Business in Football

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Throughout the world of football, the involvement of business and the takeover of clubs is one of the most controversial happenings. This and the argument of modern technology being involved in football are becoming the two biggest involvements other than the football itself. Business probably being more involved than the technology argument perhaps this being because of two key controversial takeovers. The most recent takeovers are the one of Manchester United with the big American tycoon Malcolm Glazer. That one raised a lot of suspicion over how he was going to pay back the loan. The other takeover is Chelsea with the Russian oil tycoon owner Roman abramovich.

The battle for control of Manchester United between the board of shareholders and corporate invader Malcolm Glazer has reached a standoff. But the struggle for Britain's most popular and valuable and famous football club has raised major issues of company law. It has also seen one of the most dramatic cases of consumer intervention through share-buying, as fans have rushed to the supporters' trust to vote against the takeover. There are many views on this subject many of them saying ‘just let it be’ but a few people and fans share a very different view. There view is that the fans should have a say on who takes over what they call the supporters club. This is view that quite a few fans support, we know this from various protests in which many thousands of fans have shown up around Old Trafford to express there disgust towards Malcolm Glazer. Fans have done such things as burn season ticket renewal forms and walked around old Trafford with a banner saying ‘Manchester United R.I.P’. The main reason they fear Manchester united will be destroyed is because Glazer has apparently got ideas to raise ticket prices by as much as 54% by 2010. The reason Mr Glazer will have to raise ticket prices is because he has been loaned £275million of the final £790million he paid for the club.

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But where there are bad things there is always going to be a good side of the story. For Tampa Bay Buccaneers the American football team is bought in 1995 for $195million. He (Malcolm Glazer) bought a new coaching team Changed the mascot and the kit from orange to red and black. One of the big things he did was he bought them an all new big $200million stadium and then 5 years later they won the super bowl. They are now worth four times as much as they were before the big American tycoon took over the American football club in Tampa Bay. There have already been rumours about Mr Glazer Changing the name of Old Trafford to ‘The Nike Arena’ which may anger many fans because the name Old Trafford has a lot of history. He might also change the kit colour which maybe a worry for the club because the red Manchester United kit has a past of glory and victory. The best of all is that will have been given £125million for the club to spend on players throughout the next 4 seasons.

The other side of the story is the Chelsea takeover with Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich. There was much speculation about where the Russian’s money came from. But from research into his background the F.A could not find anything wrong with Mr Abramovich’s family owned Oil Company which he sold part of to Mikael Khodorkovsky Company. He sold most of Sibneft to Mikael Khodorkovsky's Yukos Corporation for £1.6 billion cash and uses proceeds to buy Chelsea for £140 million. His fortune is now estimated to be worth £7.5million. It sounds all good for the Russian but it also a step in the right direction. It was a big step when Chelsea started buying player’s they spent an enormous £75million on players buying a total of 12 players. This was crazy but it worked and this season Chelsea only lost one game and in the end won the premiership. Whoever said money cant buy you the premiership title was wrong.

The other main thing in the business of football is the wage bill of the world’s greatest players. A Report from a UK Business site says that ‘Premiership football clubs have continued to try and keep the lid on spiralling wage and transfer costs, an annual survey into UK football's finances has found.’
The English football league clubs spent a lot of money in 2003 and 2004 in fact in was one of the highest its been for a long time and it was over 1 billion pounds.The premiership clubs spent a massive £414million on transfers last year .English clubs also had to fork out an amazing £263 million this is a 225 percent increase on foreign clubs or agents. However Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea Footbal Club , and its massive spending on players changes the the average spent per premiership club .The average yearly wage rise for the last decade was a huge 23percent compared to the year after that when chelsea came in all the wages increased by 7percent.A person from the BBC said “We expect the 2005 summer transfer window to quieten down. Big transfer fees and wages will continue to be paid for star players.”and “But for the majority of players a new sense of 'realism' will continue to limit transfer fees and we hope that more performance-dependant wages will continue to be introduced,” he added.Premiership clubs made revenues of £1.3 billion in the 2003/04 season.

So basically my view on the business being involved in football is mixed because from the Manchester United case it seems it can’t all be good. But then again in the chelsea case it turned out to be one big step into more premiership titles. As for the huge, big and enourmous wage bills being payed and the stupid amounts going to the players agents. I think that we just should not be involved in that if the clubs have been happy and alright with paying it before we all got involved then why should they stop just because we found out. We all know that player’s weren’t payed that much back in those days but then money wasn’t part of it players played football because they want to play. Nothing has changed since then and I think the players still play because of there love for the beautiful game. Im sure they would still play if they werent payed a lot. Perhaps they wouldn’t play aswell but im sure they would still play because they like the game.Or Perhaps some of them would play for just being a part of the game they have probably played alll there life. When they were children going on teenager’s just like some people out there now, im sure they would never of dreamed of becoming a world class and famous footballer’s. So getting payed for playing a game they have loved for ever is just a bonus really. So there you have it football is just football and would never of got this bad if the public press and newspapers just left the club alone.

http://www.chelseafc.com/

http://www.manutd.com/