The Football League - what a mess

Last updated : 04 August 2002 By Tony Scholes

Keith Harris (left) and David Burns from the Football League
David Burns is of course the Chief Executive of the bungling Football League although the word IS could very likely be changed to WAS this week with his position now looking somewhat untenable. Surely when he does clear his desk he should also be helping Chairman Keith Harris with his packing too.

It is said, and quite rightly, that they were not in charge when the television deal was struck with the then Ondigital but Harris has now been chairman for over two years and Burns has held the Chief Exec position since October 2000. Burns is a keen Sheffield Wednesday supporter so is well versed in financial failure in English football.

The two of them have presided over our league at a difficult time and it is difficult to see just when they ever got anything right. Away supporters are being banned from grounds, currently only the New Den and Turf Moor, with no positive response whilst clubs are being allowed to relocate seventy miles against the league’s own rules. Oh yes they fought that one but not hard enough and where was the EGM when it became critical?

But above all this they have made complete and utter fools of themselves with the television deal. It was clear before the first live match kicked off a year ago this week at Maine Road that it wouldn’t work but even at that stage over a year on from signing the deal no guarantees had been sought.

Mind you the clubs were no better and Andrew Watson must squirm now at his performance at Burnley’s AGM last November. Everyone knew that the collapse was on its way by then but Watson continued to talk about expansion and increasing the wage bill. I’m not sure who he was trying to fool at the time but embarrassed chuckles could be heard around the Centre Spot.

We carried on regardless as live matches were attracting so few viewers that it was said it would have been cheaper for ITV Digital to transport them all to the game and give them hotel accommodation.

When it became clear even to those in charge that the deal was coming to an end the heads were buried in the sand. The League were not prepared to compromise and demanded the full amount despite the fact that they knew there was no reference to Carlton and Granada being responsible within the contracts.

It’s off to court they say and publicly they were telling everyone they had a good case when in fact they had no case at all. As the judge said this week they fell at the first hurdle.

After announcing that they would go to court the fun really started, they decided to launch a campaign against the two media companies. This was just about the most amateurish of campaigns ever.

All chairmen were to picket outside the offices of Carlton and Granada but when it came to the day just 21 of the 72 chairmen turned up although some 59 clubs were represented. Barry Kilby was out of the country and we were represented by Andrew Watson. What a shambles it was and had Delia Smith not turned up, presumably to help prepare lunch, then it would have received no publicity whatsoever.

Then it was the turn of the fans over the next twelve working days. If day one had been a shambles then this was worse. Many clubs didn’t show at all and of those that did most received none or little support from their clubs whatsoever. To be fair some clubs were excellent and transported supporters to London and even threw in a free lunch. Some clubs offered no help whatsoever. The turn out was pitiful and where were the Football League with their support?

Theo Paphitis - would not employ Burns in a kebab shop
The League and the clubs just sat back and waited for others to do it for them and it doesn’t quite work like that. Some organisation calling itself the Football Fans Union stepped in and suddenly they were getting publicity all over the place. The links from our own club’s official web site were totally embarrassing. The League’s Director of Communications John Angle admitted to me his concern about them but they just went on promoting them. Nagle’s title is excellent, what a communicator!!! I had some suggestions for him on how to progress things and he is going to phone me on 9th July. Almost a month later I still await the phone call.

Then we had the petition. I’m not so sure what happened at other clubs but Burnley’s went ahead with Andrew Watson saying he wanted the whole town to sign it. Has anyone seen it? There is little hope of signing a petition that you never see. The clipboards should have been out and the town centre and supermarkets should have been swamped. I have been in both the club’s retail outlets and the leisure centre, the places you can apparently sign it, and have never been approached to sign any petition. I wonder just how many of the town they did eventually get to sign it?

It is all over now though and the money has gone. In the lead up to the court case many thought there would be an agreement. There was no way Carlton and Granada were ever going to do this, they were furious at what they thought were unnecessary out of order attacks on their companies. Then the experts predicted an appeal whichever way it went. Surely not even the likes of Harris and Burns would contemplate an appeal now. The latest is they are planning to sue the legal people involved in signing the contract.

But let’s now bring it home to Turf Moor and the effect it will have on our club. The fact is that we are around £4.2 million down for the next two years with commitments having already been made in terms of players’ contracts in particular.

We could start increasing prices again although that would have nothing but a negative effect. The Preston chairman Derek Shaw said recently on local radio that those days are now over and he highlighted that at Deepdale prices have been reduced by 10% this year. Our Chief Executive once told me that prices would rise at Turf Moor EVERY year but surely even he will now have to look at that outdated policy.

Over the last two seasons if we take a look at Burnley’s transfer dealings and just look at the transfer fees involved. Incoming transfers have cost us (using the fees quoted) a total of £2.75 million. This is for four players in Ian Moore, Dimitri Papadopoulos, Tony Grant and Ian Moore. During the same period a total of £750,000 has been recouped with the sales of Alan Lee, Andy Cooke, Paul Crichton and John Mullin.

Given that should the club break even over the next two years in the transfer market then in transfer fees alone we will have reduced expenditure by £2 million.

Kevin Ball, Mitchell Thomas and Lenny Johnrose were amongst the players released at the end of last season. Although we don’t, and don’t expect to, know players’ wages it is fair to say with just a conservative estimate that these players would have been earning between them over £10,000 per week. Assuming £10,000 then over a two year period that totals another £1 million.

It is very simplistic and I know an accountant would pass it off but in general terms that is a total of £3 million saved and suddenly the £4.2 million quoted by Barry Kilby recently has been reduced to £1.2 million.

Things are not good financially and that is accepted but with just that small reduction in the playing staff and less activity in the transfer market, and I know that will frustrate many supporters, then the problem can be reduced significantly.

Who is to blame? Paphitis refers to the League officials not being able to runn a kebab shop whilst our own Chairman turns his anger on the Chairmen of Carlton and Granada and calls them 'Del Boys'. I tend to agree with both of them. It is difficult not to agree with Paphitis and certainly Barry is right about the despicable way in which the two media companies have behaved. Granada chief Charles Allen, now more famous for patting the Queen's arse at the Commonwealth Games, and Michael Green at Carlton may not be guilty in law but they are clearly guilty on moral grounds.

Eric Morecambe from the days when the Football League had real comedians
So where do we go from here? There is a new television deal with the company the League should never have left, namely Sky. As much as Murdoch has it all stitched up now it is still the best for football coverage, it has channels that just about everyone has access to. They are established and that is why the big deal they offered, and apparently not much less than Ondigital’s offer, should have been accepted.

Whether this deal is a good deal or not is open to debate and only time will tell. Some clubs are furious about it including Ipswich Town’s David Sheepshanks and it is worth looking to see when he was Chairman of the League.

There is no doubt that this whole fiasco has caused a split. When the Sky deal was announced recently both Paphitis and Simon Jordan (Palace Chairman) knew nothing about it until it appeared on Ceefax whilst at Burnley they had it on the official web site an hour before that. Some clubs were obviously in the know and others not.

There will once again be talk of a split, the Phoenix League will once again try and rise from the ashes. This time though Coventry’s Bryan Richardson is gone and surely Mr. Pompous of Bradford wouldn’t have the nerve to get involved after the goings on at Valley Parade. Surely football should be looking to rid itself of Richmond.

Could there be a Phoenix League now? Where would the money come from? There do not appear to be any television deals available any longer unless that was all down to the incompetence of Burns and Harris the best comedians in English football since Tommy Trinder and Eric Morecambe were at Fulham and Luton respectively.

The game is in a mess and those responsible for the running of it are the ones that have got it there. It will be us the fans they turn to in an attempt to put things right, they always do. But they are going to have to listen to the fans. It is not too late yet but things need to change.

This web site will soon become a member of the newly created supporter’s organisation – Football Supporters Federation (FSF). We just await details following its recent formation as a merger between the National Federation of Football Supporters Clubs and the Football Supporters Association (NFFSC and FSA).

We will do whatever we can to get football out of this mess, after all it really is our game.