- Would Arsenal Be The Worst Team To Ever Win The Premier League
- Six English clubs in Europe’s top 11, six English players in Arsenal’s squad
By Tony Attwood
As we know, the Premier League has evolved a reputation for being highly competitive, and so callis itself the “best in the world”
Which is nice when Arsenal are the favourites to win the Premier League. But the club still has a long way to go financially before it can take on the biggest financial hitters, as for example Real Madrid having an income of over £1bn a year, of which about half comes through merchandising and sponsorship.
In fact for the top clubs, what the media like to call “Matchday” and we call “going to watch the game” seems to have reached its peak. As Tottenham have shown, if you put prices right up, you need results to match that, and results can never be guaranteed. Their financial projections are based on a full stadium for every match – and at the moment, they are not getting that.
In fact, what football in England has come to realise is that putting prices up in order to cover club debts doesn’t work if the results decline. And the clubs’ favourite response (sacking the manager) does not work far more often than it does.
Worse, as discontent spreads, sponsors start to question if they really are getting a decent return on all those millions that they have ploughed into football.
Thus, sponsors of TV programmes start to wonder if having their name associated with football really does bring in more sales. And when that question starts being asked, football starts to lose its commercial appeal.
And when there are no more in-stadium restaurants, TV is already saturated with games, and the newspapers are always delighted to find new scandals, the only thing the clubs can do is increase ticket prices and ask the TV companies to pay even more. Which is ok, unless TV audiences for such new-fangled events as the Club World Cup are nowhere near the level projected.
TNT obviously saw this happening and so put in a moderate bid to continue their coverage of live games in the UK. They lost, but the clubs didn’t mind since a new sponsor offered much more. But the question remains, “will the audience be there for the new owners of the rights?”
Some remain bullish, for as The Ask pointed out, “In a clear demonstration of its market power, the Premier League secured a landmark four-year domestic rights deal for the 2025-2029 cycle valued at a total of £6.7 billion.” (£1.67 billion per season.)
But the problem is that the rest of the media (ie stations that don’t have the rights to live football, and the printed and most online media) – simply up their coverage of football scandals and problems – like the cost of going to a game and the problems experienced by the likes of Tottenham, Manchester United and West Ham. Throw inj the appalling debacle of the Africa Cup final, and football is in trouble.
Already, we have seen TNT put in a lower bid for football because its figures showed that revenue was starting to decline, and they were worried about the negative publicity that swamped the club World Cup.
Meanhwhile ground moves for clubs such as Everton and Tottenham still have to be paid for somehow. Money can be borrowed, but that borrowing is based on eternally rising TV income – and that may not continue much longer. Certainly, in Italy and France, income from matches is already showing serious signs of decline. And above all, fans have shown that they do have a certain desire for the traditions of football (like playing the World Cup in reasonable temperatures) to be honoured.
I don’t think Arsenal have got to the stage of alienating lifelong fans yet, and Arsenal have been helped by the continuing decline of ManC with their endless arguments in court. And I think everyone knows now that simply throwing money at a club doesn’t always work in terms of rising up the league – but the promises of a better tomorrow can leave clubs thoroughly disgruntled (Tottenham, WHU and ManU are perfect examples).
In other leagues, PSG and Bayern Munich might enjoy knowing that they will win their league each year, but supporters elsewhere don’t share that fun, so interest declines. Yet every year, clubs spend money they haven’t got.
Following the still unresolved Manchester City scandal, the Premier League is introducing a new squad-cost approach next season, which could deal with the ManC situation in the future (although not punish them for the past). But everyone knows that broadcast revenue, having stalled, now seems to be going into decline. Football of course, will survive, but there could be some bumps along the way and not every club might make it.
