Foreign Owners: Helpful or Harmful?
With 55% of Premier League clubs now majority owned by foreign investors. Is it time we asked, are they helpful to the game or causing long lasting damage? You don’t have to look far to see the effect they have had on the game. From Manchester City’s title winning campaign of 2011-2012 to the demise of Blackburn Rovers in the very same year. What sets these two apart? Is it the sheer amount of money ploughed into the club? Or the quality of management at both the higher and lower levels of the club. There can be no doubt that foreign investors have brought great success to some Premier League sides, but at the other end of the spectrum they have mismanaged sides into losing their place in the league. We are going to look at some different examples of the antics and mismanagement of some of these clubs.
The most recent example of an owner taking things a little too (and not for the first time) is Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, who famously angered fans previously by changing the clubs colours from their famous blue to red. This time around he was in the news for firing the club’s head of player recruitment Ian Moody, who was responsible for many of the transfers that have Cardiff sitting in the reasonable league position they find themselves in now. What really angered the fans was his replacement. 23 year old Alisher Apsalyamov, a friend of Tan’s son, who has no experience in football to date. It is examples of incredible nepotism like this that can take a stable club and turn get them into League 2 faster than you can say Alisher Apsalyamov which arguably might still be quite a while. It has also no doubt unsettled manager Malky Mackay. How long will it be before Tan replaces Mackay with his son’s cleaning lady in an effort to reduce the wage bill?
Hull City have a lot to thank owner Assem Allam for. His investments in the club have taken them back to the promised land for a second time, this time round under the guidance of Steve Bruce. Allam recently angered Hull fans when he set forth plans to change the club name to Hull Tigers, or the very least Hull City Tigers. This seems to be a prime example of an owner that is completely out of touch with the game and the fans of his own club. His reasoning behind the decision was to sell more merchandise in Asia as well as to make the club more unique. With the greatest of respect to Hull City, it will take a lot more than a name change to make them a commercial force in the Asian markets. I personally hope this move never comes to fruition as it might give other egotistic owners the same idea and before we know it the fixture lists will read Hull Tiger vs Cardiff Dragons and Norwich Canaries vs Fulham Cottages. Leaving the league sounding more like a zoo than a football competition.
With all that said about the owners of Cardiff and Hull respectively, the clubs have enjoyed success under their ownership, which is more than can be said for this next batch.
Former Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers were bought for £23m in November 2010. The first act of the new owners of course was to sack manager Sam Allardyce with the team in a comfortable position. They appointed Steven Kean who would eventually lead the club down to the Championship. After going through 3 more managers last season, Blackburn just managed to maintain their position in the Championship (which is more than can be said for Wolves). Surely it cannot be a coincidence that this fall from grace begun as the Venkys took over the club. Although we do not know all the details, it is the simplest possible conclusion we can draw.
QPR may well be enjoying the dizzy heights at the top of the Championship currently but their last two season have been anything but rosy. When investment started pouring into the club during the 2007/08 season, including from Lakshmi Mittal, one of the richest men in the world. QPR struggled to find consistency, and have been through 9 managers between then and now. They do appear to have found stability under the guidance of Harry Redknapp. If given a chance to put his mark on the team they could rise from the ashes once again. Hopefully this time they will avoid the mistakes of Mark Hughes in buying a large number of expensive players, but never actually getting them to play together.
The final club in question is Portsmouth, now i don’t have time to discuss all that went wrong with them because frankly that could fill a book. They managed to go from 2 FA Cup finals (winning one) to being left penniless in the 4th tier of English football in little more than 5 years. From the outsider looking in it seems as though they were used as a pawn in an elaborate game of chess between so many different parties it is hard to count them all. At least for Portsmouth fans sake the ordeal is over and the club in back in the hands of the supporters trust. Making them the largest fan owned club in the UK. Hopefully the saga at Portsmouth will act as a warning to other clubs of the exotic strangers bearing gifts.
What do you think? Are foreign investments and ownership helping the English game or hindering it? Has your club gone through a similar hardship, let me know below.
Photo courtesy of Nick Sarebi
About the Author
SYC Matt A football fan just like the rest of us. Battling with the usual ups and downs that come with supporting one of the less glamorous teams. Crusader for footballing justice.
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