“Your last column was needlessly equivocal about why the Bundesliga is so boring,” S.Ok. Gupta feels. “There is only one reason and that is the 50+1 rule. By precluding outside investment, no one can challenge the status quo. If the Bundesliga wants to become a genuine sporting competition with some uncertainty about the end result, they must make their clubs attractive to investors who would invest funds to build a competitive team.”
There have been instances, I’ll admit, when I’ve been tempted to come back to the identical conclusion. The Bundesliga appearing as Bayern Munich’s fief is, I feel, an issue for German soccer.
But I’m not satisfied that breaking the bond between group and followers is the answer. I think that individual street results in the Premier League, the place, as an alternative of 1 wealthy group, you find yourself with a cartel of 4 or 5 or 6, monopolizing not solely the title however the entire different prizes, too. German followers cherish their tradition. Change is important, however not at any value.
David Hunter is nearer to my mind-set. “You didn’t mention the obvious solution: a salary cap,” he wrote. “American football has one, and there are rarely routine winners season after season.” This is true, in fact, however there may be one big hitch: a wage cap may solely work if it was agreed to by golf equipment in each league in Europe, fairly than only one. And that prospect is, sadly, an especially distant one.
Finally, let’s return a few weeks. “If we, the fans, decide what matters in football, it’s worth noting that the viewing public and teams’ owners have very different ideas of the concept of risk,” wrote Alex McMillan. “Fans cherish risk: It’s what makes winning anything worth something. The owners of the wealthiest clubs detest it: It threatens their billion-dollar investment.”
This is, to me, the crux of the difficulty over soccer’s future. The sport thrives on danger. It is the working of it and the taking of it that makes it interesting. But, sure, that’s diametrically against what house owners need and — if we’re being type — what sustainable companies want. Almost each debate about the place the sport goes, or what it should do, boils right down to that rigidity. How it performs out will outline what form soccer takes.
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