12 March 1981 Marxism Today

critics like Brian Clough, is systematically ignored. First, though, a word about the myths. Dave Triesman THE 'VIOLENCE-CRISIS' MYTH I offer no apology for violence on or near football grounds but cannot refrain from Football in Decline suggesting that it is no more the cause of football's long term problems than a sneeze is the cause of influenza. The argument about violence comes in several forms. At its simplest, it is attributed to the anti-social attitudes of young people. Variants propose that the behaviour of players stimulates additional aggression in young fans, that Some nine months ago on a 'phone-in' programme devoted to the referees behave so inconsistently that it 'crisis in British football', Stan of Shepherds Bush advocated that injects frustration into players and supporters soccer's problems could be resolved over-night if all football hooligans alike. Remedies run the gamut from fencing were branded on the back of their hands. the supporters in, keeping them out, through proposals for identity cards, all-seat grounds The theory underlying this medieval senti- May Day. There is nothing new or unique and, as we've seen, branding. ment was that as the hooligan was convicted about current problems in football (or Let it be said from the outset that there is by drum-head court martial rather than cricket). It is just that they have never been no proven relationship between football appearance before magistrates, a branding solved. hooliganism and the level of gates. Indeed, would be immediately administered. He had other seasons have been vastly more violent thought the matter through and discounted The importance of football although not always reported. The battles dyeing or tattooing as messier, more likely to Some might conclude that routine anxiety between the skinhead gangs of 1969-70 from fade, and difficult to see on the skin of black about a mere game is not worth the energy the different 'ends' of football grounds, the youths. When a terrace recidivist had expended. They underestimate the place of near riots that brought us indellible accumulated three brandings, the zealots of soccer in British culture. It is the regular characters like Millwall's Harry the Dog, the turnstile would refuse admission to the sport of approximately one million men and Frankie Parrish and Dustman Bob of ground as they would be immediately able to three quarters of a million schoolboys every Tottenham, Arsenal's Johnny High and HJ detect three-time losers as they pushed then- week, forty weeks of the year. It is watched Greenaway of Chelsea, make the current gate money under the grill. A new rule would by a cumulative audience of over 25 million season look as sanitised as the famous North have to be introduced to the effect that those people each week, and the passions it American 'family' league. Even pitch paying at the turnstile must do so with their engenders defy normal description. In other invasions aimed at changing the result are right hand and would not be allowed to wear countries it has sparked wars, and in Britain hardly an invention of this season. Rangers gloves however inclement the weather. the territorial disputes at the terraces have at supporters did it at Newcastle in 1969. It Now Stan, who turned out to be the most least the appearance of running battles. In happened again when Manchester United moderate caller that evening, had advanced short, as an expression of physical culture, it were relegated and when West Bromwich this proposition to the then secretary of the arguably has greater leverage in culture as a beat Leeds in 1971. Attendance figures were Football League, Alan Hardaker, and more whole than any other single sporting activity. varied almost without regard to these events. than once. No reply had ever been received (a Its centrality to the culture of leisure lies in its discourtesy for which Stan thought Hardaker long history with roots in the fifteenth Machine-like football should be branded as well until I pointed out century, its universality in being played Nor has there been a clear-cut demonstration that Hardaker was dead). More of Hardaker, everywhere, in its expression of regional and of any relation between the number of later. local interests and in its relation to the lives of cautions or sending-offs of players and Stan's rescue plan for British football was working class men, whose sport it has always incidents of crowd misbehaviour. Not only conceived in response to the annual been. For all its importance, the sport is are such associations of events largely the declaration that the national winter sport was collapsing financially and it appears creation of the media, but they underline, in crisis. While he, and Frank of Camden incapable through its owners and graphically, that what is understood about Town and first-time caller Clive of Putney administrators, of saving itself. football hooliganism is itself largely attributed this to hooliganism, others had It is certainly worthwhile therefore to dependent on how and whether it is reported. focused on different problems, player consider why football should be in so parlous What is evidently neither understood nor behaviour, referees — naturally, the a position, why average attendances ('gates') reported is that the characteristics of bored or weather, and Isobel of Golders Green — the are down by nearly 17% since last season, and unemployed boys do not suddenly alter as Palestinians, and other solutions. Just as in their deepest trough since the war. It is my they come off the train and walk to a football every late May produces 'crisis in cricket' argument that it has little to do with the ground. They bring into football those fever, so football has a crisis each season in publicly proclaimed spectres, but a slow problems and experiences they have outside November. The regularity of these events is attrition, a cancer at the core of the sport that it, the difference being that they are collected such that they deserve national holidays in no one ever reports and one which, when into a large group and presented with a their own right, like United Nations Day and alluded to by outspoken, richly-talented powder keg of territorial loyalties and a Marxism Today March 1981 13 contest laden with passion. purchasing the right to see a game on a fairly services compete to attract their attention. What might hold their attention and divert regular basis, since casual consumption is Support for football has traditionally come them from mutual mayhem is, of course, unreliable in generating revenue. There is a overwhelmingly from working-class men, entertainment in sufficient quantity. But that refreshing simplicity about football that any whose disposable incomes have been limited has not been the raison d'etre of English monetarist would appreciate. To produce a by the usual range of financial constraints football clubs since machine-like game of football, one production company upon them. If football is to attract these combinations won the World Cup for consumers they must choose whether to pay England in 1966 or the double for Arsenal in they are collected into a large to stand, for the most part, on gloomy, grimy, 1971. The lone voices of Billy Nicholson and, worndown concrete terraces in the British again, Brian Clough, in the mid-70s were group and presented with a winter, in uncompromisingly bleak buildings regarded as faintly embarrassing as they powder keg of territorial that look as though anything after the first talked about their teams having to give value flush of the Industrial Revolution passed to those who paid at the turnstiles. So bleak loyalties and a contest laden them by. did matters become that Alex Stock with passion. Equally, they must choose not to spend the

commented (1972) that 'Recently my coach (the professional club) must hire staff — same amount on other sports, leisure underwent a course on Attacking Football playing, managing, administrative and activities, or, quite simply, on shopping. run by the FA. He didn't see a goal scored in ancilliary — keep up a place of production, There is sound evidence for the fact that the whole week'. Inevitably, it will be meet routine overheads including trans- many more men of all classes now spend necessary to return to the question of who portation costs, and, on occasion, make Saturdays involved in family shopping. determines that football should not be capital investments in either premises or The blunt truth appears to be that the entertaining. Fans have frequently received playing/management staff. At any one time, consumers are doing other things and more entertainment at each others hands the majority shares of at least one club and spending their money in other ways. than from their teams. Suffice it to say that some 250 players are available for sale. To Moreover, as recession deepens, particularly the perennial contest between the fans and fund such an enterprise, the company must in a period characterised by high rates of the law, so hallowed by the press, is long in sell the right to attend the game (consume the inflation, all these issues accentuate. the making and not apparently, directly the product), the right to broadcast it (licence), a Football's consumers have a great deal of cause of football's degeneration. variety of subsidiary licences and products flexibility in these choices (there is what (programmes, team strips, cuddly toys, economists call 'elasticity' in demand for the FOOTBALL AND FINANCE momentoes etc), and participation in various product); people are also more inclined to games of chance (lotteries, a share of the recognise that the money they spend on The inner core of football's crisis, at least football pools etc). It follows, as night follows football removes the opportunity to spend south of Hadrian's Wall, lies in its financial day, that if the cost is greater than the the money on other products and services. circumstance and in the economic climate in income, football will exist in Micawber-like which it operates. It is essentially no different plenitude or go out of business. Needless to The growing costs of football (except in some details) from other parts of say, in the background stand all the usual On the expenditure side, the costs to clubs of the entertainment/consumption industries. apparatuses of private business, the banks, supplying football go up in real terms all the Products are produced — games, club shareholders, and what amount to trade time in wages and capital expenditure. The ensignia, sport clothing and other by- federations, the Football League and rate of increase in costs has been higher than products including gambling — and people Football Association. the average rate of inflation as in the whole choose whether to consume those products. Consumers too enjoy the same status as entertainment industry. The top weekly rate Because the heart of the matter is the game they would if they were being asked to buy paid to a footballer in 1893 was about 5/- to itself, the consumer must be prepared to allot any product. They choose how to dispose of Derby's Stephen Bloomer, inventor of the a certain proportion of disposable income to part of their incomes, and many goods and high-speed dribble. By 1935, the England 14 March 1981

transfers. Part-exchange had long featured in comprising those who can pay their current the transfer market. Now were added hire- bills. Even sensible cost-reducing schemes purchase arrangements, mortgages, low like regionalising the lower divisions cannot initial pricing with increments for first-team itself reverse the trend. or international appearances, goals scored The recent decisions in Solihull to com- and the like. There is now private talk about mence Sunday football and award three leasing players from other clubs. points for a win appear unlikely to have a Yet just as these mechanisms were traumatic effect. The three-point scheme, designed to enable clubs to pay super- intended to heighten competition and inflationary transfer bills, where the £lm was entertainment has been tried over many years no longer a rarity, they also meant that it was in the Isthmian League (at Jimmy Hill's increasingly difficult to stitch together all the suggestion), and the number of goals scored elements of a deal and to get the directors or and the proportion of matches won has The top weekly rate paid to a the bank to fund parts of it. That and the consistently declined. The maxim appears to footballer in 1893 was about sharp decline in gate income has begun the be: get all 11 players behind the ball as you process of pushing prices down. Many of the can't afford to lose. 5/- to Derby's Stephen traditional methods of financing football, Bloomer, inventor of the however, remain intact and for the smaller MASTERS AND MEN high-speed dribble. clubs they are paramount. Here, gambling schemes yield a sizeable proportion of income The fact that the owners, officials and media captain, Stan Cullis, took home £8 per week now, but fundamental to the whole funding are not eager to identify the sources of the in the season. By the end of the 1950s, with structure are 'loans' given by the directors. problems but prefer to blame the fans who the employers able to impose a wage limit, the 'Loans' are to all intents and purposes gifts still pay to see the game, or television top pay was in the order of £22 per week, and it is not unknown for directors to invest coverage or whatever other myth can be until successful legal actions by George between £30,000-£40,000 per annum. resurrected, may lead one to wonder who it is Eastham and the Professional Footballers that controls football, and how. It would be Association, broke the monopoly restraint. The financial crisis difficult to conceive of a group more exclusive Last season, over 50 English League players Thus with costs spiralling and income re- as those in charge of the national sport. earned more than £25,000 in wages alone, the maining at best stable, in most clubs falling, At the apex sits the Management precise figure being compounded from basic the firms that produce football do not, other Committee of the Football Association who payments and bonuses. The average than in exceptional cases, make any money. meet periodically in their headquarters at increases for the stars of the game, to say Of 92 clubs in the English Football League, Lancaster Gate, typically isolated from the nothing of their 5% cut of transfer fees, have only nine were profitable in 1978-79. The rest of the world by an ex-directory number. been in the order of 25% per year since 1976, owners of British football make very little out Aside from Professor Sir Harold Thompson a rate far more rapid than general inflation. of it; in fact, most of them spend rather than of Oxford University, who rose to the The wages of managerial-coaching staff have receive. Yet they still appear incapable of pinnacle, his colleagues were born to the top shown similar increases with billings for all understanding that their product is marketed table. The Earl of Harewood, the Marquis of items now double what they were six years under poor conditions, is lacklustre, is Blandford, the Earl of Derby and, until he ago. subject to unrelenting competition from died, the Duke of Norfolk decorate the Additionally, it is evident that given the other goods and services, and, perhaps most highest echelon, some military beef being massive amounts of capital required to buy telling of all, it is subject to the same added by an Air Chief Marshal, a Major players and improve dismal amenities, the recessional pressures as the rest of the General and an Admiral. They certainly have pattern of financing the industry has had to economy. their connection with clubs, albeit Whites, change. New methods of financing capital Therein lies the cause of the worsening of the Turf, Bucks, the Junior Carlton, the requirements have appeared, and others are soccer's crisis. With upward of 2.5 million Jockey Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron, on the way. Few clubs have behaved like working people without jobs and sustained though these clubs have little evident other capital-hungry commercial companies, inflation in the cost of essential goods and connection with football. Had the and offered their shares on the market. services, the number of paying customers is Association not appointed Ted Croker as Crystal Palace and Manchester United toyed collapsing. At an average price of £1.80 to Secretary, there is little doubt that the with such schemes but appear to have stand on a weather-bitten terrace, or £2.80 gerontocracy would have come close to recognised that all manner of people can for a less-than-comfortable seat, unemployed vanishing without trace. acquire a share, admitting themselves to the young fans will choose to spend such income The Football League, an entirely separate magic circle that control the clubs. Clubs as they have elsewhere. What is astonishing is entity, is, in one sense, even more exclusive. have generally gone to the banks for money how little the club directors and the press Taken at face value, it is run by the 92 League raising substantial debts during the early 70s. have recognised this tendency. The deeper Club Chairmen whose periodic meetings, as It is known that several South Wales bank the recession, the longer its duration, the their recent good news-value meeting in a managers got themselves into acute fewer the numbers who will routinely go Solihull motel, are hallmarked by perpetual difficulties with their head offices for lending through the turnstiles. The decline is anarchy since few conceive of themselves as huge sums to impecunious clubs with cash sharpest in the Third and Fourth Divisions having common interests. Whatever their flows (as at Chelsea and Fulham) like baths where average gates are down by 23% and internal divisions chairmen form a small without plugs. Other methods of financing bankruptcies could become widespread. The community ('Football hooligans? Well there major projects, notably new players, became core attraction of a national system of 92 clubs are the 92 club chairmen for a start'. — Brian more attractive adding complexity to player- could easily evolve into a small super-League Clough1). Marxism Today March 1981 15

Directors as a whole are a small band, 586 themselves from any outside voice, criticism invention of the Texaco, Watney and in all, only 6.4 per club, and they wield or statement of the facts. On the few Anglo-Italian Cups. The consequence of absolute power in each club-dominion. occasions when the idea of full-membership these innovations was that the season ran Typically they are businessmen in the lines of clubs, with everyone who cares to join having from early August to late June , in some trade dominant in their local neck of the access to discussion and decision, has been seasons leaving under a full month without woods. In the Midlands they tend to be from mentioned it has drawn gasps of incredulity football. Hardaker took the view that it metal working and machine goods firms. In from soccer's hierarchy. The irony appears to generated new revenue although, London they are often in property, insurance me to be that the parochial feudalism of the unfortunately, exhausted players, a matter to and brokerage. In the most illustrious clubs has left a power vacuum at the centre of be remedied by desisting from other boards, the parallel directorships are truly British football. It might have provided a key competitions. As he put it World Cup, impressive. The Arsenal Board, for example, opportunity for someone with both a brief to European Cups — you can live without is littered with cotton barons, diamond mine be concerned with the game nationally and them'. These local cups which like the annual owners and the occasional ex-Lord Mayor. It who was free to analyse the fundamental sale to Littlewoods of the rights to publish the had, until recently, a co-owner of Wembley problems. Such a model was adopted in the fixture list for absurdly low prices, were stadium. Even in loss-making clubs, the United States in the appointment of hardly blessed with success. They were exclusiveness is both deliberate and Welshman Phil Woosnam as Soccer directed at resolving financial problems but defended. The story of the Clough/Taylor Commissioner. failed to comprehend the economic and social dismissal at Derby County is instructive for The League however has never taken structure in which football lives. The reform when the Supporters Movement, seeking to advantage of the vacuum. Its key paid of ownership and membership of clubs was restore the managerial team, tried to buy the official over a fifteen year period was Alan left untouched, just as it had been by the voting shares, they found that the old guard Hardaker whose power was such that he had Chester Report on the state of soccer in 1968, around chairman Sam Longson simply the League headquarters moved from its a report which might have but didn't stir the increased the number of voting shares they dust that had settled on Hardaker. held. football must be financed to WHOSE GAME? Splendid isolation survive and its current Rivetted by a parochial concern with their problems stem from the If British professional football is to survive in club alone, indifferent to football as a whole, the long term as a viable system involving a and utterly powerful in their local control, it quasi-feudal character of its reasonable number of clubs supported by live is evident that they have been ill-adept at operators. fans, then it cannot simply subsist under the facing current crises. They have failed to aegis of those who have either bought their organise internally, or even to bargain with long-time home at Preston to his own home way to membership of the exclusive club of external interests like television or the pools town, Lytham St Annes, a bracing Lanca- directors or have managed to seize control of

with any success. Most of all, they have shire resort. Hardaker, who simply disliked 1 steadfastly fought to keep the voices of the driving to Preston, thus produced that Arsenal Chairman Dennis Hill-Wood responded players, their union, the staff and the strange anomaly by which everyone had to 'I have never been so insulted by anyone in footall as by this little upstart puppy. He keeps supporters away from the club's affairs, gravitate to the least probable place in appearing on TV saying that the reason football is much as the directors of any firm do not open England to conduct football's national failing is because of the 92 club chairmen in the the boardroom to workforce or consumers. business. As to the remainder of his career, League. I am thoroughly sick of it. Completely They have, in consequence, insulated he is unlikely to be remembered for his fed up with it.' 16 March 1981 Marxism Today the reins of Lytharn. There is a long and with municipalities could be developed. current problems stem from the quasi-feudal well-documented history of their unwilling- When proposals of this kind emerge in character of its operators. It is arguable that ness to countenance change. Chairmen of discussions within football, the response is even more viable capitalist forms of organisa- known progressive sentiment, like Peter predictable. Directors and some managers tion would be an advance. Many Swales of Manchester City, are not only a take the view that a wider public is incapable commercially sound European clubs run rarity but treated with suspicion by their of sensible engagement in club direction. coaching and youth leagues for large colleagues. In most cases, the inheritance of They tend to state that it would be impossible numbers of young players free of charge with clubs, as by the Wales' of Tottenham or the to operate a club and, indeed, that the professional footballers heavily involved in Mears' of Chelsea, will maintain the current directorial circle has to be so concentrated the endeavour. They also provide numerous feudal profile. that even past, tried employees of the club other sports, paid for by adults but free or The time has surely come when the clubs should have no role. Bill Shankly after subsidised for children. become membership organisations. They remarkable years at Liverpool has had to On a basis of the kind considered here, the should be open to membership by anyone while away his time at Everton so as to avoid character of the FA and Football League wanting to join and pay an annual fee, and accusations of interference in his old club. would inevitably change as the narrow basis they should be governed by their members. of control was removed. That must, aside There is little doubt that arrangements for a Mass membership clubs from its financial sense, be a more acceptable management structure involving repre- Yet there are many continental clubs based way of controlling a national sport and leisure sentatives of members, players and the on precisely the membership-participation interest. Either oversight of the final demise commercial apparatus could be achieved. In axis, where involvement of club members of a collapsing monolith is left to about six those circumstances it seems at least possible gives them access to vast leisure resources and businessmen per club, or football takes a that intelligent discussions could take place where, during home matches, the club more creative path. Any sceptic would do on how to develop the major assets held in members produce stewarding and reasonable well to look at a club like Benfica, whose arenas, training facilities and other resources order rather than embattlement on the position provides the best possible summary. as key community sports centres. With such terraces. In Latin America such It currently has over 60,000 club members. a set-up, they might both serve their arrangements are equally normal. They contribute, through subscription and communities and engage in wider, financially Curiously, the other objections tend to buying various services provided by their viable provision. They could become major come from among the very small number of club, some 50% of its income each year. leisure providers across a range of activities. socialists who take an active interest in They, in the final analysis, control Benfica. It Their resources could be intensively used. football who distruct further commercial is not a football club with which one They would inevitably sell certain of these development of football clubs. Realistically, associates either chaos or lack of success. It services to a wider public. Their connection football must be financed to survive and its could happen here. •