Pyramids vs Farms: How To Save Football As We Know It
© Jon Horne 2001

from Touch Nottingham (internet magazine and What's On guide)

The next time the Touch editorial team fly their private jet to New York for a weekend's shopping and schmoozing, they can expect to find hordes of locals parading up and down Fifth Avenue wearing an array of multi-coloured Manchester United away kits. At least that's the idea. Football as a game (as played with foot and ball, rather than with the hands and a rubber torpedo) is never going to catch on in the United States, however much they try to jazz it up to suit themselves. But the wearing of the shirt could become a statement - just like the worldwide adoption of the Yankees baseball cap. If the marketing 'partnership' with the New York Yankees works out, Manchester United will have put themselves on the road to becoming an unplayable force in English football, able to afford anyone they want, as regards players, management, and yet more marketing men. For the rest, neither rich benefactors, nor vast season ticket prices will be enough to make up the difference financially.

No one - not Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool - will be in a position to compete. The Premier League will cease to exist as a viable competition. No, that hasn't happened yet, despite appearances. Man Utd's current run is not much more spectacular than Liverpool's was until ten or twelve years ago. But the danger is there: a totally dominant (as opposed to a merely very good) Man Utd will make choice fixtures such as Leeds vs. Arsenal or a Merseyside derby irrelevant.

Counteracting this will involve desperate measures - a 'post-season', leading to a contrived 'cup final', along the lines of the Superbowl or the World Series.

Football as we know it is (in England) is based upon the pyramid structure of its leagues. Uniquely amongst sports, that structure holds together. Ever since the Vauxhall Conference became the de-facto Fifth Division, the local Division-Z works team that you might play for has been part of the same system as Man Utd and Arsenal - you (along with God knows how many others) just happen to be a thousand or so places below them in the table.

In baseball, smaller teams are not in a pyramid. Every Major League outfit has a series of 'farm teams'. The New York Yankees' reserves are the Columbus Clippers. Below them, Norwich, Greenboro and Staten Island fight it out in ever-more-minor leagues. Some of these teams were founded as Yankees farm sides: most of them were not, and had been playing in the same minor leagues for half a century or more, before being bought up and ploughed over.

Beware that football may be going the same way. One of these days, Man Utd are going to try to buy Stockport County, or Rochdale, or both. Others will follow suit. For Arsenal, perhaps Leyton Orient could be cultivated. Walsall would make an excellent breeding ground for Aston Villa's troubled reserves.

There have been attempts at partnership between clubs before, but these have always floundered because the takeover bids were made by rich amateurs with no feel for what they were doing - an example being the Maxwell family's dealings with Oxford, Reading and Derby. Spurs took their business abroad, following Ajax's lead in sponsoring a South African team for use as a farm - again with little success. Man Utd are a far more competent, professional, and wealthy outfit. They will do the job properly.

Initially, the only people who would be bothered by this would be the supporters of lower-division sides - a huge body of people in total, but existing in small groups. Would a York City fan care if Man Utd were to buy Rochdale? Probably not, until Leeds wade in a couple of years later and try to buy York. I am a Grimsby Town supporter, and this is a possible future that I don't want any part of. Knowing our luck, we'll probably get bought by Nottingham Forest.

The time has come for a European Super League. I say this as a born conservative, with a distaste for the metric system, coffee bars, bottled lager and forwards who dive in the penalty area. While I may hurrumph at overpaid prima-donnas displaying Mediterranean histrionics, there's no doubt that the last few years of the Champions' League represents just about the most skilful and competitive series of football matches that have ever been played. Serie A, the Bundesliga, the Premiership et al, are becoming simply a means to get into the Champions' League: the financial rewards are immense, and the prize is becoming the ultimate in world football.

There's no going back on this, so we must embrace it. It's no good waiting until the top clubs in Europe take it upon themselves to break away from their national governing bodies and form a super league of their own. That will happen, and it will be the end of football for most of us, except as a (pay-per-view) televised spectacle.

Here's the ideal: Form the initial Super League in the same way as they now qualify for the Champions' League - tortuously complex as this is, it only needs to happen once. After that, we have promotion and relegation, just as in the Football League pyramid. To get promoted, you have to win an old-style European Cup - a strictly knock-out tournament, held every June, and lasting perhaps a fortnight. Hosting the tournament can be rotated amongst the major footballing nations, much as international tournaments are today.

Most of the time, it will be the Spanish, French, Italian or German champion who gets promoted. Every so often, and English team will go up.This will of course lead to a huge imbalance in terms of representation, but it will also lead to the best always playing against the best - which is what will happen anyway if we wait for the top clubs to break away. Once in a blue moon, the likes of Panathanaikos or CSKA Sofia will get a lucky break - and that is what cup football is all about. Not only that, such teams will become the Bradfords and Blackburns of the Super League - wild cards, not strong enough over a full season, but capable of upsetting the front runners on a good day.

Revenues will go down in the Premiership: that's pretty much given. After a few years, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea will be Super League regulars. Sides such as Newcastle and Aston Villa may feel aggrieved, as they lose their biggest paydays of the season, and their chance of actually joining the Super League gets slimmer by the year. So be it. The best a Grimsby Town fan can ever hope for is a couple of outrageously good seasons which might land us in the Premier League. Barnsley did it - and so did Carlisle and Notts County in the old First Division. Of course we'd go down straight away, but that's just the way of things. The pyramid means that there's always a reason to play, and to support your team, whoever you are. Once upon a time, Nottingham Forest won the European Cup. Who's to say it'll never happen again?

Anyway, I'm not suggesting the formation of a Super League as an alternative to anything. It's going to happen, so let's have it now, to keep it where it belongs - at the very top of the pyramid.

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