Our take on the Deloitte Football Money League 2012 – spoiler – we don’t care

Do you want to write a piece on this? Asked the esteemed editor of this website forwarding me a copy of Deloitte’s new report into the finances of Europe’s top 20 football teams.

No. I replied. Well, more yes and no. Because I’ve no interest in pouring over the finances of Europe’s top clubs. The only balance sheets that interest me are the ones you won’t read about in Deloitte’s report.

Those of clubs like Darlington who are currently facing extinction. The team’s supporters trust are trying to arrange a community takeover of the club which will go into liquidation if they don’t succeed.

Or clubs like Portsmouth who are again, after a prospective buyer pulled out of the deal, seeking a new owner to take them out of administration. Plymouth are in the same situation as they battle to secure the existence of their club and their football league status.

So no, I don’t have any interest in how the top clubs have enlarged their revenue. Especially when those clubs use their power to leverage clubs outside the game’s top tier.

Just look at the way the Premier League held a shotgun to the head of the Football league when they wanted to get rid of the tribunal system for youth team players. The Premier League threatened to withhold money they paid for youth development schemes at lower leagues clubs, unless clubs agreed to a new set-up allowing top clubs to cherry-pick talent for nominal sums.

The majority of football fans do not support these so-called top clubs. The real story is how top level football is fast becoming a closed shop. The top clubs only exist through our consent. If they continue to suck the life out of the rest game what are we going to have left?

Related articles

• Europe’s Top Clubs Defy Economic Gloom (nytimes.com)
• United falling back in ‘money league’ (guardian.co.uk)