR, which comes down to alleged overspending, but instead focused on the principle of fair play. “Fair play would be everyone having £30m a year to spend,” he said, sounding like a man who isn’t in danger of mistaking Das Kapital as some unknown side from the Bundesliga.
“To make it fair play,” he added, in case there was any doubt about his egalitarian point, “we should be able to spend as much as Manchester United have spent before we play them on Sunday.”...
Yet what does a dive here or there matter – after all, referees have the power to punish divers – when the whole business, and therefore game, of football is rigged in favour of the super-rich?
...
The distance between the bottom and top was difficult, but not impossible, to traverse. That’s what accounted for the giant‑killing romance of the FA Cup, and that’s what enabled Brian Clough’s modest Nottingham Forest, as late as the 1970s, to go from the Second Division to the pinnacle of Europe inside four years.
Such a climb is not only inconceivable in this age of sporting oligarchy, it runs counter to everything that the sport is now predicated upon. The first rule of British football in this age is that success should guarantee further success.
...
They are not harbingers of a revolution but they are small signs that change – even if only temporary – is still possible. Because without that football stops being an epic drama and becomes instead a predictable play with a script that is destined to stay the same.
Comment