EURO ELITE GIVE PARISH A GLIMPSE OF CONTEMPTIBLE FUTURE

A FASCINATING article by Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish at the weekend. He reported attending the annual meeting of European Leagues, the association of European professional football leagues, involving 244 clubs from 38 countries. The event took place in Madrid over two days. Also there were members of the European Clubs Association, an increasingly elitist group whose richest members are pushing the idea of a Champions League with a super league format — an all but closed shop, as good as guaranteeing qualification for the biggest, however useless they may get. Here’s Parish’s account of one discussion: ‘At the end of a long session, questions were invited and microphones passed around,

everyone dutifully waiting their turn — except our ECA attendee, who somewhat symbolically eschewed the microphone and instead walked to the podium to make the following speech. He explained his club developed a lot of young players but one year they are in the Champions League, the next the Europa, and for two years did not manage to qualify at all. ‘His solution was that the rules be changed so his team always qualifies because they must have stability. ‘I kid you not, in a room full of instability, worry, risk and jeopardy, this guy wanted to be a special case for ever.’ At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, some of us called this a decade ago. That is all FFP has ever been about. Guaranteed success for ever; guaranteed income for ever; no matter how useless, lazy and complacent we become, we must eat at the top table. It’s disgusting, the most contemptible entitlement, and the death of competition. Now, can anyone think of a club with a reputation for producing young players that gets in the Champions League some seasons, the Europa League others, and sometimes doesn’t qualify at all?