Today I watched Liverpool beat Cardiff City to lift the 2012 Carling Cup. I will start this post by stating that I wanted Cardiff to win the trophy, I am a Tranmere Rovers fan, feel free to call me bitter but I will explain my reasoning.
In the past ten seasons the list of winners of the League Cup reads "Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Chelsea, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Manchester United, Birmingham City, Liverpool" so of the past ten winners of the trophy seven have been from the so-called "big six" premier league teams. The exceptions to that rule are Blackburn Rovers in 2002 who achieved a tenth place finish that season, Middlesbrough who finished eleventh in the same year they lifted that trophy - 2004 and Birmingham, last year's winners who despite relegation had a relatively expensive squad with a number of high earners even if the premier league season did end in heartbreak for their fans.
So regardless of Cardiff being a side from Wales and competing in the English League Cup I wanted the upset to occur. What we saw was a game largely dominated by Liverpool with Cardiff scoring against the run of play in the first half and later equalising after a scramble in the penalty box. Liverpool's first goal was also the result of a penalty box scramble but Kuyt's goal which put Liverpool ahead was a good strike. The Liverpool starting eleven had six British players starting whilst Cardiff had nine. The Cardiff sub bench had one non-British player whilst Liverpool's boasted three. I have pointed this out to emphasise the difference in resources the two sides, considering Cardiff are currently amongst the top teams in the Championship the fact that one side is able to attract so many players from overseas compared to the other this is somewhat worrying.
Some more quick research tells me that ten of Liverpool's starting eleven (the eleven excludes Steven Gerrard who was of course a youth system graduate) cost them a total of £143,100,000. In comparison Cardiff's starting eleven (none of whom are youth system graduates) cost them a total of £3,220,000. In terms of wages I believe Steven Gerrard alone will be earning more per week than the entire Cardiff starting eleven. One division separates these two sides and Cardiff City Stadium, the home of Cardiff has under 20,000 seats less than Anfield, the home of Liverpool. The problem is simple: The Premier League. I believe we can all agree that more money in the sport we all love is generally a good thing but when it is so unfairly distributed it is not. Naturally the top tier of football is by far the most attractive to overseas markets but with the astonishing difference in TV money given to Premier League clubs even when compared to Championship clubs is disgraceful, in my opinion the football association should take all of the money received from TV rights and distribute them equally to its 72 football league members, the fact that this has not happened added to the draw of the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool to fans from outside their classic catchment areas has left such a divide between the financial power of Premier League and Championship clubs that competitions like the League Cup and FA Cup now produce fewer and fewer upsets even with top-flight clubs often fielding weakened teams. The fact that Liverpool expressed an interest in selling their own television rights is disgusting, they are a member of the Premier League and know full well that past glories have led to massive overseas support from people claiming to be "die hard" fans of the club, that's an argument for another day but if these same people focused on supporting a team in for example Norway they may well see the standard of football in that country increase.
As for the showing of live matches is it any surprise that such a gap between the top tier and the for example third tier has appeared? Sky show far more Premier League games than lower league matches and although Sky's defence would be that they do this because Premier League games are a lot more popular the only reason this is the case is because football has lost touch with its roots, top players from around the world have come to England to play paid by the money that Sky, ESPN and earlier Setanta have thrown into the premier league. The result is a much higher quality of football in the top tier (it could be argued that the way for example Barcelona play isn't real football and lacks passion, but again that's an argument for another day) which inevitably draws in the fans.
The fact that the majority of Premier League teams are in massive amounts of debt whilst lower league fight to break even in order to avoid the doom of administration is another problem with the English game. Rangers recently went into administration and are probably the highest profile British football team to do so and yet Manchester United for example are in hundreds of millions of pounds worth and debt but are allowed to continue without serious question marks regarding the future from the FA. Is this because they make so much money for the FA thanks to the draw they carry in overseas markets? It's up to you to make your own opinion on that one.
Hopefully the UEFA fair play regulations will lead to clubs actively reducing their debt in the future. Whether that be by spending less money on transfers each season or cutting their astronomic wage bills (rather than just servicing the interest on their loans whilst continuing to take on more debt like most premier league clubs are currently doing). If all clubs in the football league were aiming to break even (by living off what they make from TV revenue, ticket sales, match day revenue etc.) we would see a much fairer system. Instances like those which occurred at Portsmouth and a few years ago Leeds in which we saw a club aiming for the big time before seeing those dreams, along with the clubs financial stability, falling into pieces should not occur.
The Elite Player Performance Plan is yet another disgraceful stab into the heart of lower league clubs. For many sides such as Crewe and Tranmere Rovers developing young players is paramount to being able to operate at a level around break even. Gone will be the days when clubs could negotiate a fee with higher division clubs to take their best young starlets from them in a deal that would benefit both teams, after being held to ransom by top sides the football league members were all but forced to vote in favour of this new system. This will probably lead to lower league sides having to feed off players released by premier league clubs rather than being able to fully develop youngsters. Will this actually benefit the national team? Well I think this will lead to a far higher number of players being signed up by premier league sides for measly fees and only so many players can play in premier league sides first team and youth sides. While the standard of the top tier may increase the standard of the lower tiers will probably decrease with players who have spent time sitting on a bench in youth systems around the country failing to develop much as footballers signing for lower league sides.
To end this post I will congratulate any of you who read this in its entirety. If you would like me to discuss anything specific in a follow up "The Problem With Modern English Football" then feel free to leave a comment.
