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Like A Moth To A Flame
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
By Derek Wilson
This mid-week presents me with another interesting quandary. While many of Europe's - and indeed the world's - football fans will be eagerly awaiting the next round of Champions League fixtures I am suffering from decidedly mixed feelings. The game I will be going to watch in a couple of hours is Levski Sofia against Werder Bremen. I am delighted, as ever, to see Bremen. They are a wonderful side blessed with great players and an attacking attitude that makes them a joy to behold. But more importantly, for me at least, is their off field status. They are able to spend significant sums of money, yes, but not the stupid amounts that the top teams in England, Spain and Italy do. Heck, they are not even on the same financial level as Schalke, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburg in Germany, never mind Bayern Munich. And yet here they are only a couple of results away from knocking out Barcelona from the group stage in what will be one of the biggest shocks in modern European football. Why does that excite me so much while at the same time I try to ignore it?
Well to be brutally honest, for a football fan I have a strange attitude towards big/rich clubs, the Champions League in particular and most of all the G14 group. Okay they maybe play in the most glamorous club competition in the world, with the best players and they can produce some dazzling games. But I loathe them. I hate them all. I detest them with a passion I never knew I had for their greed and what they're doing to football. Yet when the games arrive I still find myself checking the results, noting the ups and downs and now, now that Bremen are on the verge of something great I am turning into a fan of these mid-week Euro struggles. I know I shouldn't do it and I know I should maintain my principles and be strong enough to say no. But just when your cute female friend has had a glass of wine too many and gets flirty, even though you know it's a terrible idea you crack and do it anyway...so I have cracked and decided that I will be following Bremen as much as I can in their Champions League campaign.
There is no question in my mind that the G14 are bad for football. They are obsessed with making money for themselves and they have forced UEFA to batter European competition out of all previous recognition just so they can play more games with each other and make more money. They, of course, claim that they are acting in the best interests of the game. That by providing more games between the big clubs they are supplying what the public want. But the public, in my view, do not want the Champions League in its current carnation. They want a proper sporting competition where the best teams can compete with each but they do so on a fair and level playing field not one that is artificially slanted in favour of the rich and those who were successful in the past. The G14's true attitude occasionally slips out when one of the anointed teams somehow fails to qualify for the competition. They simply change the rules needed to qualify as they did when Real Madrid and Liverpool missed out in previous years. Great for fans of Liverpool - being yet again in the tournament even though it was undeserved - but not many people remember Slavia Prague who were forced out of the seeded pot and into the non seeded group for the qualifying draw. As a result rather than getting a game they would likely win, they drew a Euro giant and lost out. Never mind though, they were never in the exclusive club in the first place and few people missed them. A similar outrage should have occurred when Manchester United lost to AC Milan in the first knock out stage a few years ago. The Milan president said it was a disgrace that two clubs like this should meet so early in the competition. He ignored the fact they were drawn together only because Man United weren't good enough to win their own group and that the competition had already reached its springtime stage. There were only a few months left in the football year, if March was unsuitable for one of these teams to be knocked out, just when was? But as this comment hinted at their true desire to protect their own access to the pots of gold TV and sponsorship bring, it also showed what they truly want beyond anything else - their own league, where none of their little club ever has to worry about being knocked out. Who wins it won't actually matter since they are all guaranteed the same number of games and whether you finish first or last the difference in prize money is negligible compared to what you earn from TV and sponsors simply from bringing your historic name to the party. And best of all, this will be a closed league where such trivial things as form and being the best from your country matters not. The league will not be run for the sporting aspect it will be run to keep the big clubs ticking over with cash. And if TV wants AC Milan rather than Chievo, if they want Liverpool rather than West Ham etc then there is no way the G14 will risk Cheivo or West Ham qualifying to the party ahead of one of the chosen few.
What further angers me is the trickle down effect of the greed shown by the biggest clubs. In Scotland the top 12 teams broke away from the rest of the league so they would not have to share TV income with teams who play in front of a few hundred loyal fans. These clubs are amongst the most prudently run in the country, they have no 'problem elements' or religious baggage as is so prevalent with other teams. Yet they have been cut off by clubs like Motherwell, Dundee United and Dunfermline, small clubs who battle against the odds and should know better than to discriminate against others. All this greed comes from the desperate desire to stay a few places ahead just incase they somehow make it into Europe for then the real money starts to flow. Most people in Scotland - indeed, I would say, almost everyone who does not support one of the Old Firm - hate the SPL and what it stands for. But they cannot turn their backs on their clubs, the clubs continue to look after their own interests and the circle of greed continues.
That is why I am so desperately hoping Werder Bremen win the next couple of games and knock out Barcelona. Okay Barca will still get to play in the UEFA Cup but that competition is now only a shadow of it's former self and the reason for that is clubs like Barca ruined it by effectively insisting they should only play in the big competition. So Werder have a wonderful chance in the coming weeks, not just to better themselves but also to deliver a bloody nose to one of the big boys who thought they were invincible. I can already imagine the TV companies and sponsors gnashing their teeth at the thought of Werder progressing rather than the mighty Barcelona. I can hear the pundits saying how big a shame it is that a club like Barca were knocked out before the dramatic knockout stages. But it's not a shame. If Barcelona get knocked out at the group stage they have no one to blame but themselves. They helped organise the rules of the tournament, they benefited hugely from the discriminatory seeding policy and yet they still might simply not be good enough to progress. How sweet would that be? From normal football fans all over Europe, good luck Werder!
10:26 AM
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