Max Mosley has never been the most popular figure in motor-sport and his determination to force through budget restrictions has met with stubborn resistance from several prominent teams. The resistance is nothing to do with how much money the teams wish to spend, more with the time-lines involved. Mosley wanted a £40 million spending cap in place by the beginning of next season, while the teams are demanding at least a full season to allow easing into the new structure. It is telling that in the cash rich sport of playboy millionaires there is a realism surrounding the perception of the sports viability; the Formula 1 team bosses all accept that the unbridled spending of the past simply cannot continue if the sport is to have a future in the longer term. In a week that could see Liverpool FC's owners forced to restructure a massive £350 million debt, could the time be near for similar financial restrictions to be worked into the fabric of football?
Rugby league is one of the oldest fully professional sports in Britain. Support is large in areas of Britain but tiny in comparison to football. The £1.8 million per club per season wage cap has not adversely affected the standard of British Rugby league. Our clubs still compete favorably with their overseas counterparts, even attracting Australian and Kiwi players, and more importantly, no single group of teams has been able to buy themselves a period of domestic dominance: in short the set-up has blossomed through the forced competition. The successful sides are not those with the largest budgets but those with the best scouts, coaches, managers and structure, a situation that encourages competition rather than stifling it. Additionally, the only time clubs will face administration in rugby league is when the clubs themselves are mis-managed, not when the banks decide that interest rates are less favorable. Rugby league shows that structured financial management of sporting outfits can not only be key to long-term success, it can be a vital part of the continuing viability of individual teams.
The English premier league is on the opposite side of that coin - It is a huge cash guzzling beast that produces from its twenty teams no more than four truly world class sides at any given time and often far less than that. Clubs in England are healthily rewarded by Sky television but to really challenge for honours the clubs must find another source of income. It is no longer enough to have a huge fan base willing to buy over-priced tickets, shirts and burgers. To be successful in England you now need an investor. With these investors comes a huge risk, will they be benevolent and wise, lavishing money and praise on the world class manager they insist on bringing over from Italy? Will they run up millions upon millions of pounds of debt in the clubs name to give their personal fortune, and ego, a boost? Will their true intentions be known before calamity strikes? The standard of competition in England looks healthy at first glance - there seems to be a permanent presence in the semis and finals of the champions league - but when you look just under that surface the picture is not so bright. For all but the top few clubs the purpose is no longer to improve, it is to be financially viable and hard to beat, the competitive nature of British football and the will to win have both been replaced by a fear of relegation and falling into the financial chasm of the Championship.
A universal wage cap may become a necessity rather than an ideal, for if clubs like Liverpool can be so far in debt then others will undoubtably follow in a futile attempt to catch up with the big guns. But if the FA can be brave now, introduce a wage cap, an operating budget, a maximum debt level or a combination of them all, and force the clubs to operate in a prudent manner then they could sow the seeds of future success at home and abroad. The money that is currently flowing out of the game into footballer's pockets and investors offshore accounts would instead be directed at the grass-roots and English football would become 10 times more competitive than it is now.
Rangers too should not fear financial structures being forced upon Scottish football, we have the pull to attract the very best in young talent, we just lack the motivation to develop it. In a more level league the incentive would be there to lead in the movement to produce the best possible players Britain can boast. We would cease spending massive amounts on foreign imports and concentrate on domestic players. Sure, the cream would go to Spain or Italy, and for a while European glory would be further away than ever, but in the decades to come the model we use could be the basis for success at home in Europe and even within the international set-up for the rest of time.
If no changes are made and clubs continue to dance with oblivion then slowly but surely football will eat itself. The spending can not continue forever and things will come to a head, the only choice is whether to sit tight and hope something usable emerges or to grasp the iron and force difficult changes through now.
I would love to see Rangers as a club embark on a journey towards self-sustainance, work towards producing enough players from our Scottish intake to fill our match team and have a bank balance covered in black numbering. It seems unlikely but be assured it is not impossible, if we shape our club to fit its environment well in advance of any enforced changes that may come in the future we will be in a prime position to dominate football at home and compete with honour abroad, which is surely the dream of every Bear.