Kenyon Confronts: most of the Football League!

By Albatross
December 6 2002

Following Five Live's feature last night on Football Finance, Albatross has a few words to say about where we go from here. Anyone that knows it will probably understand why I think that "Piggies" from the Beatles White Album sums up the situation pretty well....

This weekend sees Pools take on [looks at Fixture List] oh well, now we can concentrate on the league, I mean we were never going to win the cup anyway....

One of the things that has been big news over the last couple of days is Peter Kenyon's comments to Five Live as part of their examination of Football Finances. The snippets of the interview broadcast before the programme indicated that he could see the way forward for Football to be two divisions of 18 teams with the third division part time. While he did say that, the full interview was a little kinder on Kenyon and indicated that the issue is unlikely to be forced.

Possibly the most interesting contribution came from a representative of one of the Fans Groups, who was in effect calling for an independent regulator. He made the point that there is more money floating around football than ever before, and yet many teams are on the verge of bankruptcy - in other words, the FA/FL are making a dog's breakfast of the whole thing.

Fans of lower division clubs can't help but take a jaundiced view of Kenyon's suggestions. When it comes down to it, he's the Chief Executive of Manchester United, and you can't help feeling that in his head is the idea that if the lower division clubs stop pulling in as many fans then they'll go and support his club instead.

His ideas though do have some merit to them. Clubs do have to learn to live within their means, and too many don't - Pools included. Yes, IOR are prepared to fund us for the moment, but no-one can say how long this will go on for - or whether someone will be prepared to buy the club and invest in it. Harold Hornsey took us on when no-one else would, and is rightly revered as a hero; but even though he was - and still is - a fan at heart, I'm not sure he'd want to buy the club back should IOR decide they want out.

The distribution on money in football is becoming increasingly top-heavy, and it's difficult to see that changing. The Premiership is pulling in a huge amount of TV Revenue; but given one of the reasons it was formed was to avoid having to share that with the rest of the Football League, it's unlikely they'll want to share much wealth. And the ITV Digital debacle and subsequent deal with Sky show how much Football League rights are valued these days.

The other thing that's helping to precipitate this problem is the lack of transfer revenue. Pools have always been a selling club, and the money that's come rolling in over the years has done a lot to keep the wolf from the door. But that revenue looks like drying up. Tommy Miller was virtually the only transfer from the lower divisions to the Premiership when he signed for Ipswich; the top clubs are instead looking abroad for experienced players rather than taking a risk on English talent from the lower divisions.

Should we be scared by the prospect of going part-time? I don't think it's that clear cut. We might find ourselves having to cut back on the squad numbers, and have a core of full-time players with a number of part-timers to back them up. This would not necessarily be anything new; Leo Harden, who died a couple of years ago, was a part-timer throughout his career at Pools. Lincoln's Adie Mike is still working in Manchester as well as playing third division football.

The main issue isn't so much whether players are full or part time, or how much they get paid - most people would agree it's gone mad over the last few years. The main issue is whether the Premiership (and proposed Premiership 2) are looking to pull the ladder up after them and effectively cut themselves off from the rest of us. It's already hard to get into the Premiership and stay there if you're not a big club - just ask Barnsley, or Ipswich for that matter. But at least at the moment we can dream, just as the fans of AFC Wimbledon can dream about making their way through the leagues.

The day may not be far away when we find all sorts of hoops have to be jumped through to make it to what is now Division 1. It's not hard to imagine for example a minimum ground spec of 15,000 All Seater to get into Premiership 2; the sort of thing that costs serious money - money that most clubs would simply not be able to afford. The gaps between the haves and have nots would get ever wider.

The Premiership need to beware though. Already many fans in the lower divisions feel completely disconnected from the Premiership teams and their fans; I have to admit I'm one of them. The European adventures of British Teams used to be almost required viewing; I remember watching Aston Villa and Liverpool winning the European Cup, Spurs winning the UEFA Cup, Aberdeen winning the Cup-Winners Cup, and being glad that there were such good teams and players. Now, I couldn't care less. I actually cancelled my Sky Sports subscription not long after our game against Bournemouth, partly because when it comes down to it I'm not that bothered by seeing these (ahem) big stars lining up in the Premiership; and for all the hype, the really big stars - Ronaldo, Figo, Raul, Rivaldo et al - are all still in Spain or Italy.

I can't predict the future, and maybe the things that people are talking about will never happen. But there's one thing I am sure of: that so long as there's a club there to support, I'm a Hartlepool United fan. Whether we're full-time, part-time, hitting the heights or plumbing the depths, there's no other team that'll do for me.