Greed is good league gets a taste of its own medicine
The Premier League was football's leading bully until the Saudis came along
If Saudi Arabia wasn’t such an existential threat to football, the irony would be delicious. The greed is good league is starting to panic.
The Premier League, the monster that was primed to bully all other nations with cash, is waking up to the realisation that it’s not that rich.
La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga have been nervously eyeing England’s top division for more than a decade, watching the TV income bloat and the Premier League’s spending power grow. In this year’s Deloitte Football Money League, the game’s rich list, 16 English clubs made the top 30. West Ham United are ranked above Milan, who have been European champions seven times, the second-best record in the Continent’s most prestigious competition.
Not even the most blinkered East Ender would have Adam and Eved it 15 years ago if you’d told them that one day the Hammers could outspend the Rossoneri. Fifteen weeks ago no one could conceive that Al-Ittihad would offer Mo Salah £1.5 million a week, more than tripling his Liverpool salary. It’s turned out that the Premier League isn’t the biggest beast in the predator chain.
The Saudis are new to the party but football has been monetised and politicised for a long time. Rupert Murdoch described sport as the “battering ram” that would get him through front doors. Abu Dhabi saw the value of sportswashing before their neighbours. But the controversial buyout of Newcastle United was only a hors d'oeuvre for the desert kingdom. The new plan is to create the best league in the world, packed with superstars.
Saudi Arabia knows that its natural resources will one day run out so it is diversifying. The Vision 2030 programme involves massive spending around the globe. They also want inward investment. Sports, particularly football, will bring money flooding in, the Saudis believe.
Well, it worked for the Premier League. Roman Abramovich’s proto-sportswashing venture at Chelsea was the start of a massive influx of cash into the game and sparked a new era of English football. The Glazers weren’t far behind. The Premier League’s front door was left open to carpetbaggers, cowboys and countries. And it gave the Saudis a clever idea.
There was a chance to stop this. Back in 2008, a number of journalists attended an informal lunch with Richard Scudamore, the Premier League’s chief executive. We expressed concerns about leveraged buyouts – the Glazers at Manchester United and Gillett and Hicks at Liverpool. I suggested a series of restrictions should be put in place for buyers of clubs – clumsily comparing potential protections to the rules regarding Listed Buildings – but Scudamore brushed the concerns off. Rather smugly, at that. “The market will sort it out,” he said.
Well, we’ve seen where trusting the market has brought us. Being the king of the traders is fine when you’re the wealthiest league on the landscape. It’s not so much fun when you’re the poor relation to oil barons.
It’s the bully’s turn to be bullied and there’s no one to help. Uefa are blinded by petrodollars. Fifa want their slice of the booty, too. Both ruling bodies will be at the whim of any paymaster who’ll meet their price.
And we know what’s coming next. The kneejerk reaction to the Saudi raid will be a renewed desire to create a European Super League. After all, that’s the only way anyone will be able to compete, won’t it? The TV rights for United or Liverpool v Barcelona will be much higher than for matches against Luton Town.
Greed has bit the Premier League on the arse. It’s hard to be sorry for the clubs, though. It would all be funny if it wasn’t for the fans.