England: Papering over the Cracks

The air was cold with a sharp edge, darkness had fallen on the nation yet Wembley stood illuminated upon the capital, mostly from the beaming floodlights but partially from the thick, engulfing smoke emanating from the away end, as a sea of red embarked on Wembley Way.

 

This may read like a work of fiction, yet there were no shock surprises, twists, or miracle upsets. Instead, England achieved qualification for the World Cup without the usual dramatics, which coincidentally may be considered a surprise in itself after all. While the events of last night are rightly being held in high regard, and have even seen some of the most positive press regarding the national team that one might recall since South Africa, there should be concern that they are overshadowing a serious debate that arose in recent weeks. The issue of whether players from foreign shores who attain British Citizenship should be eligible to play for their new-found home.

My stance on the issue is a precarious one, in that it may come across as xenophobic or to an incorrect, extreme degree even racist, in that I am firmly against this notion. While these unfortunately may be the motivations for some small-minded individuals, and are in themselves top, top issues in football that need addressing, they are certainly not mine, and I want to establish that beyond retort.

For a long, long time now, as long perhaps as I have even considered myself an avid fan and part of football, there has been much debate and discussion on whether the English Premier League is being ‘overrun’ by foreign talent with great detriment to the National team, as opportunities that could be afforded to young English players are instead being handed to foreign imports, stunting the growth of the afore mentioned home grown talent. My concern with allowing foreigners to play for England is that this will establish a similar precedent, and it remains a firm belief of mine that the highly sought-after ‘fix’ for English football on an international level is not through simply encouraging players from abroad into attaining British Citizenship, with popular fantasised targets being Mikel Arteta and recently Adnan Januzaj. Instead, the powers that be should be making improvements at grass-roots level and encouraging superior youth development, rather than simply papering over the cracks.


As somebody that has played organised association football from an early age I have seen first-hand the politics and general level of effort placed into kids football in this historic country of ours. There isn’t the high-level of coaching and facilities found on the continent, instead it’s literally run by volunteer dads, with referees and linesman often parents asked to do the job on match-day. Pathetic when you consider they could be responsible for the future of English football. Admittedly a bit of optimistic hyperbole, yet the point still stands.

It’s no longer a shock to think that there are 15 times more qualified coaches in Spain than in England holding the UEFA A and UEFA Pro licenses. There are just over 1,000 coaches in England and about 15,000 in Spain. This highlights Spain’s bottom-up approach compared to the English approach that by creating competition and a high level of quality at the top level, the rest of the pyramid will somehow follow.
The stats speak from themselves on which approach is more successful. The Barcelona team of 2009 that won the treble of the Champions League, the Spanish League, and the Spanish Domestic Cup, 14 of them were raised through the clubs youth system, with 10 out of the 18 members of the squad for the Champions League final being Spanish. Now compare that to their opponents of that final; Manchester United of England that possessed only 5 English players out of 18 in their squad for the final, of which only 2, Jonny Evans and Paul Scholes, were raised through their youth academy. It’s no surprise that Spain have absolutely dominated international football for the last six years, while England have floundered like a fish out of water. 

So what is being done to address this? 

Chairman of the FA Greg Dyke has tried to combat these issues by calling a council of various powers from English Football to attempt to save our country’s game, yet the invitation has been declined by one significant party. The Premier League. Arguably the most important party involved, as any acts to improve the National Team will most certainly need to involve promoting English players to a higher level of importance within the league, perhaps by introducing a less lenient home grown player minimum rule? Alas, While England remains the only country with the top division a separate entity to the governing body of her football then it seems little will change. 

Once the money-grabbing figures at the top of these organisations cease thinking of their own bank accounts and more about the interests and success of the nation as a whole, then Brazil 2014, France 2016, and the tournament’s that follow will be more than the stimulus for misery they unavoidably equate to.

Money Makes the Noise Turn Down

Money. “Money makes the world go round” said John Kander in the musical, Cabaret. This this phrase certainly bares relevance today in reference to modern day football, with money being one of the key culprits under fire when the issue of the decline in atmosphere comes into the inevitable limelight. 

Within this issue comes multiple areas to consider, but perhaps most importantly is the television company, SKY. The television company has ‘invaded’ modern football and offers near non-stop coverage and analysis of football 24/7, helping to create such inventions as ‘Monday Night Football’ and of course the privilege of being able to watch mid-table Spanish sides battle it out at almost any hour of any given day. This may be considered a strong benefit of modern football, as coverage is now light years ahead of the coverage of many years ago, and is accompanied with the added bonus of making missing games less of a dramatic ordeal for the avid football fan, as you can still get to see the full 90 minutes of action from any Premier League game on ‘game of the day’. However, this is precisely its downfall, as many fans are encouraged to stay away from games. With travelling to the game, buying food, merchandise, and needless to say a ticket, amounting to an almost immeasurable titanic value, the concept of watching the game from the living room with a Tesco meal deal is becoming far more appealing and is ultimately contributing to the killing off loyal fans, creating the epicentre and love-child of modern football in the 'armchair fan'.

This in turn, perhaps more concerning, is having an adverse effect on the atmosphere at games, and ultimately destroys the very heart and soul of British Football, leading to strong feelings of fan undervalue. The English game has always retained a global acknowledgement for passionate and loyal fans, that come hell or high water, rain or shine would follow their team to the molten depths of The Earth’s core (well, Plymouth away) and this is starting to no longer become a true reflection of the game. However, in the defence of SKY, the decline in atmosphere and attendance at games can be perhaps blamed on the infamous Taylor Report concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, which lead to the law that any stadium in the top two tiers of English Football must be all-seating, and that no supporters must be obliged to stand. Obviously, pure logistics dictates that this law has resulted in a decrease in attendance, as 10,000 seats fill an area that may have perhaps housed 30,000 standing fans, as there is now a set limit to the amount of fans allowed into one area. There is much criticism of the Taylor Report however, and is seen by some followers of the game as an ‘overreaction’ to the events, that may be the result of extraneous factors other than the fact that people were allowed to stand. In fact, the Taylor Report itself primarily blamed overcrowding, stadium layout, and poor policing. It did not ban standing nor claim it was inherently unsafe. Inevitably from this long-running debate, the issue of bringing in ‘safe standing’ into modern British football has been considered, as many fans see this as perhaps the only reasonable method of resurrecting the powerful atmosphere of the English game. For example, 92.3% of the users of popular Aston Villa fan’s forum, ‘Heroes & Villains’ voted that they would welcome the introduction of safe standing to Villa Park, and also, the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) have currently acquired more than 12,000 signatures for their petition to bring standing areas into British Grounds, reflecting the overwhelming support to bring these ideas in.

One key criticism of the current system that works in favour of those crying out for standing is that even with seated terraces, many fans still continue to stand at football, which creates problems with stewards and police officials who are obliged to enforce the rules that these fans should be seated, as well as problems amongst other fans who may not want to stand, yet are forced to in order to view the football they have paid to see, as there are people standing in front of them – obstructing their view. Another positive outlook and arguing point for the supporters of standing is the example being set by other leagues, most notably in the Bundesliga, who have managed to incorporate safe standing back into their game, especially in the case of Borussia Dortmund, who possess the largest standing area in European football in the ‘Südtribüne’ terrace, of which houses an impressive 24,454 fans and as a result both creates a world-renowned intimidating and intense atmosphere that has become a tourist attraction in itself. This has also been credited as enabling the club to sell over 50,000 season tickets, as fans are eager to experience this unique atmosphere, as well as the fact that the stadium is praised for being more socially inclusive, as the standing area requires much cheaper ticket prices, appealing to all social classes, and an increase in feelings of being valued as a fan by the supporters of that club – all of which makes for a convincing and unavoidable argument for the introduction of safe standing into British football. The Bundesliga boasts the lowest ticket prices, with an average of £10 inside the afore mentioned stadium of Borussia Dortmund, and the highest average attendance of Europe's five major leagues: In the 2009/10 season, La Liga attracted an average of 28,478 fans, Ligue Un, 21,034, Serie A, 25,304 and the Premier League 35,592 - all made to seem minuscule by the Bundesliga's average of 41,904.

As inarguable as it is that there is causation between these two variables, the situation is quite different in England, as in order to view football from teams of the same size and standard of Borrusia Dortmund you will be required to pay as much as four times the amount as the German fans, surely accounting in some consideration for the poor attendance rates in England and the pricing out of the working class from the game, and the general feel that fans are not valued, that they are being exploited for their money. This is widely considered a failing of modern football in Britain, being as this has not always been the case. Average ticket prices have represented an inflation of 700% at Old Trafford since the 1989-90 season, with a 920% inflation at Arsenal from the same era in comparison to today. In a fans survey conducted by popular English football magazine ‘FourFourTwo’ in 2010, 57.1% of voters claimed that their club treats them like a customer, rather than a valued fan, with an extra 12.4% feeling like their club treats them like someone to be exploited. These harsh figures underlines the key problem in modern football of our nation, in that we are not treated like the ‘valued fans’ that the fans of the Bundesliga are, and this will likely continue to negatively affect attendances and atmospheres until the clubs change their attitudes to fans to reverse these feelings.

However this is not always the case, as there are plenty of examples of displays of extraordinary goodwill from clubs, such as the refunding of Wigan fans who travelled to White Hart Lane in winter of 2009 only to see their club get destroyed 9-1, and the many cases in which free travel is provided by clubs for their fans for long-distance away games, yet overall these acts by the club are almost irrelevant in consideration to the overall differences between fans of English and German clubs. While there are many more factors to consider, the correlation between ticket prices and attendance rates, and therefore atmosphere, cannot be ignored, and it remains a widely-thought opinion that the Bundesliga possesses aspects football that the English game is absent of and sorely needs. Perhaps this is a result of the fans themselves, as in the same survey by ‘FourFourTwo’, 55.6% of fans claimed that they would still buy tickets if they became 20% more expensive in price representing perhaps a blind obedience that needs to be addressed. 

Perhaps the English game cannot evolve into the heights of the ‘proper’ Bundesliga until the fans themselves take a stand and hurt the powers-that-be where they hurt most - their wallets.