How the policies of ManC and Arsenal are affecting which club players want to sign for
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By Tony Attwood
The latest change to the football I know and love – the football I have grown up with through my life – appears to involve a “30-minute half-time show at the World Cup final” which will seemingly include musical performances by Madonna, Shakira and BTS.
Part of the issue around this is the fact that what we have here is a change in the rules of football, without any consultation between Fifa, the countries concerned and the clubs that have contracts with the players… and of course the players themselves.
Getting away with this, as presumably Fifa will, then suggests to Uefa and every other competition organiser that it too can make more money by indulging in the same sort of mucking about with the European club competitions. First, such things will creep into the finals, and then before we know it, having established such changes, we will have changes of this nature in the semi-finals as well. And so on.
Which is not to say that I am against all change – as players change their abilities and managers change their tactical approach, so the game evolves – but these changes we are now seeing are not evolution through consent. They are sudden, enforced alterations to procedures that have stood the test of time for years, done without any involvement from those of us who pay to keep the whole show on the road.
And this in turn raises the issue: can we, the fans who go to games and watch matches on TV, ever wrest control of the evolution of football away from the all-powerful?
In a sense that is a bit like asking if I, as a citizen of and taxpayer within the United Kingdom, do anything to influence the way the government elected in my name, behaves?
There, the answer appears to be “maybe a bit,” indicating that I can at least decide to vote a particular way in elections held in my local authority region, and in my country. It’s not much, but it is something, and it is the essence of the democracy that we have.
But with football, and the changes made by Fifa and Uefa, and potentially the Leagues, often at the behest of the television companies, the answer is no. I have no input, irrespective of whether I am a season ticket holder or a TV watcher.
The argument in favour of this is that the people who put the money in (which these days means the directors, shareholders and to a far lesser degree, the season ticket holders and casual attendees) can decide how to make the whole show work. Which indicates that if they wanted to, the clubs and their associations could unite to take on the national football associations.
Now in such a battle I would imagine the clubs and the players would win, since without the players there is no football, and maybe that is something to hold on to. The ultimate power lies with the clubs and the players.
Of course there is a bit of power resting with us, the supporters, in that if we don’t go to games the clubs are in trouble, but the fact is that so much money now comes from the television companies and sponsors, I am not so sure that really would make much difference. Watching matches on TV without any fans in the ground would seem odd, but we did have that during the pandemic, and football, plus our love of football, survived.
So change is possible in football, and indeed change is happening in football; it is just that the way I see it, it is not the sort of change I want. I would prefer fewer internationals, and I would prefer the clubs to have more say as to where and when those internationals would take place. I would prefer players to have a proper break in the summer, rather than have the current intervals eaten into by more and more internationals. I would prefer countries to have to pay proper compensation to clubs for the injuries to players sustained during the international matches.
OK, all that seems like a ludicrous wish list that won’t happen. But how about having no international matches during the league season, and three weeks at the end of the season given over to internationals – but no more than that. And that whole deal is then put to the FA, Uefa and Fifa by the clubs, on a take it or leave it basis. If they don’t like it, tough; they can’t have our players.
At least if players then got injured playing for their countries we might have them back fit and healthy by the time the league season started again. Meanwhile we read that Declan Rice is in a “race to make the Argentina game.”
Actually, I don’t want that either. I want him to get better slowly and gently and be ready to play in the Community Shield, if there is time for it, and room for it, after the internationals. But I fear he won’t be there.
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How the policies of ManC and Arsenal are affecting which club players want to sign for
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