Why the world cup and club finances will change, but the question is still “how?”

 

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• What should happen if Argentina breaks the rules again?

By Tony Attwood

At the end of the World Cup four years ago, the two teams left playing in the 3rd and 4th place play-off complained long and hard about finding themselves playing in a match that “nobody cared about,” in a game that “nobody wanted”.   Fifa took no notice.  

Now, as I write this today, the identical situation occurs – the two countries involved in the 3rd/ 4th place play-off don’t want to play and are protesting.   But once again no change will happen; the status quo will continue.

The fact is, those in power in football love the current situation because it makes them fortunes every couple of years, and so they hate change.  They have power, they get the money, and change usually occurs when the pressure and demand for change have become so overwhelming there are fears of revolution.  Then change becomees a rushed, ill-thought-through mess.  

When the top clubs in England wanted fewer games, the Football League would have nothing to do with that, so the clubs resigned and set up their own Premier League, which they controlled.   

But this hasn’t happened with internationals, and so they get bigger and bigger, with more and more games.  Meanwhile the demands for change in the way referees are organised grow and grow.   The PGMO say “no” until one day the PL will say “enough” and set up its own referee body.

The current demand is for fewer international breaks, and full salary compensation for all players injured on international duty are also bringing mounting pressure on the authorities involved, and once again nothing is happening because those in power see themselves as imperious and unchallengeable.  

And yet the edifice is starting to crumble.   The advent of the Premier League and the introduction of the twice-yearly transfer windows were massive changes in the structure of football, and yet they were brought in because the clubs wanted them.   And here we are again; the clubs want change but are being ignored.

Only this time the list of demands among the major clubs is larger and more complex than before.   More consistency in refereeing between countries and between referees within each league is one obvious change.   More income for the clubs from broadcasts that make use of their games is another.

But most of all there is dissatisfaction with the issue of international matches.  For here the clubs and their players who can get injured and handed back with a demand that the player is ready for the next international break.   

As a result, a club can find itself without one or two of its top players, and its chance of winning a major competition is decimated through no fault of its own and with no compensation of any type.

In such a situation, it is the clubs that hold not just all the cards but also all the aces because although the players want to play for their countries, they also want the income that comes from playing for a top club and the chance of winning such trophies as the League, FA Cup, Champions League etc.

Now, until recently the international bodies felt they held the balance of opportunity by running the Champions League and the like, but the failure of the recently tried Club World Cup to garner much interest has shown this is not a magic hand, and the clubs are starting to express the desire to be involved in decision-making as to how these competitions work.

To put it simply, not everyone is enamoured by the notion of rushing the players to central Europe to play a must-win Champions League game on Wednesday, before rushing everyone back to play a must-win Premier League game on Saturday while restricting themselves to a squad of limited size, and then moving on to play a League Cup game or an FA Cup replay a few days later yet desperately waiting to see if a player injured in an international two weeks before is going to be recovered enough to appear in any of these games.

Of course, if, as a result of all these matches, the stadia are filled for every game, and if victories keep coming along no matter what, things are ok.   And that was where ManC carved out their great advantage: they always had enough players to fill in the gaps no matter who got injured.   But as the pressure builds on the League not to allow such unrestricted expenditure by the country-financed clubs like ManC and PSG, more and more questions are being asked, and for the moment, answers are in short supply.

Fifa can’t change their World Cup because it is their source of riches and the source of all their power.   Clubs like ManC won’t give up their source of finance since it can lead to trophy after trophy, and there are fears that the fans of ManC, PSG and the like have grown used to winning everything all the time.  If the trophies stop, so might the fans.

The only thing that is certain is that something is going to have to give at some stage..  It is just that  we don’t know what, and when.