Business Of Football Fails To Find Favor With Fans

Reading the transfer notices come in football fans and gamblers alike can see the money in the game is outrageous, but has that led to clubs making decisions that aren’t in the interest of fans beyond their club posting a different profit margin at the end of the season? Is it the business of football fans what their clubs do so long as they get the results on the pitch or are the fans merely getting picked clean by capitalist vultures?

Money In Football

• Do profits come first?
• Is the game tainted?
• Are FIFA corrupt?

That football is a business first and foremost should surprise no one, least of all those who like to bet on sports in Finland, the focus on the game perhaps slightly blurred by all the millions that are wafted about by clubs, sponsors and players. Stadiums are hoardings for advertising, shirts bear the logo of a company and the prices of tickets alone suggests that the wringing of as much money as possible from football fans has become the business of football.

This was entirely underlined by the FIFA scandals that erupted earlier this year, the bribery and patronage that came to light manifestly not the only issues that lurked beneath the surface of the organization. Sepp Blatter might still be claiming there were just one or two bad apples and that overall FIFA is not corrupt, but no one actually believes him, especially not when he speaks of the problems as if they were the business of football executives and not that of the fans.

The investigations into FIFA continue, and one gets the feeling that there are more revelations to come, revelations that you could put odds on just seeing the light of day immediately prior to the vote on who should replace the blemished Blatter. The big name sponsors are already a bit skittish, negative press coverage damaging by association, if FIFA decides the business of football is best served by continuing the Blatter era’s ethos, you could well see issues on the bottom line.

Is The Business Of Football Tainting The Game?

Like the bizarrely anachronistic Finnish gambling laws should, the concept of football as a game alone has long since disappeared. The fans treat it like a religion, the clubs like a money-spinner and the local, regional and international authorities that oversee each facet of the sport as if it were nothing more than a good retirement plan gravy train. Even those officials not caught up in actual criminal wrong doing are still part of the money-first culture of the modern game.

The very fact that massive amounts spent on recent transfers can be justified by the bean counters behind the scenes indicates just how huge a cash generator the sport is, but are the fans seeing the results of these profits? Clubs always profess that the business of football is entirely centered around the supporters, but that seems an increasingly hollow claim when many of the club’s decisions so obviously have a profit motive rather than a footballing justification.

Is there really enough talent in Marco Reus to warrant a sixty million pound price tag? Manchester United didn’t think so, I find it hard to credit that anyone might, but the return a club can expect from sales of merchandise alone make some players worth the investment, and for those clubs in the top flight of the game the business of football may still be the winning of games, but the rewards they seek are not so much silverware as profit margins, the trophies merely nice to look at.

Are Fans Getting A Good Deal From The Business Of Football Clubs?

Fans often tire of this new business of football and social media have allowed them to say so almost immediately and in great numbers, however there are few clubs (if any) that will allow the mere wishes of their supports to affect their decisions. A prime example of that is the recent signing of Allan Rodrigues de Souza, a South American mid-fielder, by English Premier League side Liverpool, who then promptly loaned him out to a club in Finland.

The club believe the young chap needs some toughening up before facing the rough and tumble of first team football in the UK, and a stint at Jalkapallokerho, aka SJK, is precisely what Allan needs. Despite assurances that the 18 year old will only be overseas till January, many fans have complained bitterly that this is another signing aimed at a future profit from selling the player on rather than seeing him shore up Liverpool’s mid-field itself.

Of course those gambling news of this latest difference of opinion will fade quite quickly are entirely correct, fans are fickle at best and if Liverpool do well against old rivals Manchester United in the EPL on the 12th (a game well worth wagering on at ComeOn! Sportsbook) the chances are all will be forgiven until the next time the fans have their noses rubbed in the riches of their heroes, and the business of football rears its ugly head once more.