Another English clubs sells their soul. The EPL is becoming the richest league in the world by some distance but there’s a big price to be paid for that.
A filthy-rich saviour for long-suffering City? Grow up
Thaksin Shinawatra’s takeover has taken so long that, unfortunately, Man City’s loyal supports are willing to turn a blind eye to his immoral dalliances.
David ConnJ
une 21, 2007 11:59 PM
The timing of yesterday’s announcement, that Manchester City’s “custodians” are to sell the club to Thaksin Shinawatra and bank millions of pounds of his money on the same day he was charged with criminal corruption in his home country, served to underline Thaksin’s advisers’ view all along: the fans won’t protest.
City’s discussions with the former Thai prime minister, who was deposed in a military coup after widespread allegations of corruption and family nest-feathering, have been conducted with the assumption that the club’s supporters will not be worried about how Thaksin made his billions, or troubled by the long-standing allegations of human rights violations. They would just want somebody, anybody, to throw money in to buy City a few players “fit to wear the shirt”.
Sadly, that seems to be mostly true. A few City fans have read up on Thaksin and decided they would be ashamed if he becomes the owner and chairman of Manchester’s self-styled community club - but most want to know only if the former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson will be the manager and whether Thaksin will provide enough money to enable City to compete with United in next season’s derby.
I was a fan like them back in 1994, standing at Maine Road to welcome a previous saviour, Francis Lee, as the new majority owner to replace Peter Swales. Who knew anything then about money in football, or shareholdings in clubs, or the debts in the accounts? Swales, a vinegary old salt, was finally out and blessed, cherubic Franny, centre-forward from the glory days, was in. “St Francis, the Second Coming”, proclaimed the T-shirts.
I interviewed Franny shortly after his takeover and there, in the chairman’s office at Maine Road, began my education into the football business - or more precisely into the yawning, at times tragic, chasm between the sentimental, lifelong loyalty fans have for their clubs and the games money men play with them. As an eight-year-old, I kissed Franny’s image on television after watching him score a wondrous free-kick in the sunshine. As an adult, I met a businessman. He was planning to make money out of City by redeveloping the Kippax Street Stand, scooping up the Sky TV millions, then floating the club on the Stock Exchange.
I went on my own journey, learning some facts I should have known already: about how the Football Association from the beginning of professional football believed it must preserve the game’s sporting soul and introduced astute rules to protect clubs from being financially exploited; then how, when modern clubs floated on the stock market, our toothless FA allowed them to bypass those rules by forming holding companies; that the Premier League was formed in 1992 by 22 First Division clubs, including City, to break away from the Football League’s practice of sharing TV money with the 70 in the three lower divisions. Football, contrary to the instinctive feeling of those who love the game and against its own traditions, had become a financial free for all.
City being City, Franny cocked it up. The club was bailed out by John Wardle and David Makin, who might have steered City into a golden age but blew it, too. Now they are accepting 17.5m in part payment of their loans and 7.2m for their shares from Thaksin, who is charged with corruption, has much of his assets frozen and who will use City as part of his profile-boosting campaign in Thailand. There the rural poor, among whom he remains popular, are part of the global TV audience dazzled by the Premiership.
Yesterday’s announcement expressed nothing about City being the Manchester club, about pride or heart, nor anything about Thaksin’s criminal charges or the cloud hanging over him. Instead City’s board said: “The offer presents an opportunity for Manchester City shareholders to realise their entire shareholding in Manchester City for cash, at a significant premium.”
Which says it all. Many City fans were rejoicing yesterday as if the club had found another saviour, not caring, as predicted, about Thaksin’s background; wanting only his money. Really, City fans, those who are not eight years old any more, should grow up.
