Liberty is precious – think before you take the money.

There can be no better day to write this comment piece;  the 4th of July, the day that Americans worldwide celebrate the throwing off of the shackles of British colonialism with the declaration of independence in 1776. 

Why America is turning onto football.

Ironically, 247 years later, it is the Americans who are planning a bit of neo-colonialism in British football with a creeping, yet powerful,  takeover of the game. It hangs with the old adage that the British wanted to rule the world; the Americans merely wanted to own it. 

The feeling is strong Stateside. From New York to Seattle the Americans are deeply in love with what they call:” soccer.” The first generation of American youth milked on the game has grown up and it has spending power. You are more likely to find a Fulham supporters’ club in Seattle than you are in Fulham.  

Billions on the way across the Atlantic

This year, billions of pounds are likely to cross the Atlantic Ocean, backed by institutional investors, buying football clubs from the Premier League to Peterborough United. In fact, the unfashionable lower-division clubs, down in the depths of the game, are prime undervalued assets that could make investors a fortune.

A rich man’s toy?

I fear that clubs have become a rich man’s toy; taking them further away from the working men who put their money on the gate every season to help build them. When people tire of toys they cast them aside.

Shahid Khan, owner of Fulham.

Sure, many American owners have done clubs proud. It is doubtful whether Wrexham would have climbed out of football oblivion without the Hollywood millions from Ryan Reynolds

Billionaire Shahid Khan has poured millions into London club Fulham with great success turning Premier League strugglers into a top half team. 

Days of mud and rough tackles

Now get me right. I remember the pre-Premier league, pre-globalised football world of the 1970s and 80s. It gave me some of my greatest golden memories of the game – but most of the game was in black and white in those days of rough play and muddy pitches. 

Players were paid poorly and treated like serfs; the football grounds were ramshackle and unsafe; supporters were treated like cattle. The boardrooms were often populated by crooks and property developers eager to get their hands on the land where the penalty spot stands.

The game’s image was in the gutter thanks to hooliganism, which made going to a game dice with death.

From disgust to “lifelong” support

I remember once going to a party on a Saturday night in the 1980s and a young lady asked me where I had been during the day. I told her, like most Saturdays, I had been at football.

“Ugh, how anti-social,” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Hard to believe in this day and age, but it was true. I am sure that same lady would now talk intensely about the importance of signings in the window and the wisdom of a flat-back four. 

That is, until the PR, TV and money men got hold of the game and turned it into more of a packaged product. Now everyone is a “lifelong” football supporter.          

For many supporters of small clubs in the doldrums, this flow of investment across the Atlantic could be as welcome as a last-minute penalty in a cup tie.

Think before you leap

All I am suggesting is that supporters of lower-division clubs from Rochdale to Reading should think before they support takeovers of their beloved – if cash-starved – clubs. A cash injection by a takeover will short-circuit years of grinding hard work towards improvement in the club. Sure.

Prepare to be priced out of the game. 

Ticket prices will go up, supporters will be priced out of the game; decisions about the club will be made in New York rather than Rochdale; merchandise will bombard the senses from the minute you walk into the ground.  The distance between players and fans will increase and even the stadium you grew up in may disappear to be replaced by a steel and concrete box far from where you live. 

Opposing a fresh injection of capital into your club, to protect its heritage and identity is never easy. As the Americans showed us in 1776 – liberty has its price.