Liverpool FC for long kept out corporate influence since the establishment of the Premier League maintaining its institutional values. However the current crisis and lack of silverware has seen Liverpool abandon the collective values developed in the past and become the target of predatory corporations looking for quick profits.
Since the establishment of the Premier League two decades ago English football has gone through a huge transformation, making the Premier League a global brand.
At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into English football. The argument given that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe, as English teams were re-admitted back into UEFA competitions following a 5 year ban. The Premier League was established as a limited company in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. This saw the influx of huge sums of money as the Premier League established lucrative deals for television rights – It is here that the Premier League became an attractive money making vehicle for those with little interest on what happened on the football pitch
Today the Premier League is one of the richest football leagues in the. As a result a number of corporations and individuals view Premier League clubs as cash crops – quick money making opportunities.
In capitalism money is all that matters and the Premier League became the playthings of investors with questionable backgrounds. Football’s watchdog, The Football Association, did not bother to investigate properly the background of the many foreign nationals buying top clubs. As long as the money kept flowing in it did not matter where it came from or how it was generated.
Roman Abromovich the Russian oligarch, was the first to see the Premier League as too good an opportunity to miss when he brought Chelsea in 2003, despite the controversial origins of his fortune. Today Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Fulham, Portsmouth and West Ham are owned by corporate interests. with only one interest – making money – and little interest in the game of Football.
The irony of all this is the sale of Liverpool FC. Liverpool FC was developed and constructed as an institution with its own values. Bill Shankly established Liverpool FC as an institution during the 1960’s and turned it into one of the most successful clubs in European history. Shankly was born in a mining village and in poverty used socialism, to build Liverpool FC and instilled collectivism, which helped the club dominate Europe during his reign. “The socialism I believe in is not really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it’s the way I see football and the way I see life.”[i] Well into the 21st century Liverpool FC held out to lucrative deals that would dilute the values that Shankly built the club upon. However with little silverware to show for the last two decades, Liverpool FC gave in to Capitalism and this has come to haunt them.
In 2007 American tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks brought out Liverpool FC for £218.9 million, with debts of £44.8 million. However by 2010 the club was on the verge of bankruptcy with the club’s creditors asking the High Court to allow for the sale of the club. When Liverpool’s ex-owners bought the club they did not fund it with their own cash. They took a short-term loan of £350 million split between the football club and Kop Football Holdings. The club’s owners essentially never invested a single penny into the football club they were supposedly buying.
Corporate interests have taken a club that reached the Champions League final in the year of their arrival to one playing in the Europa League and languishing in the relegation zone.
The question to ask is what is the single factor that has had the biggest affect in corrupting the so-called ‘beautiful game.’ Surely it’s Capitalism – the wanton desire for profits above all else.
The Capitalisation or commercialisation as it is today known has corrupted everything it has touched, be it religion, sport or politics. Capitalism creates a greed amongst its participants that is only destructive. The commercialisation of Christmas has turned it into the season for the corporate world to break-even and created practices such a father Christmas that have nothing to do with Christianity. Similarly in politics we see MP’s taking kickbacks or abusing their positions for the highest bidder. football is not the only sport that has been corrupted by Capitalism, cricket has gone down the same route with the launch of the Indian Premier League – where once again television rights have seen the league commercialised, with corruption and match fixing the order of the day.
The events surrounding Liverpool FC, the most successful football institution in the UK, was a result of the greed Capitalism creates, which is the making of money irrespective of everything else and irrespective of the consequences.
Liverpool should have always walked alone
[i] Shankly by Shankly, Bill. Barker Limited, Arthur, London. 1976. p. 32#
This Capitalist c(g)reed takes no prisoners, as reporters from the Sunday Times posing as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies who wanted to bring the 2018 / 2022 tournament to the United States, managed to embroil FIFA Executive Committee members, Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, who allegedly asked for payments in exchange for endorsing the US bid – contravention of FIFA rules. Nigerian Adamu allegedly asked for $800,000 (£500,000) to be paid directly to him, supposedly to build four artificial football pitches. Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) president Temarii, of Tahiti is also alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case to finance a sports academy.
In addition, the Capitalist greed transcends sports arenas as the FIA World Motorsport’s governing body upheld Ferrari’s $100,000 (£65,000) fine for appearing to give Felipe Massa a coded message (contrary to rulebook) to allow Fernando Alonso through to win the German Grand Prix; Massa moved over to let Alonso pass him on lap 49 of the 67-lap race at Hockenheim on 25 July. Massa was told by his Ferrari race engineer, Rob Smedley, over the team radio: “Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand?” The Brazilian responded by letting through after Turn Six moments later. Following the move, Smedley added: “Good lad! Just stick to it now. Sorry.” BBC pundit and former team owner Eddie Jordan told BBC Radio Five Live: “It was very blatant. If Alonso goes on to win the Championship by two points it will always be seen as sham, where breaking the rules pays off, and that is something that can never be acceptable. “What Ferrari did was they showed no respect to the public, they treated us all like Muppets – they broke the rule.”
Historically, child abuse and paedophilia amongst the clergy forced ordinary law abiding citizens to abandon the Church-going traditions of their European capitals – and in disillusionment many headed straight to the sports arenas, embracing them en mass as the crucibles of “the new religion.” However, the doctrine of Capitalism that plays host to myriad of sports entertainment alas turns out to be nothing more than the same old abuse of peoples’ trust, causing many to once again become disillusioned, particularly as people are still reeling from the worst excesses of this ideology’s so-called credit crunch that has resulted in many people losing jobs, homes to be repossessed, etc.
In the ‘battle of ideas’ between the Church and the State, it was Capitalist ideology which triumphed as the way to organise society and to look after people’s affairs. However, with the spectacular failure of this ideology, vividly exposed through the Stock Market crash and the subsequent bailing out (against the wishes of Taxpayers) of the global Banking system, the masses have again reached a critical juncture. But this time the choice before them is between ‘More of the Same[Disaster Capitalism]’ or ISLAM – a Divinely Revealed ideology that guarantees a standard of living for ALL citizens under its dominion, irrespective of race, religion, creed or colour.
With Taqwa, you’ll never walk alone.