The Political Economy of Football V2

Much of the opposition to the Football Governance Bill has been led in the House of Lords by West Ham’s Karren Brady and the bill has undergone a mauling.   The Commons can, of course, remove the Lords amendments, but one issue is how much political capital the Government is prepared to use up on the Bill, given that it has declared a deregulation agenda in the interests of economic growth. Baroness Brady has her critics so it was a smart move by those opposed to the Bill in its present form to get Brentford chairman Cliff Crown to write a critical article in the Financial Times.   Brentford and their manager are widely respected for what they have achieved in financial terms against the odds. The full article is available on the Pink Un’s website but some crucial passages are repeated below, followed by my comments. ‘Football is built on ambition, dreams and sometimes heartache. At Brentford FC, we’ve lived that journey. We’ve risen through the ranks to establish o...

Argentina is a country where football is often a greater part of public life than religion, is one of the sport’s most successful nations. While its non-profit system is an oddity in world football, supporters argue it is essential to preserving the social role of clubs, which run community centres and even schools in many towns — services that for-profit companies may be tempted to cut. But critics complain the model has stunted teams’ development, making even big clubs such as Boca Juniors and River Plate regular exporters of their brightest talents. Lionel Messi, one of the sport’s greatest ever players, left for Spanish club Barcelona aged 13 years old. Brazil, which approved a law encouraging clubs to become limited companies in 2021, has recently attracted a wave of investment, with several top division clubs now foreign owned. Estudiantes, a fast-rising team in Argentina’s top league, is preparing to hold a vote by some of its 56,000 members next month on whether to form a j...

The relationship between the club’s owner Dejphon Chansiri and the supporters looks to have irretrievably broken down.  Last year, the Thai businessman let rip, “I am the one who needs to pay around £2m on average every month. Some fans need to have more respect for owners of clubs and not be so selfish, thinking of their own benefit without doing anything good to the club.” Unsurprisingly, there have been many protests against the ownership, including a banner at Hillsborough stating, “Dejphon Chansiri. Not fit or proper. Sell the club.” It’s fair to say that matters did not improve at a recent fans’ forum, when club officials including Chansiri were involved in various heated exchanges with supporters.    Indeed, last season Chansiri had announced that he would not invest any more money into the club following protests against the owner, saying, “This is not acceptable and as a result I am not willing to inject more money while I am being treated unfairly by those f...