I made the point before on another thread that so many football clubs began as just that -- clubs, a gathering of (often) working class folks who came together through a narrow affiliation, local or work-oriented, for sport or some other reason. Americans struggle to grasp this concept because our professional sports teams were nearly all created as entertainment vehicles made up of people being paid to play a game. The "club" aspect really shows up at the university (amateur) level where players are all students at a particular school.
As such, I can understand the motivation here to protect local cultural institutions, whatever they've evolved into (if they've evolved at all -- has Yeovil Town, e.g.?), and the ESL was an attempt to break away clean from that. I was just as dumbfounded and angry about this as Mancs were since I love the cultural identity of the club as Mancunian, which was the reason I started following City in the first place. It doesn't help that Henry and Kronke and the Glazers were the drivers -- in fact, it makes my point about Americans not understanding the importance of the clubs at a local level even clearer.
However, I also understand and agree with the perspective that as written, the petition is hopelessly vague and doesn't build anything, other than -- I guess -- to raise awareness of a nebulous need for change to ensure the cultural institutions are not further damaged. It seems to open itself up to redirection and abuse in a way that could do more harm than good, including concentrating the definition of "what's good for the game" in a person or persons who, while they may not have an agenda, may be ill-equipped to make such a determination.
As for Neville, I'll say that for years I've really struggled to figure him out. Sometimes he seems irritatingly biased; other times thoughtful; other times forthright; other times balanced; other times, off his rocker; other times dumber than box of hammers, all in equal measure. Whether he's driving this or not is one question. What his motives for being so vocal would appear to be another. Both these problems could be partially solved by all I'm asking for -- more specificity in the petition. As written, I wouldn't sign it.
But your point about reform timing I agree with.
Finally a poster who has reservations about the petition based on careful thought as opposed to blind paranoia about Gary Neville.
I do broadly understand your reservations about the petition being vague and the potential for it to lead to complications down the line.
But I’d just reaffirm, the petition is not a proposal for how to fix football governance. It’s a petition to get MPs to debate whether current football governance is fit for purpose and whether it might need reform.
If they decide it’s worth investigating, there would be a far-reaching independent review about how football is currently governed and stakeholders like the fans would absolutely be consulted during that process.
But let’s even say absolute worst case scenario the independent review agreed with some things that Gary Neville might say, it would still need to win a majority in Parliament to be enacted in to law.
You’d hope that the 650 MPs would vote on what‘s best for football and their constituents and not just ram through some half-baked ideas that suit Gary Neville and fuck the rest of football in this country over.
But even on Gary Neville, he was incandescent about Project Big Picture. He called it a “power grab” by United and Liverpool which wasn’t in the best interests of the game. He said they needed to be reigned in.
He was furious about the Super League and again was very vocal that he thought it was being driven by United and Liverpool and how it was a disgrace how they were using their positions of influence to hold a gun over the heads of the rest of football.
He’s in favour of owner investment in football because it encourages competition and he’s anti-FFP because it protects the traditional big clubs. Perhaps his views on this are driven by his own investment in Salford City, but they are his views nonetheless.
Several Chief Exec’s have tried to reform the FA and have been completely unable to do so because of how the organisation is structured. Greg Dyke, the former Chief Exec said it was “unreformable” in its current structure.
The only way that can be changed is if the government forces that change upon it. And signing the petition is the first step towards that. It’s the best chance we’ve got.
