Extra Time - Belated

As I write this, Milan have just kicked off against Tottenham, in their UEFA Champions’ League Round of 16 first leg match.  The tie promises to be a cracker, as Milan sit atop Serie A amidst a very promising season, while Spurs have built on their fourth place finish, last year in the Premiership, with an entertaining run in Europe; besting defending continental champions Inter, along the way.  At time of writing I cannot pick one team over another.  Milan have more experience and a smattering of world class talent while Spurs has a deep squad that has meshed very well with each other all year.  Looking over at the other scheduled match, which sees Schalke play Valencia, I am similarly struck by the relative evenness of that tussle as well.  Valencia are only slight favourites in my mind and despite a disastrous domestic campaign, the German side are more than capable of upsetting the odds.

So on the same day, we have two rather close games in the best club tournament in the world.  This makes for compelling viewing and as a result the UCL regularly engages its audience, the world over.  As a neutral fan, despite one’s inherent bias, one can only wish for more of the same - tight contests between teams who are hard to separate.  We may not always approve of UEFA’s methods, but they have consistently delivered a product that year on year brings us fascinating games.  On Thursday the UEAF Europa League kicks off again.  Once more, like its moneyed cousin, this club tournament is another bastion of soccer parity, despite featuring few of the continental elite.  Whisper it quietly, but UEFA have successfully managed to consistently create the one thing missing from most European football – parity.  And make no mistake, parity is important, because it leads to a level of unpredictability that encourages fan participation while making competitions more interesting.

I was a very late convert to the NFL.  Growing up outside North America, the gridiron was at most an entertaining spectacle that I only watched at the fag end of every season, once the (NFC) Championship games and Superbowl were on.  When I first started watching there was a popular dynasty (Dallas) that was being threatened by a pedigreed upstart (Green Bay).  I started to like Green Bay and three years later they won.  I then had to then wait another 14 years for them to rescale that peak, with a completely new generation of team, coaches and management as they won this year.  During those intervening years, I saw a multitude of teams come and go.  Compete, contend and champion, before often vanishing.  I have become riveted by the sheer unpredictability of it all.  During the playoffs and even in the regular season, one can rarely tell with any assurance who will win any given game.  Hence the name term (On) ‘Any given Sunday, anyone can win’.  Now that’s parity.

At the moment, obviously North American franchise sports have an advantage over European football.  They are closed leagues, with no relegation, a single point of entry for talent, salary caps, trade restrictions, a singular television deal and a structure that makes the league bigger than the clubs.  So, inherently as a product, they promote parity.

However soccer can learn much from them, if only the governing bodies chose to wield some daring legislative muscle.  We cannot stop the private ownership or the disparity of wealth between the bigger and smaller clubs.  Nor do we want to reduce the number of clubs, or change the way youth talent is trained.  Finally, there is no need to disenfranchise fans by making their clubs into giant corporations who have little connection to their roots or fan base (although many clubs already have achieved this).  All that we need to do is enforce league wide rules, which regulate money spent and talent movement and will, over time, even the playing field.

The UCL and Europa League demonstrate that a well run competition between teams with largely equal playing corps can serve up a healthy dose of parity.  And that brings in fans, media participation and for the corporate bigwigs, money.  The upcoming fiscal regulations are an important first step in this regard.  Hopefully, in due time, they can be joined by transfer and wage caps, debt ratios and the like, preventing richer clubs from scooping up talent from far and wide, despite gargantuan debt.  In addition, clubs that break the rules should either not be allowed to spend any money in the form of a penalty as it will only become a luxury tax to them.

Perhaps, UEFA and FIFA can borrow an idea from Major League Baseball and share revenue up and down the league.  If the teams at the top do insist on breaking the rules by going over, this money can then be passed down to the lower members of the league or to the local FA, thereby evening up the field a little by distributing the wealth.  Hard numbers are impossible to generate at this moment, given that individual leagues themselves vary widely.  However, a certain amount of continent wide money structuring would do the game no harm and eventually, perhaps, make the local leagues as entertaining as their continental hybrids – with parity.  People respect dynasties and teams that dominate over a period of time.  But only if they aren’t already, the biggest kids on the playground.

Refereeing controversy has reared its ugly head again.  First, several high profile gaffes from the officials in both Spain and England, caused much hand wringing and embarrassment in both leagues.  Then, a female line official, despite being excellent at her job and interpreting rules perfectly, was insulted off the air by English media personalities, both of whom were promptly sacked.  Let me say this.  Sian Massey, is a very good linesperson and may one day prove to be a great referee.  I support her participation and think her appointment is a welcome fillip to the game.  Especially as FIFA seeks to engage the participation of its ever increasing female fan base, all the while building up the women’s game.  However, with football becoming ever more barbarian and uncivilised, I am a little concerned at female match officials being able to referee a mens’ game itself.

Now, moving on to the standard of officialdom, since video technology is still absent and the game is becoming faster and more acutely analysed, referees must become professional. Forget weekend referees. We need a full time corps of centrally trained and paid referees who spend the entire season being officials. Let them practise their fitness, eyesight and high speed decision making. FIFA are clearly too archaic to introduce instant replay, despite screens at stadia everywhere already showing them, so let referees spend more time fine tuning their skills and abilities at making crucial calls at break neck speed. It won’t fix things overnight, but it will improve the standard across leagues and remove some of the questionable decisions that make fans wonder if there are darker forces at play.