Following the bitter-sweet conclusion to England's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, focus returned this past weekend (with no little relief, some would say) to all matters domestic, and what better way to restart than with, in Sir Alex Ferguson's words, the biggest club game in the world. Manchester United were travelling to Anfield for the first time since edging clear in the league titles stakes. Having been emphatically knocked from their perch over a painful twenty year period, Saturday's meeting heralded an era of unexplored bragging potential for the visiting fans.
The successes of both clubs on home and foreign turf have been utterly integral to the Premier League's claim to be The Best In The World. United's era of dominance arrived in tandem with the launch of the Premier League, while Liverpool's years of European rule captured imaginations in far flung corners of the globe in the days before satellite television and the internet.
The first meeting of the season between English football's greatest success stories was bookended by two off-field topics of potentially equal controversy. The build up to the match had been dominated by Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre floating the idea that foreign TV rights for the league should perhaps be negotiated on a club-by-club basis, as is the case in La Liga. Meanwhile, Monday morning saw League Manager's Association chief Richard Bevan admit that the increase in foreign ownership may eventually result in pressure to alter the very fabric of the league by potentially moving towards a US-style franchise system, removing relegation and promotion and effectively making the top flight a closed shop.
Ayre was quoted in the national papers as saying that “If you are a Liverpool fan living in Liverpool you subscribe to Sky because you support Liverpool”, pushing his shovel firmly into the top soil, preparing to excavate. “If you're in Kuala Lumpur there isn't anyone subscribing to Astro or ESPN to watch Bolton, or if they are it's a very small number. The large majority are subscribing to watch Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal”, he continued, doing his best impersonation of a Harlem pimp pushing up the prices for his best girls. The essential thrust of Ayre's argument is that if those foreign types are only interested in the best of our selection, why should our less attractive sides be equally financially rewarded?
“Some people will say: 'Well you've got to all be in it to make it happen.', but isn't it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn't it really about who people want to watch on that channel?”, Ayre concluded, cocking his Fedora and buffing his diamond rings to a shine whilst Bolton and the other unfancied types shuffled off back to the street, lippy reapplied, ready to offer their services to that crucial Far East demographic.
And it's here that the subsequently-raised relegation issue begins to show it's significance. It's admittedly tough to deny that the average non-UK fan is tuning in to watch Luis Suarez rather than Nigel Reo Coker, but in order to see the Uruguayan strut his stuff, you’ve gotta make plans for Nigel too. US franchise logic could therefore dictate that the best way to progress would be to make sure the same opponents are lining up against Liverpool for those thirty-two other fixtures year after year. This could allow the clubs invited to the party to develop their own international identities without having to look over their shoulders and make sure no one else is about to barge in unannounced. So everybody wins, right? Well everyone except for the majority of English clubs, of course, but they aren't Ayre's primary concern.
One major problem is that Ayre has clearly seen the riches of Barcelona and Real Madrid and fancies a bit of that. They receive roughly one third of the Spanish TV rights but he'd do well to remember that they are but two clubs, and hold between them a highly concentrated level of appeal. If such a deal were to occur in England, you'd be looking at top priced rights being split between four, five, perhaps even six clubs. And membership of the top four is not permanent, as Spurs and Man City have shown over the past two years, which only complicates the issue further. Say, hypothetically, that Newcastle’s impressive form holds and they burst into the top four, maybe even staying there longer than a solitary season. Suddenly Newcastle versus Man City becomes a fixture of global interest, and if foreign broadcasters wish to invest money in such games then it will be to the financial detriment of Liverpool and others. Suddenly a whole new battles begins to rage – and no-one wants to risk Mike Ashley getting stroppy and thowing his lemon chicken about the place.
The broader concern for Liverpool is that having opted to secure their future with Fenway Sports Group after Hicks & Gillett had begun stripping the walls for copper wire, they have slipped behind somewhat in the global brand stakes. While their glorious past becomes increasingly more distant with every passing title-less year, so Manchester City have ridden the fast rail to global profitability. As so many of us have huffed and puffed in recent years, a club's long-forged identity can feel like it's becoming forever lost amongst the branding and the naming rights. Which is a shame, as Liverpool's new stance on the division of rewards reflects badly not just on the current regime, but on the club's proud community heritage too.
I like Liverpool and I like the history they have made for themselves. Anyone with football in their heart laments the sad shadow of tragedy that will forever follow one pace behind the club, but in the end this too is part of their history, and the club’s story – like all great stories – resolutely accepts the grief alongside the triumph and makes them what they are (something Manchester United has done too). Most clubs have their own wonderful tale to tell, but Liverpool’s, thanks to their successes, has been largely written in front of the eyes of the world – a child born into celebrity whose life is lived within permanent earshot of the paparazzo’s camera-click. Liverpool’s success gave them such fame, and all that subsequently befalls them – for good or bad – becomes part of the public discourse, which makes the noises emanating from the club all the more dispiriting.
I hope Liverpool's owners were watching carefully on Saturday. Having exchanged shoves and shimmies without really throwing a punch, Liverpool finally landed a blow with a quarter of the match remaining, the returning Steven Gerrard angling a freekick through Ryan Giggs' miraculously disappearing midriff and past the outstanding David de Gea. Gerrard raced to the crowd with five fingers aloft, a repost to the chants of the visiting fans, but also a salute to history, a declaration that past and present in football are eternally intertwined, a gesture made flesh by the Kop's contemporary hero.
United, stirred from their inactivity, introduced the big guns and, like so many times before, it paid off. Javier Hernandez, signed barely 18 months ago, celebrated his six yard equaliser like a man crossing the line for Olympic gold, lungs roaring, hand thrust chest-wards, clasping the club crest. He, like Gerrard, knew all too well what it meant.
Clubs have been supposedly selling their souls for a while now, but selling the future of others is another thing entirely. In truth I genuinely can't see much support for Ayre's proposals from further down the league, as evidenced by Chelsea, Wigan and Manchester United speaking out in support of the current deal within hours of the Liverpool story surfacing. Rival clubs have been more vociferous still in their initial rejection of any potential relegation removal, hopefully a sign that somewhere beneath the pile of dollar bills a humble wad of common sense remains intact.
Following a week where John W Henry and the Fenway team had granted the press a good deal of access, it's no coincidence that they are now trying to stamp their own mark on the state of things. In trying to get their voice heard above the Manchester/London/Catalonia hubbub, they are perhaps aiming to remind the watching world that they remain part of the elite. The thing is, no one that really knows their football has ever thought differently. Good sides come and go – talented squads shine then dissipate – but the stuff of legend remains. Even those pesky Bolton fans know that.
~ Matt
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