This is one of the most important books written about football since it changed from being a
hugely popular yet amateurishly run sport to a multi-billion pound leisure industry.
The book's starting point is the early 1990s and the decision which has changed the nature of
English football for ever. The FA's abdication of responsibility in allowing the breakaway of
the top clubs from the rest of the Football League (FL) back in 1991. Since then, as Conn
forensically details, the amount of money coming into the game has risen exponentially as has
the number of football clubs getting themselves into serious financial difficulties.
At the time of writing (2004) exactly half, 36, of the clubs in the FL had been in
administration. He also notes how it wasn't until the 2001 TV deal that there was any
commitment by the big clubs to provide some support for the grass roots of football.
This despite the fact that whole thing was endorsed by a sleep-walking FA, the same FA who
are the supposed guardians of the game. An FA motivated by its petty politicking against
the FL which saw it form an alliance with the power and money hungry big clubs.
This deal brought nothing in the way of concessions to the FA. Does anyone remember the
commitment to reduce the number of clubs in the Premiership to 18?
Aside from this broad theme there are lots of tales of woe at various clubs.
Clubs who have been thrown into a financial maelstrom since 1992 because of relegation to the
FL, or from being owned by a crook or a fantasist. In no particular order Sheffield Wednesday,
Bradford, Notts County and York, among others, come under Conn's microscope. Individuals such
as David Dein at Arsenal, Geoffrey Richmond at Bradford and Noel White of Liverpool are also
under scrutiny for their roles in football's seismic changes of the last 15 years. There is
an almost tragic interview with Graham Kelly at Bolton West services on the M61 where Kelly
wearily recounts the missed opportunity that the TV money coming into football represented.
It's difficult to find the good news stories but Crewe get a deserved chapter for their efforts
to run a small football business with vision and initiative.
Overall you get the feeling that Conn, who writes an essential column for the Guardian,
sees what has happened to football in the last 15 years and despairs. Not at how awful
everything is (it isn't) but at the missed opportunity the game in this country had to use
the money to create something better, something fairer. It's interesting to note that the boom
in football has coincided with an unprecedented period of economic growth in the UK.
The parallels with the inability of successive governments to use the country's wealth to
produce something better, something fairer, emphasise how football can mirror society as a
whole.
Conn's book is mightily impressive and written from the head as well as the heart.
It exposes the shams, the scams and the charlatans who have used and abused football clubs.
Most depressingly, he illustrates the inability of those nominally in charge to mitigate
against the worst aspects of the modern games inequalities. In the summer of 2007 the bottom
club in the Premiership will receive more than the 72 Football League clubs put together.
Why is nobody other than Conn shouting from the rooftops about this obscenity?
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