Culture Secretary and Everton supporter Andy Burnham has stepped up his campaign to break the grip of the top four clubs on English football. He wants the Premiership’s revenue to be shared out more evenly among its clubs. He wants smaller squads and compulsory quotas of English players in team line ups. His most contentious demand is for the big four to share some of their earnings from Europe’s Champions League, ranging from £15m to £40m. The money plays a key role in helping them to entrench their dominant position.
Culture Secretary and Everton supporter Andy Burnham has stepped up his campaign to break the grip of the top four clubs on English football. He wants the Premiership’s revenue to be shared out more evenly among its clubs. He wants smaller squads and compulsory quotas of English players in team line ups. His most contentious demand is for the big four to share some of their earnings from Europe’s Champions League, ranging from £15m to £40m. The money plays a key role in helping them to entrench their dominant position.
After months of talks with the Premiership, Mr Burnham thinks that the league has failed to take seriously his call for more ‘competitive balance’. A meeting last week between the government minister and Premiership chief executive Richard Scudamore broke up with Mr Burnham demanding more from the game. However, the levers the Government has to get its way are relatively limited given that they have accepted that it is not their job to run football. They think that football owes them one given that they opposed attempts by the European Commission to extend competition policy to cover transfer fees. In return, they now expect football to ‘put its own house in order’. However, they have dismissed suggestions that they might legislate.
In any case Mr Burnham may be distracted by the row over his expense claims as a MP. Leaving aside the purchase of a £19.95 bathrobe from Ikea (at least it wasn’t Everton merchandise), embarrassment has been caused by Mr Burnham’s pleas to the Commons authorities to pay up on £1,845 for renovating the kitchen in the flat he bought in London. The claim was initially rejected, but Mr Burnham joked that his wife (Marie-France van Heel) might divorce him if he didn’t get the money. After repeated rejections, the Fees Office paid up. Whether similar tactics would work with the Premiership is another matter: Richard Scudamore is experienced at dealing with politicians, even those as politically ambitious as Mr Burnham who has been tipped as a possible future Labour leader.
Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan jumped on Mr Burnham’s bandwagon calling for the cash from the Premiership’s lucrative television deals to be shared out equally among all clubs. Wigan received £33.4m for the 2007-8 season as against the £49.3m that went to Manchester United. If the pot had been shared out equally, Wigan would have got about £45m. However, Whelan was realistic enough to admit that getting 14 out of 20 clubs to vote for a rule change might not be easy. He said, ‘The top four vote together and the next four who want to be in their group vote with them, so nothing can be done. That isn’t democracy.’
Whether it is or not is a matter for debate, but Mr Whelan should be careful what he wishes for. Unlike other leading leagues such as those of Italy and Spain, television contracts are negotiated centrally rather than individually by each club. This prevents clubs such as United or Liverpool from exploiting their global fan bases further by negotiating separate deals. When Malcolm Glazer revealed a business plan that involved a breakaway television contract during his takeover negotiations at Manchester United, club chief executive David Gill persuaded him to think again.
For their part Premiership executives have argued that they help their wealth to trickle down, pointing out they hand over £128m a year to football related charities, as well as £30m each season in solidarity payments to the Football League, plus £11.3m for two seasons to relegated clubs.
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