Sheffield - A Footballing City Better Divided

They say that politicians are out of touch with society and their constituents. Many of those MPs profess to be football fans often have a view of the game that demonstrates an even greater distance between them and the man in the street. So what chance have we got when an octogenarian ex-MP starts talking of the need for merger in Sheffield?

The former Bassetlaw MP was once a board member at Hillsborough, a man never short of a loudly voiced opinion and a man ever keen to demonstrate his man of the terraces credentials. Speaking back in 1990 he said; “I saw my first game in 1942, I’ve had a season ticket since 1962 and I’ve been a shareholder since 1974. If I don’t know about Wednesday, who does?”

That was then. Today he demonstrated he knows little about his club or their fans - you only have to view the forum thread on Owlstalk to see that. He demonstrated that he knows little about Sheffield United, modern day football and the fans of this city. Joe Ashton is an old-school former MP of the ilk that thinks he who shouts loudest, clearly wins the argument.

Like the senile old uncle at a family reunion Joe spouted his views to The Star, supported by factual inaccuracies and huge misconceptions. None of which the paper saw fit to pick him up on.

“The fans are sick of it now, both sets."

“We’ve had to put up with rubbish for years (AUV - I'll give him that!) and I think the majority of Sheffielders would get behind one team. (AUV - Really? That is not the impression I get) People realise that we’re never going to get anywhere with two teams (AUV -we have both been in the Premier league before, where is anywhere?) and that Sheffield is missing out on the big time. If you want to be in the Premier League you have to get a city behind the team (AUV - What? Like in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham? And it has worked so well in Leeds, even Newcastle have suffered Premier league relegation). Wait until both teams are out of the FA Cup and then ask the fans when they’ve nowt to play for except survival. (AUV - Let's do that Joe - I doubt you will see a different response)

“I also think a combined team could play at Bramall Lane or Hillsborough - not the Hillsborough ground as it is now, that will always be associated with the disaster that claimed 96 lives. They should knock it down and build a new, modern ground with a suitable memorial.

“Kevin McCabe has been trying to sell United for years and Mandaric is the same at Wednesday. If the two clubs were to combine, get the city right behind them then they could attract some big money from overseas investors, I’m sure of it.”(AUV - Correct me if I am wrong Joe isn't that what has just happened at Bramall Lane? And there are many examples of where money doesn't guarantee you success and doesn't guarantee you getting out of League 1, never mind the Championship)

 

This is not new talk from Ashton. Back in 2000 he spoke of his feelings on a Steel City football merger in a less expectant manner and less positive terms, yet Mickey Mouse talk of a South Yorkshire team in 20 years still passed his lips.

“There was some talk of a merger from Mike McDonald (AUV - then chairman) at Sheffield United, but the fans of both clubs would never accept it. The problem with mergers and so on so far has been that it is small businessmen have tried them. If big companies like Disney and Warner Bros get involved, then it might happen.

“Bayern Munich and Barcelona represent their regions, not just their cities (AUV - Espanol and 1860 Munich would have a view on that and they are just for starters). South Yorkshire has a catchment area of 1.25 million, with about 60,000 people paying to watch football. There could be a South Yorkshire team in ten or 20 years.”

Sheffield, a city of so many football firsts - the first football club (as recognised by FIFA), the oldest professional football ground in the world, the venue of the first game played under floodlights - is suffering another season without first division football, without a realistic hope of reaching a major final and there is little sign of the situation changing soon, despite the arrival of Saudi investment at Bramall Lane. While ever that is the case "know-nowts" like Ashton will still talk of this supposed panacea.

Twenty years on from the all-Sheffield FA Cup semi-final, between what were then two Premier League clubs, the city has watched Wednesday struggle to retain the Championship status gained 12 months previously and remain rooted in the bottom three this season. Whilst across the city United stumbled towards seemingly inevitable play-off failure and are just starting to recover from the disastrous start under the short-lived reign of David Weir.

Wednesday reached both cup finals back in 1993, losing out to Arsenal each time. Two years earlier they enjoyed cup success in the Rumbelows Cup Final, beating Manchester United. Prior to that you have to look back 56 years for Sheffield's last major trophy - Wednesday's cup win and even further for Wednesday's two titles and the Blades beating Cardiff City in the 1925 FA Cup final (their 4th cup success). United's only league title coming before the turn of the 20th century.

In a way, the football clubs are representative of the city they call home. Sheffield is a city in stagnation, stifled by the poor decisions of those who run it, at odds with the national rulers and always placing barriers in front of potential investment and development from outside parties. Ashton's peers and followers have put roadblocks in front of a city that could have been on the move.

The leaders of Sheffield City Council have perfected the art of portraying themselves as the victims, suffering misfortune and bad luck without recognising their own failings. Never seeing the positive opportunities that are there, like finding a home within the city boundaries for the World's Oldest Club or by leveraging the marketing opportunities given by the city's place in football history. Talk of a World Football Museum was just that and it is probably wise it was when the National Centre for Popular Music was as big a white elephant as Sheffield Airport. This negative and corrosive mentality of failure and insularity had started to pervade both the city's football clubs and their supporters.

 
Listening to the phone-ins, reading the internet forums and you can see that within Sheffield there is a feeling that football needs strong Sheffield clubs, but does that feeling exist outside of the city? Despite the positivity towards the great atmosphere and large crowds when the Sky cameras visit, I don't believe that clamour exists. The game has moved on without a concern as to who is and isn't at the top table, leaving the Sheffield clubs lagging behind, increasingly forgotten.
 

In a similar vein, the city stumbles along, whilst Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and many others attract money and investment. Regeneration after the loss of major industry has not happened in the Steel City to the same extent as elsewhere. Sheffield as a city is an unattractive prospect for the money men and that has been replicated in football. The failure of the city to develop left few local people with the wealth to effect significant change at either club. 

United were lucky. Somewhat unexpectedly Kevin McCabe leveraged a deal which brought significant money into the club, at a cost to himself and his family companies, but with the long term interests of the club at heart. Milan Mandaric hasn't got that same attachment to Wednesday and as the club regresses on the pitch he will become increasingly desperate to get out at a profit. Who he sells to and the custodianship of the club will be potentially at risk. Let's not forget that he sold Portsmouth to the Gaydamaks.

Some, like Joe Ashton, may say that the only way to make Sheffield football an attractive prospect is a merged club, capitalising on the potential combined fan base and utilising a single city stadium, a thought that would be heresy to most fans of the Blades and Owls and would most probably lead to new United and Wednesday clubs dividing the city's support further and more local interest in Sheffield FC. But as each year passes without success, and a generation of fans fail to see Premier League football return to the city, might that defiance start to crumble?

Possibly, but that assumes everyone is desperate to reach the Promised Land of the Premier League, which seems to become increasingly tarnished year after year. The only feasible way that it could happen is if you have two owners interested in a merger for profit making purposes.

 

The uncertainty over Wednesday's future ownership puts the club at risk of such a benefactor taking over, with little local interest in history or the city. However, whilst ever one of the two clubs has a supporter involved in its guardianship - Kevin McCabe's controlling interest at United - then the wider risk is minimised. Maybe both halves of Sheffield have something to be thankful to the McCabe family for at present?

My Hopes for The Cradle of Football in 2011

20 years ago Stuart Roy Clarke started his footballing opus - The Homes of Football. As he states on his website and within several of his books he believed himself "to have a mission in telling the changing face of football, post Hillsborough." He believed he "was stood on the precipice of history, peculiarly privileged in (his) view, to witness a national institution in big trouble, reinventing itself."

This Christmas I increased my collection of Clarke's work by asking for and receiving (I have been a good boy all year - after all) The Cradle of The Game. This pulls together 20 years of capturing the passion, the atmosphere, the rituals, the emotion, the game, at all levels from the Westmorland League to World Cups and European Championships.

 

It is a vital and impressive piece of work that every football fan should own. You can buy it, along with his other books, here. Clarke's photography is so simple, yet so evocative to the senses you can hear the noise, feel the tension, taste the greasy burgers and feel yourself physically swerving around the river of urine pouring down the steps at Tynecastle in "Bogs Overspill". 

In the introduction to the The Cradle of The Game, Clarke states that he had "a real sense of mission to start telling the story anew. Club after club is facing dereliction, given the global recession combined with over-reaching oneself. Even though the game is ever more popular in footfall and some of the foot-ball is the best ever served. It’s just the sums that don’t add up."

He is so right. The feelgood factor that followed Italia 90 elevated football to such a positive level in the public consciousness that the Sky input just added impetus to the new football bandwagon. At the same time the fans were finding a voice, particularly through the fanzine movement, and as football changed, the public perception changed, the money came in to the game and the fan experience changed, initially in positive ways.

Now the fans are rising once more and the messages they are delivering are strikingly similar. Primarily fed up of being taken for granted, but also fed up of a game and players so far removed from the grim reality of everyday life in modern Britain.

As a fellow Blades supporter put it to me the other day, when tweeting about the increasing demands and expectations of fans in this country, "£30+ a ticket, fans fleeced in club shop, players earning more per week than most people earn per annum. Money has made fans want it now." As the money poured into football, with little benefit filtering down to the fans, it has empowered supporters to be more demanding of their teams to an extent which is sometimes hard to reconcile expectation with achievements. The exchange of tweets followed news of Sunderland (7th in the Premier League) being booed off by their supporters after a home defeat to Blackpool and Cardiff City (2nd in the Championship) internet forums being filled with calls for Dave Jones to be sacked. I struggle to get my head around it.

Football in 2010 has not been particularly enjoyable for me in a number of ways, not least trying to introduce my 5 year old son to live football with the dross on display at Bramall Lane. On the plus-side his season ticket only cost me £10 Junior Blades membership, a pricing policy which has been one of the few positives for me this year. That said, there has been plenty to dislike about football in 2010;

Where 45 quid gets you a restricted view seat at Stamford Bridge and £34 gets you the best seats for a  match at Sheffield United or Leeds United. Yet, average ticket prices for the competitive Bundesliga in Germany cost on average 21 Euros. And still German fans are protesting at the increasing price.

Where you have no choice but to sit and if you stand out of your seat for any prolonged period you are threatened with expulsion from the ground or arrest.

Where it has taken intense fan pressure for safe standing to be considered by the authorities. Yet in Germany these areas exist and can be entered for under 10 Euros.

Safe standing in Hamburg - from FSF

Where the food quality/price ratio is so badly skewed that a fiver is likely to provide you with an evening on the toilet rather than a nutritious and filling snack. Only at football can Guinness be advertised at £3.50 per pint, only for the pump to be foregone in favour of a can from the fridge when your money has been taken.

Where clubs feel it is necessary to put the words of fan written club anthems up on the big screen , just in case people forget the words.

Where clubs are happy to receive positive PR for foregoing shirt sponsorship in order to put a local charity on their shirts. Only then paying over a promised cut of shirt sales to the aforementioned charity when the lack of payment was made public.

Where spurious "football rules" are allowed to over rule insolvency law allowing footballers to be paid money they are owed ahead of small local suppliers and the St Johns Ambulance service.

Where it is the fans who put their hands in their pockets to donate money to pay debts owed by the clubs to St Johns Ambulance the value of which would barely be a week's wage for one of those players.

Where a winding up from Revenue & Customs seemingly poses no real threat to owners who have financially mis-managed their club, living a dream that bore little resemblance to the nightmarish reality.

Where at least 28 professional or semi-professional UK football clubs have gained the winding up order badge of honour in the last year and are willing to partake in the ultimate game of brinkmanship with HMRC before pulling a financial rabbit from a hat.

Where the big clubs are granted time they barely deserve whilst smaller clubs, who can more legitimately play the "community card" so prevalent in the arguments of defence from the larger clubs, are put out of business. R.I.P. Ilkeston Town and Chester City 

The redundant New Manor Ground, Ilkeston (Copyright:thisisderbyshire.co.uk)

A game where the Premier League, the FA and the Football League's' definition of the words "fit and proper" is looser than MC Hammer's trousers.

Where a club's fans are enthralled by overseas investment and promises from Thai Duty Free Magnates, Indian Chicken Companies or from serial football owners/administrators Peter Ridsdale / Milan Mandaric. Yet you cannot help but feel it will all end in tears.

Where such enormous sums of money are pumped into the game that the need to compete leads owners to gamble not just on short term prizes, but on the long term future of clubs.

Where player wage costs increased dramatically in 2010 to 67% of total revenue, in some cases turnover barely covers player wages.

Where the media hype English players and the Premier League beyond belief, yet explode in disbelief when it all goes wrong.

Where Richard Keys nearly ejaculates on live TV at the thought of being able to smell the tunnel as Arsenal and Chelsea line-up pre-match.

Where Andy Gray, desperately trying to maintain his support for Sky's Premier League "product" dismisses the skills of Messi et al (displayed weekly by his employers), by suggesting that the Argentinian wouldn't fancy it on a cold wet night at Stoke. 

Where Wayne Rooney can sarcastically address the nation following his and England's abject World Cup draw with Algeria. Berating the reaction of fans who had spent thousands of pounds travelling halfway round the world to watch and support the team.



Loyal Rooney - Picture ITV



“That's what loyal support is,” said Rooney, yet four months later Rooney demonstrated his admirable values and loyalty handing in a transfer request and vowing never to play for Manchester United again. A week later all was well at Manchester United and Rooney had a new deal earning a reported £250,000 per week, not far off ten times the median average annual salary in this country.

Where a 2018 World Cup bid becomes a not unanticipated waste of £15m. An ineptly run project from start to finish with no leadership, a bizarre choice of potential stadia, scandals and disappointment that Sepp Blatter's push to take football to new frontiers didn't include bringing it home. Maybe the fact that the Chairman of the Premier League and Chairman of Club England distanced himself so far from the bid told you all you need to know about its chances of success.

I hope 2011 brings some sanity to the world of football.

That some of the harsh financial realities that a large proportion of the country are now facing properly hit home with football clubs and players alike and that the playing field starts to level out.

That promoted teams can sensibly establish themselves in the Premier League without taking themselves to the brink to do it.

That the authorities clamp down harder and penalise clubs who, in my opinion, cheat by signing players that they know they will not be able to pay the full monthly cost of employing. That is by not paying over the PAYE and NI they have "deducted" from their players salaries.

That football's preferential creditor rule is successfully challenged by HMRC leading to a change in the way players contracts are negotiated and that the support line of local clubs, the small businesses that come in and maintain the electrics, fix the burst pipes, paint the stands have as much chance of receiving some form of payment as your star striker.

That we see a flattening or reversal of ticket prices so that we don't see empty seats everywhere, so that teams can take a good level of away support to each game and we can get back to having decent banter and a competitive atmosphere at matches.

That fans are recognised as the lifeblood of the game, a valued customer, deserving respect and worthy of an opinion. Not a consumer who will just accept what is presented as "the way it is".

That fans are able to have their say in the way their clubs are run and that greater opportunity is provided for fans' opinions to be proffered. Most of us are quite intelligent, often more so than some of those making the decisions.

Look I know what you are thinking, I said they were hopes, I suspect the reality will be far different. Stuart Roy Clarke's book does not present a footballing utopia, but highlights the little things you have forgotten about that are missing in the sterilised stadia and money-fuelled, media-hyped modern game. If some of the things I hoped for happen, we might get some of those things back. 

Happy New Year!

PS If someone can tell me at some point during 2011 what (ahem -Sir) Dave Richards does and how he received his knighthood I would be greatly appreciative. Answers on a postage stamp I am guessing, or a two word comment below, ending in All.