The Serb Crashes the Pool Party

Photo Courtesy of the Guardian

While the diving board is still shaking after Gordon Brown’s cannonball into the shallow pools of fan ownership in football earlier this week, our own Financial Czar wants to pencil dive to the point of this money talk. Straight from The Serb’s fresh No. 2 Ticonderoga:

Just in time for election day on May 6, English Prime Minister Gordon Brown has thrown his weight into the football ownership issue, hoping to turn fan-led outcries at Old Trafford and Anfield into votes for his party. Election candidates have come out in support of a measure to force English teams to be partially owned by fans. The concept is that fans are the only ones who can truly claim emotional ownership of the club, as players and managers come and go, so they should have actual ownership as well, avoiding such calamities as Hicks-Gillette along the way. This idea is complete nonsense. What I want to know is: how do you force fans to buy shares? How do you force nefarious owners like the Glazers to sell their shares…and at what price? Do we really want the government’s sluggishly bureaucratic hand meddling in football? But most poignantly, how will fan ownership affect the financial composition of a club?

Well…it will make raising money (outside of revenue) very difficult. The Bundesliga has this ownership system in place at the moment and the handicap is visible. Revenue-generating Bayern compete for big name players thanks to their revenue-providing fan base, but how often do you see other Bundesliga teams vie for top talent? The big clubs will stay big, deepening the divide between them and smaller clubs…again. Regardless, the Financial Fair Play Initiative will disallow rich owners to inject personal money into clubs in by 2013, so where will the cash come from? The measure will also make raising money through bond issues more complicated since fans would basically be forced to buy a certain percentage of the bond. I can just see WWII style propaganda posters, i.e. “Do you want David Villa at Stamford Bridge?  Buy Blues Bonds!” Furthermore, the government (any government) is a right bunch of nitwits. Why get the fat, wrinkly hand of The Man involved, when the invisible hand will do a much better job…for free? If fans want to own portions of their clubs, the only sensible way to do so is to make the club’s shares available on the open market. Supply/Demand will regulate the price, anyone (fan or billionaire) can purchase shares in the club, and most importantly, it provides a level of transparency sorely needed in Futbol Mundial. Of course, if all clubs were run with financial common sense, none of this would be an issue.  Unfortunately, people like Abromovich and Glazer do exist. However, imposing this regulation would amount to two wrongs making something that in no way resembles a right. Public support for this grew out of the Red Knights’ pot-banging, and since the idea came from a politician, I can confidently say it is at best a horribly bad move. – The Serb