Government must step in to control the foreign invaders

13 April 2012

The likely sale of Everton and Newcastle to foreigners will mean a majority of Premier League clubs will be in overseas control, as I have long predicted. If three more go after that, foreign owners working together could theoretically change the constitution of the Premier League. This is not a reason for panic, or for xenophobia, but it's a cause for concern.

Years ago in Britain, we let key assets go to foreigners, even foreign governments. London's electricity is supplied by a state-owned French company but the lights still go on.

Okay, in Paris they'd have heart failure if roles were reversed but that's because of French insecurity rather than Gallic rationality.

So is the same true in football? Alas not. The supply of electricity is tightly regulated but the supply of football isn't. The electricity regulator can prevent anti-competitive or dubious practices but the Premier League are pretty much impotent to prevent abuse.

British ownership is, of course, no guarantee of competent ownership. And my first witness, my Lord, is Mr Michael Ashley.

Good owners and bad owners cut across national boundaries. But inevitably some of the foreign billionaires now flooding into English football have made their money in unusual ways and won't change the habits of a lifetime just because they are in English football.

So changes must be made to ensure that the Premier League maintain their essentially English character, even if the owners are foreign, and given a tighter constitution that ensures, among other things, financial transparency.

Here the model should be the big American sporting leagues. They have the power to discipline owners, including the right to remove their franchise compulsorily. The Premier League urgently require something similar, with independent directors enforcing tough standards through arms-length regulation.

Government must play a role here because the football bodies are incapable of cutting the mustard. The Premier League administration, though well led by Richard Scudamore, doesn't have the power and the FA doesn't have the competence. FIFA, under Sepp Blatter, are worse than useless.

This week, Blatter said: "Football clubs shouldn't be bought like football shirts," - a typically empty, essentially meaningless piece of populism.

In the real world things are bought and sold, so why should football clubs be any different? Nature abhors a vacuum and, if super-rich Brits won't step up to the plate, it's inevitable that foreigners will.

With the president of France egging on UEFA to demand European, not national, regulation of domestic football, the lunatics are at the gates of all of football's many asylums.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham is a football man to his fingertips. He is well placed to seize hold of this situation and, in a calm and measured way, effect change to protect our national game. And he should without delay.

Venables has proved a point by snubbing Geordie cash

Terry Venables was offered £100,000 a game to manage Newcastle but turned it down. He wanted a contract through to the end of the season in order to work the same miracle he did at Middlesbrough but all they would give him was a week-to-week deal until the new owners arrived.

Venables thought that would be bad for him and for Newcastle United, so he stayed put.

"Sometimes the only way to prove to people you're not just in it for the money is not to take it," he told me the other day.

Joe Kinnear wasn't so wise. But then Terry has options and Joe hasn't.

Kinnear had nothing on. So he took the job and has been turned into a laughing stock before having even the slightest chance to prove himself.

Unkind and unfair but entirely predictable. And there's no point in ranting at the Press, Joe. Better by far to try to contrive a few wins. That will work better for you than all the f-words in creation.

Can Kinnear turn the Toon around? Frankly, I doubt it. The game has moved on since Joe last worked in football and he looks totally out of place; a bit like a caveman wandering on to the set of Star Wars.

Manuel moans use faulty logic

Spurs are in a sorry state but don't blame Ramos

The sustained and vile abuse hurled at Sol Campbell is unacceptable. Tottenham should study the video footage, identify the ringleaders, and ban them.

If they don't, the FA should give serious consideration to insisting that Portsmouth's visit to White Hart Lane in January is played behind closed doors, or at the very least warn Spurs that a ground closure next time will be the consequence of any repetition.

Spurs, meanwhile, would make fools of themselves if they got rid of Juande Ramos - their fifth manager in seven years - but dispensing with the services of director of football Damien Comolli would strike most people as just. Someone has to pay the price for a transfer spree which, despite spending £80million on newcomers, lost the club three of their four strikers, with only a dodgy Russian as a replacement.

But there is no point sacking Comolli just to replace him with somebody else. The problem is not just Comolli but the model. A director of football choosing players - and a coach trying to get the best out of them - is a crazy idea.

It is not entirely coincidental that the two clubs who do it, Spurs and Newcastle, are in dire straits.

Lampard now has the edge

Should Fabio Capello play Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard with Gareth Barry on Saturday? He could, of course, play them both but what would that prove? Even if it worked, everyone would say it wouldn't against a decent team.

At the beginning of the season Gerrard would have got the nod over Lampard every time but things have changed. Lamps is playing out of his skin and, whether it is with Gerrard or Barry, he should start against Kazakhstan.

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