The English Premiership is now the strongest league in the world, I will not deny that, but there is a simple reason for this, and that is ‘money’.
Over the past few years we have seen the English Premiership invaded by foreign investors, who have pumped millions-and-millions of pounds into clubs. Three of the top four English teams have had this fate bestowed upon them. Manchester United are owned by the American Glazer-family, Liverpool by fellow Yanks Tom Hicks and George Gillett (pictured above), while Chelsea of course have the Russian billionaire oil magnate Roman Abramovich funding them.
Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Manchester City, West Ham, and Derby County have all sold-up to filthy-rich foreign businessmen, while even teams in the divisions below, such as Championship-side Queens Park Rangers are following suit.
That’s right – English football really has sold its soul.
I accept that in footballing terms, Serie A has now fallen slightly behind the English Premiership. The peninsula just cannot compete financially with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, and as a result the best players in the world move to Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford, rather than San Siro or the Stadio Olimpico.
However if there is one thing you can say about Serie A (or even La Liga for that matter), it is that its national identity and its soul is still intact. The clubs are owned and run by Italians, the majority of the players in Serie A, barring Inter, are home-grown, while there is still some kind of identity between fans and the club.
This is not the case in England. Roman Abramovich has never given a press conference in the five years he has been at Chelsea, Hicks and Gillett are universally detested by Liverpool fans, so much so that a group of supporters have today created their own club, AFC Liverpool. A selection of Manchester United fans already created their own team, FC United, due to their opposition to the Glazer family.
One has to ask – was this all worth it in order to create the best league in the world?
The answer most certainly is no.
Speculation is growing in Italy that Roma are set to be taken over by an American billionaire, John Joseph Fisher.
With the Giallorossi’s parent company, Italpetroli, having accumulated debts in the region of €370 million, Fisher would be able to write off this overdue amount, and pump his €1.6 billion fortune into the club.
With Fisher at the helm, Roma would be able to compete financially with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, and there is every chance they would become the dominant force in Italian football.
Personally I cannot see this takeover happening, and I strongly pray that it does not. To put it simply, Italians are very nationalistic people, and they do not take kindly to foreigners coming into their country and trying to tell them what to do. If push came to shove, I am sure everything, and I mean everything, would be done to scare away foreign investors. The famous Godfather line of “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse” is probably relevant here.
It is also important to note that most of the presidents of Italian clubs have the wider interest of the Italian game at heart whenever they make decisions. The top clubs, excluding Inter, all stress the importance of having at least half of their first-team consisting of Italians. Berlusconi is notorious for his nationalism, while Juventus scrapped their Calciopoli appeal, allegedly because they didn’t want to see the Azzurri banned from Euro 2008.
Numerous other examples of patriotism exist. Palermo President Maurizio Zamparini has campaigned vigorously against Amauri being called up by Italy because the striker’s blood is “100 per cent Brazilian”, while who can forget former Perugia President Luciano Gaucci, who sacked South Korean forward Ahn Jung-Hwan after the player scored the golden goal that knocked the Azzurri out of the 2002 World Cup.
The current owners of English clubs, being mostly foreign, couldn’t care less about the England national team. With most of the managers being foreign as well, this results in the Premiership being totally dominated by overseas players. Thus English footballers fail to come through, and consequently the Three Lions didn’t even qualify for Euro 2008.
At the rate that the Premiership is going, the England squad in 10 years time is going to be like today’s Wales and Northern Ireland teams, whereby the manager will be forced to pick players from the lower divisions. This may be a far-fetched assessment, but look at the number of English footballers playing at the top teams, and the evidence speaks for itself.
If Italy wants to avoid going down this depressing path, they simply must resist foreign investors.
What are your views on this topic? Will Serie A Sell It’s Soul Like The English? Would foreign investment help Italian clubs compete with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool on a financial level? Would it damage the Italian game, particularly the national team? Goal.com wants to know what YOU think
Carlo Garganese
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