Volume 9

The Beginning of the End of
Football
- Tanishka Garg
The world of football has been thrown
into turmoil by 12 of the wealthiest
clubs attempting to form a breakaway
league that has drawn criticism from
fans, pundits, authorities, and even
players and managers. Lets break down
what is actually happening.
Football, for some of our international
readers, is risky and very expensive.
To do well, you need the best players,
and there is no cap on how much the
best players cost. Every single club
cannot afford the players they have
or the players they want. The most
influential clubs in the world are not
owned by their fans, they are owned by
investors who live thousands of miles
away and see their clubs as an asset or
family heirloom: Manchester United
are majority-owned by the American
billionaire Glazer family; Arsenal
are owned by the American
billionaire Stan Kroenke;
Chelsea’s owner is
the Russian
billionaire
R o m a n
Abramovich;
Liverpool are
controlled by American billionaire John
Henry and his Fenway Sports Group;
and on and on.
These investors are not getting the
returns they would like. Still, every
summer, they are expected to buy more
expensive players the clubs can’t afford.
They’ve tried everything to try to get the
fans to cover all the costs: they hiked up
ticket prices until the average supporter
could barely afford to go anymore, they
released expensive new replica shirts
every season, they did sponsorship
deals with dodgy companies, they
sold the names of their stadiums, and
they did deals with TV companies
that meant if you couldn’t afford those
expensive match tickets for your family
and instead you wanted to watch your
team from the comfort of your home,
you had to purchase an expensive TV
package.
This wasn’t enough for the investors.
Not only did they feel angry that they
had to contend with their clubs not
making enough money, but they also
have to deal with the fact that their
teams might lose matches and make
them even less money.
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