From the Guardian:
‘Despite its seedy, stupid and selfish reputation, English football still attracts vain tycoons seeking glory and fame. Malcolm Glazer, the tough American businessman, is just the latest lusting for immortality after a grubby but profitable commercial career, by investing in a sport that will guarantee him worldwide fame and massage his ego.
‘But like so many other tycoons attracted to football, Glazer and his son Joel - who is said to be the genuine football fan - will also discover the downside to his successful coup. Aspiring owners of England's football clubs are the victims of self-delusion about the game's real financial costs and profits. In recent years English football has accumulated serious problems and there is only a remote chance that solutions can be implemented before successive crises of finance and morale devastate the game, as has happened in Italy.
‘The rot within English football is epitomised by Manchester United's recent history. After the club, beloved by generations of fans, was floated on the stock exchange in 1991 to enrich some greedy directors, the shareholders gradually lost control of its destiny. Unlike the major Spanish clubs, which remain as cooperatives under the loving management of their fans and local authorities, Manchester United was allowed to become a speculators' toy. Accordingly, the only victors of the recent sale are the Irish investors JP McManus and John Magnier, who are estimated to have earned between £80m and £90m, and in return have contributed nothing to football. Everyone else - especially the fans and the club itself - is a loser, and that will eventually be true for the Glazers themselves, who have insufficient funds and knowledge to plan the club's survival in the global market.
‘The real villains of football's rot are the short-sighted and intellectually limited executives at the Football Association. Notorious for their blazers, passion for freebies and parochial outlook, the executives and members of the FA are amateurs, stubbornly loath to reform themselves. Unwilling to prevent corruption among agents, remove conflicts of interest among club owners and cure indiscipline among players, they have exposed themselves as worse than impotent.
‘Faced with such an indictment, one might imagine that the FA's executives would be shamed into reform or resignation. Instead they remain defiant and risk allowing the professional game to disintegrate by failing to respond to the most critical challenge: limiting the dominance of the mighty Premiership.
‘The insatiable demands of Sky TV are only tolerated to satisfy the financial demands of shareholders, which are certain to be inflamed by the foreign investors who have risked huge sums. Again the FA should intervene, but pleads impotence.
‘No other country allows the crown jewels of its major sport to become the uncontrolled playthings of men whose probity is not questioned. Glazer's commercial past is unknown to the FA and that ignorance will continue. That wilful refusal to judge whether major clubs' owners are "fit and proper" and whether their management decisions enhance or damage the sport is surely unacceptable - not least because more foreign ownership of major clubs will inevitably condemn football to wither as the national sport.
‘Glazer's success in buying United, concluded amid the deafening silence of the Football Association, confirms the so-called regulator's infirmity. But another event this week confirms the reason for English football's vulnerability.
‘Among Glazer's new assets is Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United's famous £30m defender. Despite receiving successive penalties for driving offences, Ferdinand, also notorious for his excessive visits to nightclubs, was recently stopped on the M6 motorway after he overtook - while driving at an impressive 106mph - a marked police car.
‘With the help of Pini Zahavi, his cigar-puffing multimillionaire agent, Ferdinand has now demanded a weekly pay increase of £50,000. Apparently, £70,000 per week is insufficient and Ferdinand wants £120,000, despite his contribution to Manchester United standing an unprecedented 20 points behind Chelsea in the Premiership. If Glazer chooses to ignore Ferdinand's demand, he might reflect that Ferguson has actually offered his defender £100,000 to prevent Chelsea snapping him up.
‘Ever since Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch, was allowed by the Football Association to buy Chelsea despite the dubious origins of his fortune, English football has become more fractured than ever. By spending well over £200m on players, Abramovich threatens the tattered fabric of the Premiership. The arrival of the Glazers compounds the problem. Unfortunately, there is no happy ending in sight. On the contrary, the greedy, dim-witted natives involved in football seem destined to steer their cash cow towards an ugly cataclysm.’