Even though I love it, the world of professional football can't help but be an unpleasant place sometimes...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/apr/22/portsmouth-football-creditors-money-millionaires
Not that I want to be accused of being lazy here or anything (heaven forbid) but I just wanted to post a link to this excellent (in a 'it really gets your blood boiling' kind of way) article by the always insightful David Conn.
I'm no financial expert, but it really makes you angry when you continually see these situations where clubs run up huge debts to a vast variety of creditors, most of which are unlikely to ever see that money (or most of it) ever again. Some creditors will though; players, managers and other football clubs. The one's that wont are too numerous to list, but safe to say they're the people like you and I, the regular Joe's, those with their own small businesses or those that work for charities or youth groups. Let's not forget the St. John's Ambulance of course.
These are the people that will never see their money again due to the reckless attitudes of those who run football clubs into the ground through gross incompetency (or even worse, those who know full well what they're doing) and yet it still goes on. Just like many things in football, the 'football creditors paid in full and paid up first' rule can't continue to be in place where things like an aid charity is being ripped off.
I was surprised that the Conn didn't try to dig under the surface a bit more with this one. I think there are a number of factors that his piece didn't address that need to be looked into. Is it not unreasonable to see the football industry (and yes it is an industry and in this context should be treated as such), and particularly the Premier League, as in a similar situation to the banking industry. They have had lack of regulation, unassailable greed, massive debts, but all the while I suspect the whole culture of the industry is one of back room deals, informal arrangements, 'protecting their own' and cartels (almost). How independent exactly is the FA from the football companies? What has been the motivation of football companies over the last 18 years? How much illicit money changes hands to get the rules that Conn refers to instituted? The problem is that for an industry in which there the general public and public bodies invest so much time and money, there is a shocking lack of transparency.
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