BOOK REVIEW

Can We Have Our Football Back? How the Premier League Is Ruining Football And What We Can Do About It by John Nicholson (Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £12)

Commentating on the north London derby between Arsenal and Spurs for Match of the Day 2 recently, Jonathan Pearce picked up a chant from Gunners’ fans regarding league title success.

Exasperated, Pearce noted that “Football existed before 1992, you know,” no doubt to huge roars from armchair fans who recall a time when you didn’t need to take out a second mortgage with which to buy a season ticket to watch top-flight football.

No doubt author John Nicholson would agree with Pearce’s statement.

Johnny Nic as he’s known to those of us who get our daily footy fix from Football365, has written a thought-provoking book in which he argues that Sky has taken considerably more than a pound of flesh from the domestic game and contributed to a shift in the balance of commercial power from fan to broadcaster.

“Since 1992, those who run the Premier League have tried to sell something to us that we were once the most important part of, to the point where we are now bit-part players in their drama.

They have taken television from being a guest at football to football being a guest on television,” says Nicholson.

Fans recognise this, as well as the fact that they’re the ones paying astronomic subscription fees to Sky, attending matches, buying replica shirts and generally keeping the whole shebang afloat.

It’s (mostly) their cash that pours into football clubs and straight out again to players and their agents.

While these arguments have been given an extended airing, Nicholson does come up with some suggested solutions, including the demand that the government should return league football to our free-to-air broadcasters, BBC and ITV.

Nationalise the national game?

Not sure about that, but capping salaries and reducing the volume of betting-related commercials on TV would be a great start as the former initiative would, theoretically at least, prevent clubs from going bust.

We’ve teamed up with www. sportsbookofthemonth.com and have a copy of Can We Have Our Football Back? to give away.

To win this prize, visit www.sportsbookofthemonth.com and answer the following question: Which team won the 1991 English Football League title?

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