From Sheffield to Southend: football’s express ride towards chaos and crisis
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS
Those who read Big Website’s UK news edition will have heard quite a bit about “levelling up”, a process currently under the microscope due to an almighty row about high-speed rattlers. Want to travel from somewhere near Coventry to an art-deco station plaza with a glorious vista of Wormwood Scrubs? Step this way, mesdames et messieurs, the Elizabeth Line next awaits, taking you anywhere you like. As long as it’s London or nearby. Want to travel between northern cities, the factory floors of this great nation? Let’s say Manchester and Leeds … “The 9.32 is running approximately 42 minutes late and will be made up of [jerky, computerised voice gets even jerkier] two carriages.” The issue at hand is inequality, of the haves and have-nots, of metropolitan elites in air-con comfort while provincial types chug along in choo-choos Dr Beeching wanted decommissioning.
And when it comes to inequality, of money filtering off to the wrong places, football can always be relied on to echo real life. As Rishi Sunak bats away pesky straight-talking northern radio hosts and the Premier League elite count their loot, the number of entries to the column marked CRISIS CLUB piles up. If they weren’t already on it, add Sheffield Wednesday. “From now, I will not put additional money into the club,” howled owner Dejphon Chansiri on Friday morning. The tuna magnate has decided to chuck the Owls under the trawler as he’s miffed that fans have complained about offing Darren Moore despite winning the League One playoffs, and being annoyed their team has yet to win a Championship game when attending Hillsborough costs a packet and then some. “Those fans who create trouble to the club and myself and believe they are the real owner of the club need to be responsible for the financial matters of the club from now on.” Chansiri calculates that at £2m a month. Ouch.
There’s worse. Take this Thursday exchange between Reading manager Ruben Sellés and a local journalist. Sellés: “We got told it won’t be a problem to get our wages tomorrow. That info came today, so I don’t expect anything different.” Reporter: “That’s excellent news.” Sellés: “That’s not excellent news. That’s a normal thing. You do your job and you get paid for that.” Reading players have regularly not been paid on time and the club has tax issues, too.
Worse? To Firewall FC, of the National League North, where owner David Hilton has also withdrawn funding and wants them playing at Gainsborough Trinity, who say this is the first they’ve heard of it. A HMRC windingup order looms. Worst? Onwards to Southend, long-time regulars in this category, second-bottom in the National League, this week losing their appeal against a 10-point deduction. HMRC and winding-up lurk with dangerous intentions there, too. The elite to the rescue? The Premier League has presented a plan to increase redistribution to the EFL by £358m. Phew! With strings attached. Ah. And there’s the perennial problem that in football, as in real life, and grand, high-minded government projects, there will never be enough money to go around.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I think the football [we are playing] is very dynamic and now we have to work on the recovery of [injured players], like Christopher Nkunku to help us have more goals and be more solid. But of course, we already start to work [on January]” – Mauricio Pochettino there, admitting that despite Chelsea’s near£1bn-plus splurge in the past two seasons, he still needs just a couple more players to compete.
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