Football is business, ideas like European Super League will keep coming

The recent developments in European football have left the world of sport shell-shocked.

It is widely believed that wrestling and boxing were the first sporting events even though communities used to participate in various competitions like running.

The first recorded sporting event in history was the Olympic Games of 760 BC in Athens, where the only competition was foot racing. The philosophical underpinning of a sport is competition and this a common thread across every other sporting event.

The first rudimentary commercialisation of sport was in the mid-1800s when the first paid athletics event took place; fast-forward to 2021 and sport has become a full-scale business venture and a source of livelihood, not only for sportspeople, but also millions of other professionals.

With introduction broadcasting fees, advertising and image rights, sport has become a multi-billion venture which in turn has brought an influx of billionaire investors into football.

One would ask why would you invite a businessperson into your sport then prevent them from expanding and being innovative or even adventurous?  Then it ceases being a business.

The recent proposed breakaway of elite football clubs Uefa competitions to form the European Super League is an indication that football no longer belongs to the fans as it were many years back or to mildly put it – it is slipping out of their grasp. Billionaires have taken over the sport and they are purely running it like any other business.

Integrity is a rarity in business and so is in running of sport.  The recent development is a strong indictment on Fifa and its affiliates and perhaps it is an indication that they need to keep their house in order lest they lose revenues from wealthy football clubs around the world.

When football allowed investors to flock its citadel then the lunatics were allowed to run the asylum; the financial regulations governing football are vague and highly doctrinaire.

Anyone who is in business will always stretch the margins to achieve extra profits.

Football fans are rightfully outraged the sport is being taken away from them on the altar of profits but they should also realise that most of these clubs are listed companies, they have to balance books and at the end of the day, they need to pay staff who draw absurdly high wages - especially the playing unit.

A business that makes losses - as the elite football clubs have been in the recent past especially in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic - will look for ways for survival and in their attempt at being innovative they may stretch beyond moral limits. Whether it is a tact of survival or greed it is quite a fuzzy line to draw.

Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Cheslea, Liverpool and Tottenham have already been forced to withdraw from the proposed ESR which was set to adopt the American model where the league is closed and there are no relegation and promotion just like NBA and NFL.

This in essence is injurious to the human moral stand of awarding success and the spirit of competition but there is always a "but" when money is involved.

With emergence of live streaming services and Pay Per View (PPV) models, big techs like Netflix, Facebook and Amazon will eventually venture into broadcasting sporting events; so football fans, the sport was taken away from you with the advent of commerce long ago.

It may not happen today but sooner rather than later we will all lose football to business.

Accept it, it is here.