It was somehow fitting that Tuesday’s damning ruling against Manchester City landed in the heart of the Labour party conference, in the afterglow of Andy Burnham’s rapturously received prime minister’s speech.
asserted
ruling → land → speech
I was there, and read the astonishing 40 pages of findings – that City created “sham” contracts to boost income artificially by £900m – on my phone during a long meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group, where people were celebrating Keir Starmer’s ousting and Burnham’s more leftwing direction.
asserted
people → read → ousting
At the core of Burnham’s speech was the wrong turn he says Britain took under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, selling off and privatising council housing, water, energy, transport and care.
asserted
Britain → say → housing
“We built the common good,” he said, but “the common wealth … created for the many was seen as an opportunity for the few.”
asserted
wealth → build → few
He could have been talking about football, too.
uncertain
He → talk → football
Where Manchester City have ended up, having been bought by Sheikh Mansour of the Abu Dhabi ruling family in 2008, is a culmination of decades in which “the people’s game” has been carved up for profits.
asserted
game → end → profits
Clubs like City, formed in the Victorian smog of industry by churches, schools and workplaces, then built by generations of supporters into powerful homes of belonging, were sold off just when football finally had enough wealth to go round.
asserted
football → form → wealth
I investigated and reported on that financial carve up in my early years of journalism, and Burnham worked on it too, at the start of his political career, as the administrator of New Labour’s football taskforce.
asserted
Burnham → investigate → taskforce
My 1997 book, The Football Business, in which I likened football’s commercialisation to Thatcher’s privatisations, chimed with many supporters’ groups campaigning against rocketing ticket prices, exclusive pay-TV deals, and the drawbridge the newly mega-rich Premier League had pulled up behind it.
asserted
League → liken → it
My moment of clarity had come at Manchester City, reporting on an earlier takeover, in 1994 by a beloved former player, Francis “Franny” Lee.
asserted
moment → come → player
I grew up in Manchester and from as early as I could answer the challenge – “which club do you support?” – it was always City for me.
uncertain
it → grow → me
My dad took me, fast-walking, hand-in-hand, to big matches in the 1970s, floodlit glory nights of my boyhood.
asserted
dad → take → boyhood
I have always loved the colour blue, especially sky blue, and have never really worn anything red in my life.
asserted
I → love → life
For supporters of my generation, the only trophy City won was the 1976 League Cup, claimed with a wondrous overhead “bicycle” kick goal by our winger, Dennis Tueart.
asserted
City → win → winger
I like art as much as the next ignoramus, but the photograph of Tueart’s goal must be the picture I have gazed at more than any other: the perfection of it, Tueart’s straight back in mid-air, arcing the ball behind him into the Wembley net, Newcastle’s opposition defenders frozen in time for ever.
asserted
defenders → like → time
But unlike Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, City never had a period of sustained success.
asserted
City → have → success
They compressed a golden age into two years, 1968-70, and soon after that League Cup triumph, they were relegated, in 1983.
asserted
they → compress → 1983
For years, while City fans became celebrated for their loyalty and sod-it humour – taking bananas and other inflatables to matches – there always remained a mournful yearning for success to return.
asserted
success → celebrate → matches
When Lee finally took City over, acclaimed by all supporters, it seemed like deliverance.
asserted
it → take → deliverance
As a fan in the old Maine Road stadium, I cheered him on Saturday, then as a journalist on Monday I pestered for an interview.
asserted
I → cheer → interview
They agreed, and I was escorted behind the scenes, along some threadbare corridors into the chairman’s office, where Franny sat glowing behind the desk.
asserted
Franny → agree → desk
Everybody involved was so delighted to have pulled it off that they shared details quite gleefully.
asserted
they → involve → details
And that was when I first understood that Manchester City wasn’t a club at all.
asserted
City → understand → ?
Franny was one of many other business people, a consortium, who had bought the shares.
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who → buy → shares
Later, one of the lawyers proudly showed me some corporate engineering they had done.
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they → show → engineering
They had formed a holding company, Manchester City plc, that would own the old football club company.
asserted
that → form → company
The new millions from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV had poured into the Premier League, a breakaway in 1992 by the top clubs from sharing TV money with the clubs in the other three divisions of the Football League.
asserted
millions → pour → League
This boosted the value of the top club-companies, and the new consortium planned to float City on the stock exchange, like Manchester United and others, where ultimately their shares could then be sold at a profit.
uncertain
shares → boost → profit
I learned that holding companies were formed to bypass the longstanding rules of the Football Association – the game’s governing body – that restricted shareholders being paid dividends, and directors a salary.
asserted
shareholders → learn → salary
The FA imposed those at the dawn of professional football in 1892, allowing clubs to form limited liability companies, but limiting the personal money shareholders could make.
uncertain
shareholders → impose → money
This was to retain the collective, service ethos of a club.
asserted
This → retain → club
To the relatively small but formidable core of people who really care about these principles, “rule 34” became totemic of football’s sell-off, surrendered to enable vast personal gains by investors.
asserted
rule → care → investors
That was now deemed antiquated, blazers’ bureaucracy that must not restrain football’s new business dynamism.
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that → deem → dynamism
This critique was put forcefully to Labour’s football taskforce, with calls by the Football Supporters’ Association for strong regulation to harness the benefits of the new era.
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critique → put → era
Fans understood that German football’s response to the pay TV transformation was to permit corporate reorganisations, but require clubs to be controlled “50% plus one” by mutual supporters associations.
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clubs → understand → associations
New Labour was never going to introduce a football regulator or major reforms, but Burnham worked hard for concrete improvements.
asserted
Burnham → go → improvements
The Premier League agreed to distribute 5% of its TV deal to improving desolate grassroots playing facilities via a new grant-giving body, the Football Foundation, which has been transformative.
asserted
which → agree → body
Burnham also championed mutual fan ownership of clubs, helping to establish an organisation, Supporters Direct, to promote it.
asserted
Burnham → champion → it
But the impossible cost for fans of buying and sustaining their clubs has meant over the years that few are mutually owned.
asserted
few → buy → years
The Premier League roared on, and the sell-offs became more corporate.
asserted
offs → roar → ?
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
