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Money Men Throw Millions At English Football. And Undermine It Along The Way

September 7, 2008


(By our sports commentator.) The trend of English Premiership football clubs being taken over by the world’s wealthiest people shows no signs of abating with the recent acquisition of Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment for £210 million.   The group is headed by Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, a multi-billionaire described as ‘the Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi’. He wasted no time in starting to introduce changes to the club: even before the due diligence for the purchase of Man City was complete he negotiated a £34 million British transfer record deal for Brazilian winger Robinho, a player previously heavily linked with Chelsea. Dr al-Fahim then stated very publicly that this was just the beginning of a giant spending spree which, as he expects, will bring Manchester City the Champions League trophy within three years.

There is no doubt that many Manchester City fans will be rejoicing at having their very own billionaire owner who would be prepared to throw money at the club and bring it success. After all, Manchester City have been living under the shadow of that other team – Manchester United – for decades and with the help of a massive cash injection the club could be competing on an equal par with its more successful rival within a matter of a few years, if not months.

It would be an amazing transformation, considering that only a couple of weeks ago Manchester City’s previous owner, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had his assets frozen, pending a high level corruption investigation into his dealings during his time in office. This meant that City could not afford to buy any new players and there was talk of unrest at the club. City’s newly appointed manager, Mark Hughes, was seriously contemplating walking away from the debacle. Remarkably, Hughes now has access to an unlimited transfer war chest and could choose any of the world’s top players. Or could he really?

On the face of it Newcastle United are at the other end of the scale. Firstly, their squad is threadbare, their star player Michael Owen wants to leave and they have just lost their fourteenth manager in seven years. Geordie hero and formerly England’s manager, Kevin Keegan, resigned from the manager’s post amidst rumours that Newcastle’s chairman, billionaire sports tycoon Mike Ashley, was using his people to dictate transfer policy. Keegan had to work with players he did not particularly want and Ashley ordered to sell off players whom Keegan actually wanted to keep. Keegan spoke out against the club’s directors, suggesting that his role as manager was completely undermined, as he did not know who was coming in or going out until the last minute. Newcastle are now in complete turmoil, with no manager at the helm to guide them through the early part of the season and major discontent spreading among the fans who are demanding that Ashley sells up and gets out of Tyneside for good.

So what is the similarity between Manchester City and Newcastle United? Both clubs are owned by people who want to be involved in every aspect of the business. Because make no mistake: money men who buy into the English Premier League don’s just do it for the love of the beautiful game. They see football as a lucrative business and a powerful brand builder and want to make all the key decisions themselves. Just like they do in all the other businesses they run.

Take the new owners of Man City: when they bought Robinho they probably informed the manager, Hughes, in passing about their decision because it was pretty clear that the manager was surprised by the deal. If this is the way the men in white robes from Abu Dhabi plan to run Manchester City in the future you can easily foresee more surprises coming for Hughes. Al-Fahim, by the way, is already talking about plans to buy Cristiano Ronaldo of Man U for £135 million, Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal for £60 million, Fernando Torres of Liverpool for £60 million and David Villa of Valencia for £40 million. The likelihood of these transfers might seem low, but money talks and who knows what will happen during the next transfer window. In any case, the new owners of Man City have already begun to undermine the current manager.

Considering all this, the similarities with other clubs in the Premiership become evident. Let’s look at Chelsea: its Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s constant interference in team affairs was ever-present and well documented during Jose Mourinho’s time at the club. The most high-profile signing, clearly unauthorised by Chelsea’s manager, was that of the £30 million striker Andrei Shevchenko from AC Milan. Shevchenko barely played for the West London club and when he did play he was unimpressive and struggled to replicate his majestic form at Milan. Shevchenko’s arrival at the club had seriously damaged Mourinho’s relations with Abramovich and eventually resulted in the fiery Portuguese walking away, citing interference from above as the primary reason of his departure.

West Ham’s recently departed manager, Alan Curbishley, also got fed up with the involvement of the top execs in matters which were supposed to be his prerogative. The directors of the club sold two key players, George McCartney and Anton Ferdinand, without giving Curbishley any prior warning and failing to find replacements. Curbishley felt sidelined and quit.

This growing pattern of football club owners and directors getting too much involved in the game is an alarming trend. The power men at the top seem to be keen to ensure that their football club performs well financially. Their knowledge of the game itself is completely absent and that is why their judgement concerning the situation ‘on the pitch’ is weak at best. The want results not today or tomorrow, but yesterday. That puts too much pressure on the team itself and on its manager.

The second worrying thing is that when owners of big clubs make the wrong decisions and buy the wrong players, who fail to live up to their expectations, they blame the managers and the coaches. Being what they are – tough businessmen – they won’t admit their mistakes and think that bringing in more and more players from other clubs could help sort all the problems. Several months and millions of pounds later they find out that things did not really improve and go on another spending spree or start looking for a new manager.

Meanwhile the money spent on players is added to the club’s debt with potentially disastrous consequences. Leeds United is a classic example of a former Premiership and Champions League club now playing in the Coca Cola League Two.

Finally, millions pumped into Premiership League clubs create new tensions and inflame rivalries between everyone involved. The growing pressure to perform and deliver results as quickly as possible for fear of upsetting the money men takes the creative element out of the game. Power football is seen as the best way of winning trophies. And there is no time to develop local talent. It’s buy, buy, buy from then on with no thought given for developing the team’s training base.

While Manchester City fans may be rejoicing at their new-found luck little do they realise that their beloved club might pay a heavy price in the long term. You can throw money at anything to achieve a quick fix, but it isn’t the solution for the long term. With big money come even bigger problems, as Manchester City would find out shortly.

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