The Power Of Love

The Guardian ran a story on Saturday about an internal document that had come into their possession from the G-14 group of European clubs, called G-14 Vision Europe. It was claimed that this was the manifesto for the clubs to take over running Europe, rendering UEFA impotent which when allied with the Professional Game Board attempting to gain more of influence and power at The Football Association, proved that the rich clubs want to rule the footballing world. At least that is what the theory was anyway. Included within the article were the sage words of one William Gaillard, you may recall that he was the UEFA suit who asked how the organisation was supposed to police football clubs – here is your answer Billy Boy, they do not want you to. Using emotive and ill chosen words like “apartheid”, he posited the theory that the clubs wanted to enforce an American model without relegation and promotion rather than the supposed meritocracy created by the rest of the world. And in that, UEFA is no doubt correct. There is little choice for these clubs to create protectionist policies as otherwise what is the point in having a lobby group. They have their revenue streams, and as Manchester United are finding out, when the revenues fall, belts get tightened. Looking at the Premiership, it is not difficult to see the impact on regularly playing in Europe’s premier club competition has. Newcastle United and maybe Tottenham are the only clubs that can match the wealth of Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, a pattern replicated throughout the other major leagues in Europe.

This is the problem that UEFA have themselves created on many levels but primarily on two fronts. Firstly, the creation of The Champions League encouraged teams to maximise revenues by the inclusion of a Group stage, or for a number of years, two Group stages. The impact of this was to appease the clubs with guaranteed increased revenue generation through more matches. It also, with few exceptions, created a climate where the larger teams could qualify for more matches with more chances to rectify one bad result. That Porto and Liverpool have won the last two Champions League tournaments as unfancied teams matters not one jot. They are members of the G-14.

The second area of problems was created when UEFA launched a naval gazing exercise, entitled “Vision Europe”. Now rather coincidentally, the G-14 document that The Guardian refers to is also entitled “Vision Europe”. Can it also be a coincidence that the UEFA exercise closed its doors to submissions last week? Very possibly the two are related – a political exercise that received a political answer, i.e. the professional game ought to have more say in running the game. The G-14 were hardly likely to send in a submission to an incompetently run organisation saying that UEFA were doing a fine and dandy job running the game and that they wanted to leave things as they are when the two of them have a naturally antagonistic relationship, descending to playground levels with UEFA refusing to recognise the existence of the G-14 but creating a Professional Clubs Forum several years after the Lobby Group existed.

This conflict has been on the football horizon for a number of years. The starting point to it all was about fifteen years ago when an Italian media company first floated the idea of a European League that they would back. This threat was taken very seriously by UEFA who headed off the problem by revamping their club competitions over a five-year period. Firstly they created a Group Phase in the European Cup, essentially this ensured that those clubs who qualified for this phase were guaranteed a minimum of ten matches in the competition. This appeased the revenue hungry clubs as they had previously only been guaranteed two matches under the old round robin system. The next change was the catalyst for the current spat. By introducing another Group phase, UEFA suddenly upped the revenue ante. They also did not have runners – up which has mushroomed into four teams for such luminaries as England, Italy and Spain. In order to accommodate this, the Cup Winners Cup was shelved and the UEFA Cup took up the slack. Each of these step changes has had one major benefit. A substantial increase in money for the Champions League clubs meant that UEFA had headed off the problem at the pass but was still storing more problems for the future. Another tinkering session eliminated one of the Group phases as the major teams were suddenly finding that upstarts like Deportivo La Coruna and Bayer Leverkusen were putting their noses out of joint and doing well, even knocking the big teams out. The temerity of it all! So the second round became round robin again. Which has not entirely worked as it was planned to. Real Madrid have not to make any impact on the competition since this was reintroduced, the Quarter Finals at best. A significant number of the G14 do not threaten to win the tournament at all. Manchester United were eliminated this season at the Group phase, their expectation is Quarter Finals every season although why this is the case I know not as since the re-introduction of the second round, they have not made it past there.

The clubs are however under the misapprehension that everyone wants to see the G14 play each other on a regular basis. And to some extent we do but not in the contrived manner that they wish to impose. The beauty of Arsenal v Real Madrid from many people’s perspective was that this was the first time that the two sides had met in competitive competition. The only other time had been a friendly in 1962. This was an exciting draw for Arsenal fans. Juventus is anticipated because it is firstly a return to Highbury for Patrick Vieira and secondly a Quarter Final with the club having a decent chance at progressing to the Semi Finals for the first time in their history.

There is however, one compromise where the two organisations, UEFA and G14, could co-exist peacefully; the creation of a European League to run concurrently with Domestic Competitions as a partial replacement for the Champions League. Why not call it “The Champions League”? Consisting of fourteen teams, which would be constructed as follows: English, Italian, Spanish and German champions with ten qualifiers, who come through by winning a group in a phase of mini leagues as is in the current Champions League. These would comprise the current qualifiers to that competition. Once the first group of fourteen teams were sorted, a second division would be created through the runners – up in the mini league qualifiers and four best qualifiers. The remaining teams would then go into the UEFA Cup, with the Cup Winners Cup being resurrected for domestic FA and League Cup winners. In order to fit the extra games in, the top divisions in domestic football would also consist of a maximum of sixteen teams. Any team in the new Champions League would be barred from entering domestic League Cup competitions. For future seasons, the domestic qualification remains the same, i.e. the top four in the Premiership, of whom three must qualify to be in the competition.

With that format, the number of games remains roughly the same so no complaints about loss of revenue or tired players. Domestic football is satisfied as there is still due deference to the Leagues and Cup with more teams having the chance to actually win a domestic cup competition and the Premiership becoming more competitive.

Todays Tunes continue the Peel Sessions week, these from excellent punk band The Ruts whose career was curtailed through the untimely death of their vocalist Malcom Owen. What made the band stand out for me was the tuneful menace that they could bring to their songs as opposed to just being a three chord thrash. They were equally at home with the ubiqitous reggae tinged punk that was popular, Jah War being their prime example, but were probably the only band to be the peers of The Clash in this particular field. These two tunes are SUS and Secret Soldiers.

As a brucie - bonus, one more track is included from the relatively shortlived Ruts DC, their post - Owen incarnation. Rather like Liverpool after young Mickey left, they were OK, capable of flashes of brilliance but on the whole rather workmanlike. This track is Different View.

One final fact, posting the Ruts DC track means that 50 different bands have now been showcased here, not a bad tally in 46 days of posting.

Enjoy.