The Sports Corner

Can the credit crunch return football to the people?

Searching for positives when it seems the entire world is currently financial crippled may take unprecedented levels of optimism to achieve.

However, as they say a coin has two sides, possibly a bad analogy to use when commenting about the economic difficulty but a game of two halves neatly brings the subject of football into play. So how has the credit crunch affected the beautiful game?  

Football has commonly been referred to as the ‘people’s game’ because of the rich history that the sport entails and that there are no restrictions i.e class or race in order to play.

Though it must be said that football has evolved, the game has gradually been lured away by the people. Nowadays it seems that the business of football appears nothing more than a corporate playground with wealthy often-foreign investment is needed almost as much as the die hard fan on a Saturday.

Arguably, Roman Abramovich initiated the trend of buying a football club as a ‘play thing’ pumping billions of his Russian money into Chelsea. Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City have now all followed suit and removed the once passionate moderately wealthy owner and boardroom with a financial superhero.   

At first the Premier League was seduced, as imported talents dazzled the crowds with the likes of Drogba and Torres placing the Premiership brand up on a pedestal as the best league in the world. Surely, no- one can dispute the eye-boggling standard of football in England with the speed of light passing movements and jaw dropping wonder strikes week in and week out. But on the other hand, where as the teams frogmarched by a billionaire have become better, the entire competitiveness has suffered.

Although the playground has many users, the ones sitting on the bench outside are ultimately starved of success and optimism. When Derby County were promoted to the Premier League two years ago, their financial inabilities showed as their team were doomed with the lowest ever points.

It seems to become successful in the current game: money is key.

The global recession has already violently stirred the world of football and no more than the Premiership where the money involved is on an intergalactic stage. West Ham are broke, Portsmouth drowning and even Abramovich is keeping a lock on his wallet.  

Therefore, it appears that with less and less money being thrown around the league that the cash-strapped fans might prosper. Already teams have had to look towards their academies instead of an expensive saviour.  

The crisis is just about underway with 2009 to be a year of uncertainty for all involved but lets just hope that this time next year football will once again really be the beautiful game.