Shutdown fear for local clubs
TYRONE MARSHALL
WHEN Pep Guardiola recently articulated the thoughts of football supporters up and down the land, namely that football without the fans is nothing, he was, unfortunately, only half right.
Football in empty stadiums would certainly feel different and sound different.
It would be soulless, but it would still be on TV.
And while football was about the fans, it is also about business now. Big business.
Part of the reason the Premier League will be desperate to finish this season is that they are committed to a broadcasting deal that demands a certain number of games to be shown live.
Fail to fulfil that and penalty clauses will surely follow, expenses that will be passed on to clubs.
The coronavirus crisis that has left Europe on lockdown is a humanitarian and social issue, first and foremost, but its impact will leave no part of our lives untouched.
And for many of us, football is a big part of our lives.
The differing attitudes between the Premier League and those further down football’s increasingly stretched food chain show how separated clubs have become.
While the Premier League would take games behind closed doors to fulfil broadcast contracts worth billions of pounds, for clubs in the EFL and in nonleague no football and football behind closed doors will have the same end result.
They are financially dependent on gate receipts and the effects of going weeks or months without could be cataclysmic for some.
If anything good can come for the game out of this crisis, then perhaps it will be a closer, more functioning relationship between the clubs at the very top and those further down the leagues, who are cherished institutions fighting a near continual battle to avoid financial meltdown.
For some, down could that process. this shutaccelerate
●● A Bury fan at the gates of Gigg Lane after the club was expelled from the EFL last year
The situation in Greater Manchester is probably more stark than the rest of the country.
While United celebrate commercial deals across the world and City luxuriate in the backing of a state, other clubs have been to the brink and back, while Bury went to the brink and didn’t come back.
The gap between football’s haves and have-nots has never been wider.
Bolton almost went with Bury and Oldham have had their issues this season.
Some clubs in nonleague may find it impossible to survive the current crisis if it continues for months rather than weeks.
The caveat to this is that there isn’t an easy solution, other than making it clear football has to find a balance for a greater trickle-down effect when it comes to money.
Rather than talk of breakaway leagues and expanded European competitions, we should be focusing on making sure every level of the game in this country is financially strong and stable.
There will issues, of course.
Unscrupulous owners aren’t just a Premier League phenomenon.
If more money from the top does find its way down to EFL clubs then there will be plenty of owners who see an angle to be exploited.
The EFL’s ownership rules will need tightening up, considerably, to ensure the kind of issues that affected Bury and Bolton don’t happen again.
Premier League clubs will be understandably reluctant to offer more hand-me-downs to clubs lower down the ladder.
That hesitancy will only increase if the money is finding its way to the back pockets of charlatans actremain ing as owners, rather than well-run clubs.
But the beauty of English football is the strength of its league system.
In that 11 clubs in the National League, the fifth tier of the game, average more than 2,000 fans through the gate every week, as do another four clubs in the sixth tier.
Three National League clubs average more than 4,000. Most second division clubs in other European countries don’t attract those kinds of numbers.
While we adjust to a life without football for a little while, we should remember just how strong the game in this country can be, from top to bottom.
Nowhere is that clearer than in Greater Manchester, with two of the biggest modern clubs on the planet sharing space with another five in the EFL and dozens more in the higher echelons of the non- league pyramid.
While the real damage of the coronavirus outbreak is the human tragedy, it would still be a sporting disaster if any of those clubs went out of business because they couldn’t play games.
That’s not a fate that will face United, City, or any other top-flight club.
Football in this region, and in this country, relies on depth.
The stronger the nonleague pyramid is then the stronger the EFL is, which makes the Premier League even stronger as well.
As we’re about to find out, we’re stronger when we’re united.
The same should apply to football and the battle to beat COVID-19 and the damage it could cause to the game should force a reawakening amongst Premier League clubs as to their duty to the rest of the sport.
●● Pat Hickey in action at Ingleborough