The Giant Killing Adventure - 2019/20 FA Cup : Curzon Ashton Ladies V Mossley Hill Ladies

There are a few things that the GKA would like to discuss today, but they all sound like whinges!

In a previous job, when I hated my life, I had a line ‘Manger’ who would often say, ‘Don’t give me problems, I want solutions.’ At the time I used to think, ‘Surely your higher wage packet suggests that you should be the one coming up with the solutions.’ However, I am going to use my ‘Manager’s’ ‘words of wisdom’ in today’s blog.

In the last post, we talked about Bury FC and Bolton FC – it now appears that Bury FC’s fate has been decided and they have been expelled from the Football League, due to insurmountable financial challenges. The same fate will happen to Bolton Wanderers unless they can either find a buyer or prove their financial viability - they have been given 14 days.

A financial football expert, on the BBC news this morning, estimated that about 20% of clubs in the Football League are in a similar position – Bury and Bolton are just the tip of the iceberg! Underneath this lettuce is a potential floppy, soggy mess that should be thrown in the bin, before it contaminates that rest of the salad.

Why do I make this terrible Iceberg joke? Well, because the analogy fits – everybody has heard of Iceberg lettuce – as everyone has heard of big clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester City. However, there are plenty of other salad leaves that just don’t get the publicity. Leaf, Romaine, Boston and Bibb may not be as crisp and hearty, but they can be just as flavoursome.

In a nutshell the problem is this – in order to compete, in order to get promotion – many clubs think that they must spend big money on transfers and big money on wages. It’s a gamble, it’s a risk and if it doesn’t pay off, House Wins and BetVictor runs off with all the proceeds. This is happening, despite the fact the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations were established to prevent it from happening.

This isn’t just a football problem, it is a societal problem. We live in an age of consumerism, with a thirst for instant success and instant results. Many people are living beyond their means, getting into further debt and taking increasingly bigger gambles to get out.

And just like in society, about 2% of the football clubs own all the money, power and resources. On reflection, there is an abundance of money, resources and talent within the world – it just needs to be spread out more equally – the reason is greed.

I’m not talking about communism, I’m not talking about a socialist revolution, because they have been tried and did not work – but neither does the survival of fittest model of the free market economy (I knew my A levels in History, Accountancy and Economics would come in useful one day).

One great thing about American Sports is that they always try to equal out the playing field. In the NFL for example, it is unique for a team to dominate and be on top for successive years. If a team wins the Superbowl they are given a harder schedule the year after, and they have the last pick of the top players that are coming out of college. All teams have a salary cap, so one team can’t keep all the best talent.

This works to an extent – would it work in football?

The answer is no.

In America the NFL is the best League in the world – the players know this, and they have nowhere else to go. If the English tried a salary cap, the players would play in Italy and Spain to earn more money – the reason is greed (does anyone really need to be earning £400,000 a week instead of a measly £100,000) and a salary cap would have to be global. This would then make it difficult for other leagues outside England, Spain and Italy to grow. It is not an easy solution.

There must be other ways to spread the wealth? For example, this week the GKA signed a petition to impose a 5% levy on the Premier League’s broadcasting rights to be put back into grassroots football:-

Petition to impose 5% levy on Premier League Broadcasting

More regulation may be the key? Why should a person be allowed to buy a football club for £1? Why should a person like Owen Oyston, for example, be allowed to own a club like Blackpool and then basically (allegedly) run it into the ground with no investment? I don’t believe in too much regulation or too much red tape, but if the free market is left to its own devises further clubs will die in the stampede for the fight for survival.

Maybe more clubs should be owned by the fans such as FC United of Manchester or even Barcelona FC. In the NFL, the Green Bay Packers is a fan owned club, is one of the most successful teams and the City only has a population the size of Preston. If football is about community, then maybe communities should unite and do more about it.

More help is needed from the press as their coverage of lower League football is minimal. The press will be all over the 3^rd Round Proper of the FA Cup, like a rat up a drainpipe. However, the draw for the 1^st Qualifying Round had token coverage. I had to go to the ‘Mirror’s’ website to discover the fate of GKA Preliminary Round winners Sheffield FC. It was like watching Ceefax combined with Noah’s Ark as minute by minute the games were revealed in threes.

This leads me onto the women’s game…

If the women’s game is to grow, everybody needs to investigate previous mistakes and work out more collaborative sustainable ways to survive. A good thing, as the pathway of what not to do, is clearly marked out.

Clubs improving their own press coverage is the first step. On the Curzon Ashton Website it does not state that the women don’t play at the Tameside Stadium. This is where I was heading on Sunday, 1^st September to watch their tie against Mossley Hill Ladies. Until, by chance, I fell upon this Tweet.