The State Of Football

[truewhite15]

A good piece here, found on historicalkits.com

The decision by Cardiff City's owners to go ahead with rebranding the club despite an outcry from supporters has prompted considerable media coverage as well as an unsightly bulge in HFK's mail box. The change from blue to red is the idea of Malaysian owner, Vincent Tan, who wants to increase market appeal in the Far East where red is considered a lucky colour, and is part of a package that will bring £100m investment to the club.

Changing colours is far from being a new idea. If success follows, the new look is soon accepted - think of Coventry City, Leeds United and Crystal Palace. The transformation of Wimbledon into MK Dons aside (an altogether different exercise) there have been no major rebrandings on this scale for over 30 years during which time the professional game in England has changed almost beyond recognition. Thanks to the growth of the market in replica kits, fans identify more than ever before with their clubs through buying their shirts. This has, in turn, led to growing interest in the heritage of their club's colours down the years.

While some supporters welcome the considerable investment on offer, others question whether more than a century of tradition should be ditched for purely commercial considerations.

This goes to the heart of the matter and illustrates the conflict that is damaging the professional game. Many owners treat football clubs as just another part of their business portfolio; vehicles to generate profit (or "shareholder value"). Success is pursued by spending beyond the club's means, an unsustainable approach that has led to disaster at Rangers, Portsmouth, Plymouth Argyle, Darlington and too many others.

The aim in business is to out-compete your rivals and dominate market share. This is why we now have a small number of clubs, funded by billionaires, dominating the Premier League.

In business, consumers frequently switch brands but how many Manchester United supporters are going to watch City just because they have achieved success and have a smart new stadium?

The fundamental point is that football clubs are not like other businesses. Their aim is to compete on level terms through sport, not to drive rivals to the wall. They rely not on shareholders for their existence but on emotional stakeholders, the fans who will turn out regardless of whether their team is winning or not.

The behaviour of City's owners would be perfectly acceptable if they were dealing with a chain of high street stores or a group of insurance companies. But a football club is not like that.

(c) Dave Moor

[Hoboh]

quaint but he who pays the piper

[Prufrock]

United fans probably not the best example! How many will change to City? Well, train price from Surrey will be the same!

[Worthy4England]

United fans probably not the best example! How many will change to City? Well, train price from Surrey will be the same!

Small saving, as when you get to Piccadilly as a Massive's fan, you're at least in the correct City to watch the team, and can walk it from the station.

[P.O.S.]

Angry views on this Welsh football blog I go on now and again and another site. Agree with much of it, there's nothing sacred in football anymore which is obviously not news to anybody but its a sad state of affairs for genuine Cardiff fans, I feel sorry for them

http://ffwtbol.co.uk/2012/06/07/losing-my-religion/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bigtakeovercc.wordpress.com/2012 ... club-died/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Prufrock]

Aye my mates a big Cardiff fan. Not spoken to him yet but doubt he'll have taken it too well! Though he is coming to the end of year in Poland, so I reckon he's enjoying football!

[9soccers]

train price from Surrey will be the same!

[steviewander]

The state of football is terrible. The Scottish league is about to crumble, wont be long before everyone else follows.

[a1]

The state of football is terrible. The Scottish league is about to crumble, wont be long before everyone else follows.

hmmm. thats based on no more worse evidence than any other league in any other country. iirc, they just got a new tv deal too.

and i cannot get my head round that thinking that if scottish football goes bankrupt it'll cause the , say, english and spanish leagues to go bump. if , say, sweden's football went bump you'd not conclude that.

scaremongering with no evidence.

what more likely to happen is it all goes bump, they fob off the creditors with a super long bond or something that'll probably, maybe, might end up jipping someone whose not been born yets kids, and they all start again the next day. and start off again by buying all their old shit back at the bankruptcy auction.

entire countries have done things like this.

you're placing too much significance in the sport('s financail clout).

[steviewander]

With Rangers going, it is only going to affect the league negatively, so can't see anything good happening, especially with the terrible economy at the moment

[Prufrock]

They'll obviously be back in the SPL within three years, Champions League challenging within four though, so whilst it makes people feel better it isn't going to change much. I wouldn't be surprised if Rangers still have the second highest turnover of all Scottish clubs next year.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

HMRC will be pleased if that's the case.

[Lord Kangana]

Its a new company isn't it?

As in they have no need to pay off the old debt?