FC - Football becomes big business

Breakaway

First signs of things to come

The re-distributive nature of the Football League (matched by the maximum wage) ensured the safeguarding of every club. Very few clubs went out of business over the course of a century, and these measures alongside The F.A.'s Rule 34 (see plc: page ?), ensured the games popularity and survival. The sixties saw the first signs of sponsorship and television entering football. Whilst the bigger clubs were more attractive to sponsors and likely to attract a greater number of TV viewers, the Football League maintained its re-distributive structure meaning all revenue was shared equally among 92 clubs.

In 1965, the BBC paid £5,000 for its Match of the Day highlights and each club received little more than £50 as a result. As money grew with the success of the game, resentment came from bigger clubs, most headed with a new breed of chairman not keen on having to share the wealth with the smaller clubs. The first threats to the structure of the league came during the 80's. Threats from 'the big five': Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Arsenal to form a breakaway 'Super League' lead to concessions being given by the smaller clubs with more money and voting rights given to bigger clubs. The gate levy was also reduced to 3% with home clubs allowed to keep gate receipts. 1988 saw a private deal made between the big five and ITV to get themselves shown almost exclusively on TV. However there remained an element of redistribution: Division One received 50%, Division Two received 25%, with the remainder shared between the Third and Fourth Divisions.

The Hillsborough Disaster

The 15th April 1989 and a semi-final F.A. Cup clash between Liverpool and Nottingham at Hillsborough was an unfortunate turning point in the history of English league football which saw 96 Liverpool supporters crushed to death.

The ensuing Taylor enquiry was to find in it's interim report that their was an appalling record of safety management at Sheffield Wednesday, failure by the local council in its safety regulatory duties and mismanagement of the crowd on day by South Yorkshire Police. However there was no change of staff at Hillsborough, and no memorial erected until 10 years after the disaster. The chairman who presided over this policy later became the chairman of The F.A. Premier League. Lord Taylor's final report:

• recommended grounds should be made all-seater
• proposed reducing pools tax, with savings passed onto the Football Trust who could then award grants
• stated rebuilding should not be an excuse by the clubs to raise ticket prices
• believed the League and FA both failed to regulate clubs effectively in terms of fulfilling safety duties
• found the ethos of public service in the boardroom being widely betrayed. Chairman and directors were more interested in power struggles and share dealing than their clubs supporters
• called for the fullest reassessment of the policy for the game

The government however only enacted on the all-seater requirement and the giving of public money in the form grants to fund the rebuilding of grounds. Grants of up to £2 million per stand were given to the very directors criticised in report who went against the reports recommendations, and systematically increased their ticket prices. These new stadiums lost their atmosphere, and became notably bland and faceless. Clubs tended to insist on supporters staying seated though this was not a requirement by law. These new grant funded stands were also used as an opportunity to install corporate boxes, as well as banqueting and conference facilities. As for the families affected by the disaster, they received no financial support and out of the whole horrible episode undoubtedly finished the worst off, achieving no justice for their loved ones.

Premier League Formation

As its response to the disaster and answering Lord Taylor's call for a full reassessment of the game, and anticipating the forthcoming TV deal, the Football League published 'One game, One Team, One Voice'. It recommended:

• FA and League should bury the differences that had grown between them, and become a single authority
• a new 12 man board formed at The F.A. (in place of The F.A. Council) with six members from each organisation
• the new F.A. would run the whole spectrum of football; amateur and professional, from top to bottom for the good of all.
• TV deals would be done for the whole of football, money distributed according to needs of running a healthy game.

It was around this time that Rupert Murdoch's Sky satellite television system had been launched in the UK, but with nothing to tempt viewers, it was a tremendously under subscribed and close to going bankrupt. It knew only football could attract viewers, and was prepared to spend big in order to attract the sport to the platform. Such lucrative offers made a breakaway from the money sharing Football League far more tempting and it wasn't long before the 'big five' chairman met in secret with Greg Dyke (then at LWT) who agreed to buy TV rights if they were to form a breakaway 'Super League'. But if they were to gain credibility for the breakaway they would need the backing of The F.A.

The Football Association at this time was preparing its own response to Hillsborough - its 'Blueprint for the Future of Football' published in 1991. It saw unity as a threat to its administrative pre-eminence and so supported the formation of the breakaway league as a means of self-preservation that would also deal a fatal blow to the Football league. The report in essence:

• no longer protected football from commercialism
• believed football should move upmarket to 'chase more affluent middle class consumers'
• saw The F.A. as pre-eminent in football administration
• backed Super League proposal in the form of an 18-member Premier League tied to a system to promote excellence, that would ultimately lead to success for the England team

So 1992 saw the first games being played in The F.A. Carling Premiership. However, with all the former Division One clubs realising the benefits of Premiership membership, all 22 First Division clubs resigned from Football League. This was against the F.A.'s proposals as a greater number of teams meant more games - detrimental to the national team and promotion of excellence. It could of forced the membership of only 18 clubs, but decided not to bother. However, the number of clubs was later reduced to 20.

They shared the £305 million bid by Sky (which outbid Greg Dyke and ITV) between them, with the only concessions to the Football League being £3 million in compensation and allowing clubs to be promoted to and relegated from the Premiership. Clubs that were relegated would receive 'parachute payments'. The following TV deal in 1997 saw £607 million paid, and last deal in 2001 saw a massive £1.6 billion paid out.

Redistribution

Just as enough money was coming in to fund a reform of the whole of football, from the Premier League to the grassroots and in between, the system of redistribution had ended. Not only that but wage inflation soon moved down into lower divisions, players believing they should also have their wages increased at the same scale as that of players in the top league. But the lower leagues did not have the same sort of revenues to support them and many semi-professional clubs soon found themselves in trouble.

As for the grassroots of the game, where tomorrows players are to be found, there was considerable neglect. Playing fields became victim to local authority cuts - either finding themselves in states of disrepair used for housing and industrial developments. These cuts also affected school leagues, and even when they produced Premiership footballers, the money didn't filter down - Manchester United paying only £100 to Manchester Schools FA when Nicky Butt was signed to them.

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