Delusions of grandeur at Leeds
ANDREA RADRIZZANI has been involved with English football for, what, all of a year and nine months — so naturally he thinks he has the right to change it irrevocably.
Having not made the money out of Leeds united that he expected, and finding it a good deal harder to get out of the Championship, too, he wants to form a breakaway league.
He doesn’t like the idea of second-tier money being shared with those below, he doesn’t like the TV deal, he doesn’t like the parachute payments for relegated clubs — most of all he doesn’t like that Leeds are a big club in a small league, but whose fault is that?
So you know what is coming: Premier League 2. All the fun of the Premier League, but inferior. All the excitement, but accompanied by the sound of a door slamming in the faces of those below.
Gillingham’s chairman once came up with something similar: next time we looked, his club were in Division Four. Bolton were also keen for a time, before they went down to tier three.
It’s a protectionist idea from clubs who think they are better than they are.
Radrizzani wants it because he has noticed Leeds are a big television draw, but only receive £2.5million from TV rights. Tough. Manchester united could do better going it alone, but they can’t because that is not how English football works.
The success is built on collective strength, not cutting half of the league adrift to trouser more money. If Radrizzani wants a bigger slice, he gets it by succeeding in a sporting meritocracy and winning promotion, not by trumpeting his audience share.
It wasn’t so long ago that returning to the second tier was Leeds’ aim.
How would they have felt in 2007-08, say, if the likes of Stoke, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton had got together and decided they wanted to separate from the rest of the league — and Leeds should be shut outside, along with clubs the size of Hartlepool and Leyton orient?
Not fair, is it, this arbitrary line being drawn to curtail ambition?
Where would Sunderland, Portsmouth, Charlton or Coventry sit in this Premier League 2; or would they just be set adrift, like the rest, by a man whose involvement in English football has lasted as long as one of Peter Ridsdale’s tropical fish.