I’ve already burbled at length about the malevolent potential of the G-14 group, so I’ll say no more. However, it’s good to see that both the media and members of the football community are speaking out against the organisation. Earlier this week, Everton’s chief executive Keith Wyness criticised the greed and self-interest of G-14, while Niall Quinn used his Guardian column today to make some excellent points.
Edward Nalbandian, the LA tailor whose TV adverts inspired a daft parody song by Frank Zappa, has gone to that great textile warehouse in the sky.
All together now…
# I’m coming over shortly
# Because I am a portly
# You promised you could fit me
# In a fifty dollar suit…
I decided to spread this across two entries, to keep them to a more manageable size…
According to an entry on the G-14 site yesterday, the Guardian’s claims are all fiction. Fair enough, but the illustrious pressure group *is* campaigning for more matches in the Champions League competition. Given their belief that it should be the clubs (not an overall ruling body) who wield the power in football, the evidence does seem to point to a gradual strengthening of the Champions League at the expense of national competitions.
Incidentally, although four more new members were allowed to join in 2002, G-14 is now a closed shop. In the previous entry I alluded to the dynamism of multi-level football systems, and sure enough, this has had an effect on G-14, even with in its six-year existence. Here’s the full list of members…
Ajax (Netherlands)
Arsenal (England) 10
Barcelona (Spain) 6
Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)
Bayern Munich (Germany) 7
Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
Inter Milan (Italy) 9
Juventus (Italy) 4
Liverpool (England) 8
Lyon (France) 15
Manchester United (England) 2
Marseille (France)
AC Milan (Italy) 3
Paris St Germain (France)
Porto (Portugal)
PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Real Madrid (Spain) 1
Valencia (Spain) 19
The numbers refer to the teams’ positions in the top twenty richest clubs in Europe. Highlighted in purple are the teams who, based on their current league position, will play in the Champions League next season. Of the remaining teams, some will play in the UEFA Cup or pre-season Champions League qualifying round, while others are out of the running for European football.
While there’s obviously still quite a bit of success in that list, it’s interesting to see how G-14 represents a snapshot of European football at the turn of the Millennium. Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen have returned to mid-table anonymity, as have PSG. A few of the biggest clubs in the list are still competing for European places, but are seriously underperforming.
And then what about the clubs notable by their absence? The most obvious one is Chelsea… currently the 5th richest team in Europe, almost certain to retain the Premiership title and backed by the seemingly bottomless fortune of Roman Abramovich, 24th richest man in the world. Even on a lower level, there are plenty of legitimate claims for inclusion in G-14… Roma and Newcastle are the 11th and 12th richest clubs in Europe, while Hamburg SV, AZ67 Alkmaar and Bordeaux are all riding high in their respective leagues. Flashes in the pan? Maybe, but that’s precisely what Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund were.
The bottom line is that having an exclusive selection of the world’s biggest clubs taking the future of the game into their own hands, for their own gain, is horribly wrong. That the dynamism of European football has already rendered the selection partly obsolete makes it all the more ridiculous.
Oh yes, now you mention it, I *do* have a blog! Sorry for the lack of action, but I seem to have been constantly busy for a couple of weeks. Anyway…
I struggled to suppress a little shudder the other day, reading that the G14 group is once again trying to meddle in European football. In case you weren’t aware, G14 is a kind of “Carlyle Group of football”, a self-appointed committee of Europe’s most prestigious clubs (eighteen of them… the four 2002 additions didn’t justify a name change).
Until now, G14 has functioned mostly as a pressure group, but a new policy document “G14 Vision Europe” outlines the group’s intention to take control of the Champions League from UEFA. The aim is to ensure continued success for all 18 clubs in an elite European competition. Within this utopian walled garden, the noble heroes could live their privileged lives, unfettered by such troublesome obstacles as…
- Having an off day and being knocked out by a plucky underdog
The Champions League, with its initial league stage, was developed by UEFA in the early 1990s in response to complaints from top clubs who found the pure knock-out format of the original European Cup competition far too risky.
- Silly international competitions such as the World Cup
G-14 are currently in dispute with FIFA over the lack of compensation paid to clubs whose players are injured in international matches.
- Having to give a portion of their money to teams in lower leagues
The whole G-14 philosophy is just a refinement of the thought processes that led to the foundation of the English Premiership. Take control of the money supply, the TV rights, even the choice of opposition. Then build a big wall around your little paradise garden, keeping the money in and the upstarts out.
As you may be able to tell, this all makes me very angry. UEFA’s communications director William Gaillard described it as “Apartheid: it would be the end of the European model of football”, and I totally agree. Restrict the vertical movement to/from the top level of any sport and the result is a series of glorified exhibition matches. The vibrancy of the Champions League and the various Premiership equivalents is created not only by the eye-candy skill of the best teams, but also by the constant threat of new blood replacing old, the spectacle of an underdog team playing “out of its skin” against the complacent Old Guard.
This relationship works at every level, right down to amateur Sunday leagues… remove the chance (no matter how slim) of promotion, and the whole system dies. While lower league teams do owe a certain debt of gratitude to the Champions League superstars for the money they attract to the game, the big clubs simply could not exist without the enormous coaching and scouting network offered by the lower leagues, not to mention the overall competitive potential of multi-level sport. There’s a good reason why the FA Cup is so revered worldwide… it’s a rare opportunity to see every team having an equal chance of playing every other team (despite recent adjustments in favour of the Premiership clubs).
Oh well. I’ve never had an awful lot of faith in the bumbling PR mess that seems to engulf UEFA most of the time, but I just hope they can fight this.
[FYI: The Guardian seem to have covered this better than most news outlets (slightly ironic, given the grotesquely unbalanced pro-Premiership coverage in their sports section!) so here’s a link to several articles]
New Labour’s biggest domestic sleazefest seems to be cooling down slightly, but I’m sure it’ll all get stirred up again once new evidence is found. I know it’s irrational, but I feel much more of an urge for harsh justice than I ever did with any of the Tory sleaze scandals back in the nineties. I dunno, maybe it’s because this government has turned out to be so disappointing after all the promise, whereas I became numbed to the grotesque lack of principles displayed by the Thatcher/Major lot.
The complexities of the Jowell/Mills case are threatening (conveniently) to obscure the real issues, but let’s not forget the central questions. Was the money from Berlusconi? Was it a bribe or a gift? If the latter, why wasn’t it declared legitimately? How can Tessa Jowell claim not to know that a *joint* mortgage had been settled in full?
Just to prove that there’s humour to be found in every situation, here’s an excerpt from a large article in Saturday’s Guardian, describing the background of erstwhile Mills associate Marcello Dell’Utri…
“His trial was dominated by evidence from one of the most senior dons ever to turn prosecution witness: Antonino Giuffre, known as Manuzza, The Hand, because one of his hands is immobilised through polio.”
Ever get the feeling that we’re all just figments of the imagination of Mario Puzo?
The world will be a duller place without him…