Thursday 6 February 2014

Arise, Sir Martin

With every whining, jumped-up keyboard warrior having a blog these days (ahem) you could be forgiven for thinking the role of the newspaper journalist is becoming redundant.  However, there's a link I want to share that provides a timely reminder of the value that great journalism can bring to a chaotic debate.

Yes, it's your friend and mine, Martin Samuel.  Again.  I love Martin Samuel.  Not just because he and I have exactly the same views on FFP but for many other reasons.  He's not afraid to swim against the tide or look beyond the popular rhetoric.  He does genuine research and analysis that, when added to his logical reasoning and witty delivery, slices through the swathes of ill-considered bile from the average football fan.  He has a top beard.

And not only does he write great articles, he's also on hand to deal with the barrage of fans who either haven't read them properly or refuse to open their minds to any form of reasoning.  In the link below, he collates the idiotic responses of the masses and deconstructs them ruthlessly.  Enjoy:

Read it and weep   



Oh - before you go.  Martin is not a City fan.  This, I think, makes his work all the more satisfying. And it means he's also capable of this, for example - a slightly withering view on City's CEO Ferran Soriano and the Pellegrini appointment: Mail.

I don't share his view here (my specs are blue-tinted) but it reassures me that when the Big M writes something positive about City, it's a result of him exercising his brain and then calling it as he sees it.  The basic requirement of a journalist, so sadly lacking among many of his so-called peers.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Basically, City are morally superior, right?

As I've illustrated in previous posts, City were, along with the rest of the league, victims of a G14 stitch-up.  Heroically, they refused to lie down and fought their way to freedom thanks to an altruistic owner who bestowed kindness upon them.

Without a thought for himself, Sheik Mansour brought world class players to the game's most loyal, long-suffering fans.  He began re-generating acres of impoverished East Manchester and even found time to build rooftop pitches for deprived children in Spanish Harlem.  This he did in City's name.  Not content with that, he set about building a new future for the beleaguered national team through a state-of-the art youth development facility on a scale and quality never before seen on these shores.  And he's going to populate it predominantly with good honest local lads from hard-working families*.

To give so much, despite the evil machinations of the self-serving G14 and the weak and malleable officials of UEFA, City's owner should be awarded a Nobel prize.  Instead he is berated by an ignorant and one-dimensional press pack and whispered about in the dark corridors of many a European football institution.





Now ok, even I'm not quite one-eyed enough to claim this degree of moral superiority**.  I am genuinely blown away by the way our new owners are shaping the club's future.  But I am realistic, even a touch cynical.  If City had somehow found itself nicely settled in the top four and a mid-table club had hit the jackpot and crashed the party, we'd be co-signing those cringeworthy letters*** to the Premier League demanding protection right about now.

Because the point of this (worryingly long) post is one simple stark reality - ALL CLUBS ARE IN IT FOR THEMSELVES.  If you ever doubt this at any point in the future, do smack yourself about the face repeatedly until the notion fades.

There is no moral high ground here.  One of the most offensive things in modern football, even more than Michael Owen's commentary, is the suggestion from the usual suspects (yes, you Arsene) that when they bleat about non-enforcement of FFP they are somehow concerned for "the good of the game".  Don't ever let these people tell you they care about the game.  Everything they have lobbied for over the last twenty-odd years was about building an advantage, growing their balance sheets and lining their pockets.  If the terms were right, they would leave the Premier League in an instant to join a Euro/Global/Inter-Galactic Super Competition.  City included.



*       Acknowledgment - D. Cameron
**     I probably am
***   Letters like these - as featured in Martin Samuel article

Tuesday 4 February 2014

I have a dream

The Daily Mail doesn't get much praise.  The hilarious comments sections do, but that's about it.  But the Daily Mail is the unlikely home of the beacon of light for those that actually choose to understand FFP. Like his namesake Luther-King, Samuel knows he's swimming against a tide of bigotry and ignorance, but he swims on for you and I.  Here is just one example of his fine work


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2261817/Arsenal-Manchester-United-financial-fair-play-plot-ruin-Premier-League--Martin-Samuel.html


What does Financial Fair Play mean?

In posts below I've covered how the current financial landscape came to be (i.e. they started it, Miss) and the strange phenomenon of people not knowing/remembering/caring about this (i.e. casting United as a plucky underdog against City's evil might).  In my third and probably final series of ten FFP tweets, I started to discuss the meaning of "fair" and how the term is being used and abused in the current debate.  I may expand on this further in conventional blog stylee as you're probably finding the tweet format annoying.  I know I am.  Anyway, here it is:


1/10 Accepted truth that clubs with most money succeed. As true in Utd's
era of dominance as it's been for City, BRFC, NUFC, CFC #FFP

2/10 So "financial fair play" must be about sharing all this cash out
more evenly right? Strangely not. #FFP

3/10 Instead it defines "fairness" as a simple revenue race. One most
clubs can NEVER EVER hope to win. #FFP

4/10 Firstly,G14 clubs have huge entrenched advantage. Self-perpetuating
growth over two decades having pushed thru UCL reform #FFP

5/10 Secondly, there's nowt anyone can do to catch up.  Can Villa devise
clever marketing strategy to sell more shirts than Utd? #FFP

6/10 Is it S'land's fault they don't have Arsenal's corporate market on
doorstep? Can West Ham get Chevrolet to give them £50m p.a? #ffp

7/10 Fans of these clubs are frustrated but far more likely to grumble
about oil sheiks than the clubs that stitched them up. #FFP

8/10 Whilst fans of the elite repeat ad nauseum that their financial
strength is "earned" not the result of the stitch up #FFP

9/10 And nobody acknowledges that FFP should be about eliminating
financial disparity, regardless of where £ comes from #FFP

10/10 Policies that give everyone a broadly equal crack of the whip.  Now

that would be fair… #FFP #mcfc




Who's wrong and who's wronged?

Inspired by the response to my first 10 tweets in the post below (wouldn't it be easier if they put the oldest post at the top of the page?  I dunno), I did another ten.  This time, my tweets were in response to an article that was written by a real life journalist (who does stuff like this, just not for free).  A week later he hasn't passed any comment.  Probably just busy...


2/10 @LukeEdwardsTele article is great example of partial/selective understanding of #mcfc 's current status and associated morality #ffp

3/10 He rightly states we won the lottery and jealousy of others is perfectly understandable. I'd have felt same if Everton, Villa etc. #mcfc #ffp

4/10 He's wrong when he says it's unfair on EVERYONE else.  The G14 agenda that created two-tier division is scandalously unfair #mcfc #ffp

5/10 They made success incredibly lucrative and cut the rest of us out.  Yet Luke wanted United, very much part of that, to beat City to title #mcfc #ffp

6/10 G14 clubs had top places stitched up forever till Mansour came along and they couldn't get FFP pushed through quickly enough to stop #mcfc #ffp

7/10 The established elite use emotive words like "fair", "organic", and even "doping" to create moral agenda.  Ultimate irony given #mcfc #ffp

8/10 ..it is them thru pressure on UEFA that have consigned the rest of English football to generations of mediocrity and dreams of finishing fifth #mcfc #ffp

9/10 I'm sure @LukeEdwardsTele is a perfectly good chap and we all enjoy seeing the mighty fall.  I'd suggest he tries to enjoy the… #mcfc #ffp


10/10 wailing and gnashing of teeth and desperate analysis of #mcfc 's accounts from the greedy fat cat clubs instead. #mcfc #ffp

A brief history of FFP - important you get this before we go any further

People like to talk about the impact of wealthy owners on the competitive landscape.  Fair enough. Crucially though, most start from a completely false premise - that football was fair before these owners arrived.  The reality is that the game had already been deliberately distorted years before the likes of Sheikh Mansour had his first taste of Holts Mild and fell in love.

So I've explained how we got to the current state of play in ten easy steps, each in their original form i.e. not exceeding 140 characters, including hashtags.  You're quite welcome:


1.Elite clubs wanted lion's share of growing money in football.  They set up a pressure group, G14 to reform game in their favour. #FFP

2. G14 threatened breakaway so UEFA created UCL that rewards elite clubs massively, creating huge wealth gap #FFP

3. Wealth gap self-perpetuates through sponsorship, more fans, more success, more cash.  Becomes hard to fail #FFP

4. All other clubs go from being in reasonable contention to being well adrift of "Big 4" that are top 4 every year #FFP

5. Wealthy individuals see opportunity to revive those clubs and gatecrash the party #FFP

6. Elite clubs get scared and pressure UEFA.  They create #FFP which makes contrived distinction between sources of wealth #FFP

7. Corporate investment from sponsors, gate receipts, TV revenue (highest among elite) = good #FFP

8. Non-borrowed private investment = bad.  No action on redistribution of wealth or preventing debt #FFP

9. Gatecrashers find/contrive ways to increase revenue to comply with #FFP

10. Fans of elite clubs and semi-informed (often biased) analysts wail and gnash teeth.  The end.  #FFP