The recession has already hit the World but it seems only now to be hitting football. Are we seeing empty seats across football (and not just Arsenal as the media like to report) just because teams aren’t performing well or has the game simply become too expensive for avid fans to enjoy and watching the game from home is arguably a lot cheaper than going to the stadium. Clubs are upping prices for games simply because they need more revenue to run; pay the staff, pay the police, electricity, water, cleaners and of course pay the players. For clubs like Chelsea and Man City that’s not an issue but for the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and even Tottenham who over the past five years have been trying to grab hold of that 4^th place spot but have been unable to hold on it as they simply cannot compete financially with the top teams.

Pushing above our weight?

Arsenal has been the exception until now. You can argue that we’ve pushed above our weight over the past couple of seasons, matching teams with limitless resources, Chelsea and City with their rich owners and United with their wealth in the commercial side of things. It’s been clear for a few seasons now that Everton, a team who pinched 4^th spot in 2005, haven’t got the money to compete and face losing their players. Aston Villa has lost Barry, Milner, Young, and Downing and still hasn’t been able to bring in able replacements. Tottenham haven’t been at all shy in the transfer window but still can’t hold on to a top 4 position.

Sure Arsenal aren’t poor, it was proven with the money spent this summer, can we really say we didn’t spend enough because £40m is a lot of money but the media, pundits and fans alike have been brainwashed into comparing money spent against teams like City, which is incomparable. Wenger has said many times that when they come into the race for a transfer the price and wages double or even triple. Can we compete? Well yes but that means spending all our resources on one player rather than the 8 we bought for around £40m.

Financial Fair Play

As reported this year; out of Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Man Utd and Liverpool, Arsenal are the only team likely to meet the new regulations coming into place by Uefa, backed by Platini. This isn’t recognized by the football World currently and when questions are asked why we’re not spending £30m on one player plus 200k wages per week then there’s your answer. Sure we could improve commercially ourselves, shown this summer with trips to Asia to try and improve our fan base and more recently reported shirt sponsorship deals (currently worth only £5.5m a year) with a possible £25m per season deal on the horizon but whatever we do it’ll be nothing like the £400m City will be getting from Etihad Airways.

Without going too deeply into the rules laid out what is clear that clubs aren’t expected to break even from the get go but instead get a ‘debt allowance’ of €40m (£39.5m) over the course of three years. This will decrease as the years go on and even if a club remains in debt as long as they show an upward trend on finances then they’ll be fine. On top of that owners of clubs aren’t allowed to pay off debt with their own personal wealth so it remains to be seen how City can control their huge losses per season without the help of their owners.

It’s hard to see whether or not Uefa will actually ban clubs from Man Utd, Chelsea and even Barcelona & Real Madrid from Europe if they fail to decrease debt but it’ll be interesting if they do meet the requirements and whether they stay as competitive as they are now or will other clubs begin to catch up?

No excuses over performance

This blog isn’t written as an excuse over our performance, or an excuse over why we haven’t won anything for the past 6 years. We’ve had the chance to take the Champions League, Carling Cup & Premier League twice but fallen short. We’ve let players like Helb, Gilberto, Clichy, Toure, Nasri, Fabregas go but we’re still considered to be a decent side and even this season despite our poor start I still believe our team is good enough to come through this.

My main point is that Arsenal don’t receive the credit that they deserve, we’ve kept our Manager over a long term period, we’re continually a competitive side, we play good football and we meet the financial demands of UEFA’s new ruling. The one thing missing is trophy’s of course but no one mentions the fact Liverpool haven’t won anything since 2005 and haven’t won the league in 20 years.

Football is fast becoming a Tycoon game (soon to be released?) where Billionaires buy clubs to turn into super clubs, competing against each for fun because money is no object. My last thought will be on clubs like Leeds & Portsmouth, if you’re not run right you won’t last long, and we all know our Club is in safe hands in the long run.

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