Notts County Highlight Authorities Ineptitude

The announcement that the Football League are to raise further questions about the ownership of Notts County is more evidence of the abject failure of the footballing authorities to preserve the game. The Guardian yesterday published an in-depth investigation into the ownership of England’s oldest professional club, here, here and here.

The biggest issue is the lack of transparency about ownership. A myriad of companies, trusts and individuals mesh together in a secretive web that would make Robert Maxwell spin in his grave. It raises several uneasy questions that must be answered more comprehensively by the Football League. The club would have to file a ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ questionnaire before any individual can become a director, a process based on the flawed assumption that any owner would become an officer of the company. How did this pass through the League’s regulatory scheme? Indeed, what investigation do the League put into effect once such paperwork is received. Precious little appears to be the answer.

Further up the scale, the Premier League and UEFA has Licencing schemes which must be adhered to in order for clubs to participate in their competitions. Much emphasis has been placed on the financial aspects of these yet the apparent lacklustre approach of the Football League brings suspicions that these two organisations are equally inept at running football.

No matter what their protestations to the contrary may be, UEFA and the EPL have form in regulatory failings. UEFA’s licencing scheme has been in place for most of the past decade but remains an ill-defined and unenforceable document. Had there been any teeth to the scheme, the landscape carved by the Champions League over that time would have been substantially different with champions such as AC Milan, Manchester United and Real Madrid unable to participate whilst Chelsea and Liverpool would have struggled to meet the criteria in seasons that have seen them reach the final.

Indebtedness is a thorny issue for UEFA and the Premier League to tackle. Football at all levels thrive because of borrowings from one source of another, rather than in spite of it. There is little issue with that in general terms since it is a normal business activity. Michel Platini however views things differently. He is a hopeless football romanticist but his vision of the game is based in hope rather than reality, pragmatism only entering the arena when compromises are required to ensure watered down versions of his ideology are brought into effect. Platini fails to differentiate between the variety of lending that clubs invoke. Third party or sugar daddy, investment in purchasing a club or building a new stadium, they are are viewed as the same evil.

The utopian ideal he has of fans owning clubs with municipalities funding stadiums is never going to be realised across the continent. Too many countries are too far down the sole ownership of clubs route for fan takeovers to happen at the top of the game whilst political pressures mean football clubs are not going to be top of local authority priorities. That is before the economic demands of refurbishing stadia is encountered.

Disconcertingly, UEFA is attempting to muddy the competitive waters via other methodologies such as those used to improve this season’s Champions League. It is the usual botch which leaves little or no confidence that they will ever strike the right chord in regulating the owners of clubs. As usual, the businessmen are too savvy for the administrative amateurs, evidenced by Roman Abramovich converting some of his debt into equity at Chelsea, a move designed not just to make the club look more attractive financially but to also counter moves by UEFA to introduce to counter what they deem to be debt accrued unfairly for competitive advantage.

The refusal of UEFA to adapt to a strategy that controls, defines and differentiates between the various debt status of clubs invariably means that they will never be able to regulate football finances effectively. Until the idealists become pragmatists, the empty rhetoric of the game’s leaders will remain populist opportunism.

Champions League Review – Matchday 1

ROAD TO ROME – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHDAY 1

GROUP A

All roads lead to Rome so the old saying goes but for AS Roma the pressure of being the club whose ground will host the 2009 final proved too much to bear in their encounter with CFR Cluj-Napoca of Romania. Christian Panucci gave the Italians the lead on seventeen minutes before their world turned upside down, the Romanians reversing the deficit to win 2 – 1. Culio scored once in thirty-two appearances in 2007-08; in Rome, he doubled that tally in twenty-two minutes, the first on twenty-seven, and the second two minutes into the second half.

At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea ended the French resistance of Girodins Bordeaux, steamrolling through their defences at will. Frank Lampard opened the scoring after fourteen minutes, Joe Cole doubling that lead on half-an-hour. The comfortable 4 – 0 victory was sealed in the last eight minutes with goals from Malouda and Anelka.

GROUP B

Goals were in short supply in this group as Werder Bremen failed to break the stubborn defences of Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta, the match ended goalless. Jose Mourinho took his Internazionale side to Greece to play Panathinaikos. No requirement to beware the Greeks bearing gifts as the Italian champions ran out comfortable 2 – 0 winners, Mancini and Adriano the scorers.

GROUP C

Barcelona may be stumbling in La Liga but they were positively purring in the Camp Nou, cruising to a 3 – 1 victory Sporting Lisbon. Marquez broke the deadlock midway through the first half, Samuel Eto’o increasing the lead on the hour, converting a penalty. Despite Tonel pulling a goal back on seventy-three, the win was in little doubt, a fact sealed with Xavi scoring three minutes from time.

Samba rhythms dominated the Swiss nightline as Shaktar Dontesk danced through their encounter with FC Basle. The boys from Brazil, Fernandinho and Jadson scored twice in the first half to give the Ukrainians a 2 – 1 win, Abraham scoring for the hosts with seconds remaining.

GROUP D

Atletico Madrid made their debut in the Champions League and had a night to remember in Eindhoven, blowing PSV aside in a 3 – 0 victory. Kun Aguero scored twice in thirty-six minutes before Maniche added the third on fifty-four, the Dutch helpless in their response.

In the south of France, Marseille might have fancied their chances against Liverpool, especially when Cana gave them a twenty-third minute lead. It was not to last as they succumbed to Steven Gerrard’s ninety-eighth and ninth goals for the Merseysiders, the equaliser a stunning shot from twenty-five yards three minutes after the French had scored. The winner coming from the penalty-spot six minutes later. Robbie Keane might not be finding the back of the in Premier League so it was entirely consistent that he did not trouble the French either.

GROUP E

Pointless playing the games really as none of Manchester United, Villarreal, Celtic or AaB Aalborg could hit a barn door, let alone find the back of the net. Indeed had they not kicked off at Celtic Park, Beauchamp of Aalborg would not have been sent off in the seventy-ninth minute.

GROUP F

A tight group on paper proved to be just that in reality with Steaua Bucharest succumbing to a fourteenth minute strike by van Buyten to give Bayern Munchen the points in the Romanian capital. In Lyon, the hosts gifted Fiorentina a two goal advantage with Albert Gilardino scoring in the eleventh and forty-second minutes. The French side fought back with two goals in twelve second-half minutes through Piquionne on seventy-three and Benzema on eighty-five, which probably makes his value €80.1m.

GROUP H

BATE Borisov may have thought that they had drawn the short straw with a visit to the Bernabeu but despite leaving the Spanish capital with ‘nil points’, better teams than they have been handed heavier defeats than the 2 – 0 scoreline inflicted upon them by Real Madrid. Pin-up of La Liga, Sergio Ramos, opened the scoring on eleven minutes but one of the less beautiful people gracing the top flight of any league, Ruud van Nistelrooy, made the Madrileños wait until the fifty-seventh minute for the second.

Juventus returned from the exile caused by the, ahem, dubious business practices that engulfed the club three seasons ago to beat UEFA Cup holders, Zenit St Petersburg by a single Del Piero goal fourteen minutes from time.