Relegation. Promotion. Those of us who’ve been around a while will remember all too well how it works. And these days, relegation is a more likely prospect for most teams than finishing within a shout of the Premier League’s eventual champion. It’s the sting in the tail that unintentionally gives every season meaning when most seasons would otherwise be meaningless.
Despite the inherent drama of the relegation and promotion fights, League Managers’ Association chief executive Richard Bevan is saying that some foreign owners want close the door behind them. Relegation is an inconvenience.
The idea that anyone would be looking to change this seems outrageous, but it makes perfect sense. After all, who wants to be relegated? Who wouldn’t like to rule out that potentially disastrous outcome? Most of us would be quite happy to eliminate risk of this sort from our lives.
Money Keeps Talking
Whether you’re a billionaire or a working man, financial risk is something you generally look to minimize. Sure, everyone takes a punt on something or other now and again. But for the most part we’d all take a guarantee that our losses wouldn’t ruin us: we’d take bigger or different risks with no real fear.
So, when Bevan alleges that foreign owners would like to do away with relegation, I’d have to say I can’t blame them.
Neither can I endorse them.
I know it’s näive to say, but it should be the fans’ decision if anyone is going to change something that fundamental. Put it up to a vote from every club in the FA, if nothing else. Otherwise, it’s not much different than running off to a super league.
Of course, I may be addressing something that has no basis in reality. But I wouldn’t doubt that some owners in the EPL would like the idea. You don’t accumulate fortunes by not knowing how to manage risk. Just like Liverpool’s shot across the bow regarding international TV rights, ruling out relegation is about leveraging advantage and cementing it into place.
And I’d be dishonest if I said that such a change wouldn’t benefit Aston Villa.
Club Statement
The club was quick to issue a brief statement asking Bevan to clarify himself, while reminding everyone that William McGregor was instrumental to the very formation of the FA. Not surprising, given Villa are owned by an American who has increasingly fallen out of favor following Martin O’Neill’s abrupt departure. I don’t pretend to know what Lerner actually thinks about the idea.
But, like me, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t wonder for just a moment, “What if we could rebuild without worrying about going down?”
Given Villa’s relative positioning amongst the rest of the Premier League in terms of turnover, one could imagine that if the current 20 teams were locked into the top flight, the club would likely fare pretty well over time. Sort the wages, and be on par or better with all but maybe four or five teams. Villa could then adopt different strategies to try and overcome the final hurdle without worrying about long-term risk.
Ironically, it’s the free-wheeling Americans who have led the way with socialism in sport because they realized that keeping more fans interested longer into each season was good business. So the playing fields were leveled to an extraordinary degree. The teams all rise and fall together, financially, for the most part, but there’s still room for organizational excellence to eventually carry the day. Risk is mitigated, and upside beckons for everyone. Different teams win championships in all the leagues all the time.
The FA could do worse than learn the lessons.
The risk of relegation or the joy of promotion, though, are part of football, and this particular lesson can’t easily be applied because it alters the essence of the fabric of football. Promotion and relegation may be a romantic remnant of bygone days, since no club currently looking for promotion to the top flight realistically stands any more chance than Villa of winning the Premier League in the next five or 10 years, but it is a fundamental part of the game.
Because I chafe at the structural ceilings to hope that Villa face, I would have a hard time denying hope to anyone else. Even if you do abandon all hope as the price of entry to the Premier League.
The Other Lesson
Besides focusing our attention on how American professional sports leagues are structured, the bigger point here is that money will keep changing the game. Until or unless the money goes away. While I’ve never thought that staying away from individual grounds did any particular club much good, I would think that if fans at all levels banded together to stay away on a give day and demonstrate their desire, en masse, for change it would send a return shot across certain bows without injuring any particular club. I know it’s more than unlikely, but that’s the real first step for taking the game back.
The Author
