Week 43: There’s No Substitute For Real Change
Earlier this week, the EFL agreed to increase the number of substitutes allowed from the regular three to the mid-lockdown five; the temporary number permitted by FIFA to take into account that the players were taking part in more games and closer proximity.
The Premier League voted to stay at three but several managers have changed their minds and want the rest to reconsider. Injuries have, as expected, increased as the tighter schedule and attempted catch up to ensure the season is completed ahead of the Euro ‘2020’ tournament, and the higher-than-ever demands on players is coming into focus. Liverpool, just one example, have lost an entire back four to injuries in the space of a few weeks.
On the positive side, welcome noises are coming from Westminster to suggest that fans might be allowed back into stadiums as early as December and this, coupled with vaccine progress that could see a roll-out start before the end of 2020, feels like a potential turning point in the battle against Covid – for football anyway.
Also this week, a ‘constructive’ summit – led by Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden – was held virtually to discuss the state of football. Dowden said “I want to work together with football to make progress on important issues for the game’s long-term future. There are unconfirmed reports that Dowden had to be shown what a football was – by someone holding one up to the camera – before the summit started, but at least they are finally trying to move forward.
But there are still frustrations that the rescue package that the government hoped the Premier League and EFL would agree upon has not yet come to fruition. While Project Big Picture seemed to have been dismissed – or at least kicked into the very long grass – it remains to be seen if the commitment to a new financial footing for football that was being promised will join it there.
So, given where we are, and considering that football is in a perfect place for a reset, then what 5 changes might you make? I’m not talking short-term, like put hand sanitisers outside turnstiles, but the biggies. Things that will make the game better for generations to come. Here are mine:
1.Laws Of The Game
It’s easy to lay the blame for the way the enjoyment of football has been sucked out of the game firmly on the door of VAR, and believe me, if it had never been introduced it would still have been too soon. But as it’s here and here to stay, the way that it collides with the laws of the game means that it’s the laws that ideally need changing.
Handball has become nonsensical. Most offenders aren’t even aware that the ball has touched their hand or arm and even if they are, they aren’t in a position to get out of the way as they are a yard from the ball when it’s kicked. The ‘deliberate’ aspect handball has been almost removed altogether. This is highlighted by the fact that on FIFA21, apart from goalkeepers and defenders being completely shite, the handballs are now given for pretty much anything. EA Sports, always keen to make the game as authentic as possible (see Jordan Pickford being beaten at his near post) have done just that but even the CGI offenders are shaking their heads in disbelief.
Offside is, if anything, worse when it comes to the real thing. The by-the-millimetre precision on Fifa is easy for a computer but the officials don’t have those advantages and with it being so tight, are told to keep flags down and let VAR help out. But that same precise way of looking at it is actually counterproductive on the pitch; unless you want to create more stoppages and chalk of perfectly good goals all the time. For me, when the Patrick Bamford ‘goal’ against Crystal Palace was disallowed (Bamford’s outstretched arm was a fraction ahead of the last defender while his feet were planted firmly onside) it was the final straw.
Get IFAB to address both, fix them and then leave well alone for the foreseeable future.
2.Financial Balance
We all know the pandemic has exposed just how far out of whack the footballing finances are in this country, and it’s also highlighted how unprepared the various bodies are when it comes to working together; just arranging a rescue package seems out of reach right now, so realigning the whole piece feels like fantasy.
But they have to start somewhere. And if one aspect of the finances demonstrates the distortions perfectly, it’s the parachute payment model. In the early PBP discussions, the parachute payments would have had their cord cut if the plans had been taken forward and as many have said, there was a lot of merit in some of the project’s initial ideas.
Parachutes have always sounded like a good idea in principle, and of course, no-one complains when they don’t work, but this version leaves the playing field in the Championship far from level. To bridge the gap, some other clubs overspend in the hope they will get into the Premier League so that they too can benefit from the parachute a year or two later.
In other words, it encourages – and rewards at times – bad practice and too many seasons of that only go one way – especially if a global pandemic suddenly and unexpectedly reveals the extent of it.
Parachutes, again like the real thing, provide an advantage that those without don’t have. But whereas its very real when jumping out of an aeroplane, it might only create an illusion of one in football, but that’s sometimes all it takes for bad behaviour to take place. Of course, relegated clubs have higher costs and wages to pay, so the payments were designed to cushion the blow and prevent the club having to lay off staff and sell all their players for peanuts. Which is all very well, except the pandemic has outlined a wider problem (that we all knew was there) and that’s if the imbalance between the leagues wasn’t so bad in the first place, then we wouldn’t need parachutes to begin with.
So, rather than try to fix all of football’s woes in one stroke, why not start with parachute payments and once that’s straightened out, apply the same logic to the rest of the finances?
3.Calendar
Not a day goes by without a manager complaining about the number of fixtures. Whether it’s about preventing injuries, preparing players better for international tournaments or just so Pep can have a few days in Catalonia, most football people think there is too much football.
In the lower leagues, there are even more games already (no one ever mentions protecting these players though) and with three cups – one including at least three group games – then the fixture list is always going to be busy; pandemic or not.
What doesn’t help is that everyone wants a piece of the pie. The bread and butter is the league, but the FA want to fit their cup in, the EFL have their own cup competition too and Papa Johns aren’t paying for nothing so the EFL Trophy isn’t going anywhere. UEFA want to fit in their own continental competitions (one more from next season) plus the Euros and its qualifiers and, not forgetting, the Nations League while FIFA have World Cups and World Club Championships to squeeze in.
Obviously, players don’t play in all of these but if a club has players from South America, Asia and Africa in their squad, then the international matches will also exacerbate the problem. It’s been said before, but what if – massive if, mind – the calendar was arranged on a global basis so that EVERY country had an allocated slot to fit in its domestic leagues and cups, inter-continental competitions like the Champions League had their own designated slots within it and all international fixtures be completed in two (or even just one) long window like they are in rugby union?
We’re closer to this now than at any other time in football’s history. How hard would it be to make that last push to go all the way?
4.Fans
Another key issue that has been evident during the last nine months has been the part the fan plays in football. A lot of smaller clubs have always known that the fan is the club, and relies on them for almost all of its income. The bigger the club, the less reliance in ticket revenue and the more that this relationship becomes transactional; a ticket sale rather than any kind of attachment at an emotional level. This hasn’t necessarily been taking them for granted, but more them simply fitting into the way things are. You only really notice how this doesn’t work when fans aren’t in the equation at all.
While the monetary reliance (or not) is the same, all clubs have now begun to appreciate the role the fan plays in the whole experience; be it making noise in the stadium, buying merchandise in the store or engaging with the club on non-match days. Fans, and the wider local community, are as crucial to the spectacle as the bottom line, even at the top level. Piped in crowd noise, streamed matches and virtual stadium access are alright for a while, but football without fans has proved to be a very poor imitation of what we once knew.
Soon, there will be an opportunity to bring them back. What if, as we do, the balance of the relationship is realigned in the way that the finances should be? What if all clubs – and leagues – began to appreciate the fans a bit more and treat them differently, recognising the key function they perform at all times, not just between the kick-off and full-time whistle? What if we were to give them a much bigger say in the way the club is run?
It’s a less tangible change for sure, and could manifest in a thousand different ways, but it’s the thought that counts. If we think of them differently, we will treat them differently. Not really that far from the new ways in which we see NHS staff and other key workers, or how we now have that extra concern for vulnerable and elderly people.
It’s do-able. Not easy – major change often isn’t – but it comes down to a matter of will. As Yvonne Ferguson, Head of Supporter Services at Middlesbrough, said to me once on the subject of creating a great fan experience… ‘budgets and stadiums don’t really matter. If a club wants to do it they will, and if they don’t then they won’t.’
The same applies to seeing them in a new light.
5.Short v Long Termism
Possibly the biggest of all, and one that could be applied to all the previous four changes.
Football administration feels like the various bodies who dig up the roads. The do it in August to lay new broadband cables, then again in October to repair the gas pipes, then December for the sewage and January for something else. If they’d all spoken to each other and planned it, they could open the road up once and get it all done….but they don’t.
I heard a line in an audio book this week. It was taking about gang culture in cities and someone said ‘always take the discount today, as the person offering it might be dead or in jail tomorrow.’
That makes sense for gangs, but it makes no sense in football where so much of the sport is already based on immediacy (the next game, current form etc) so are clubs prepared to take a longer perspective instead of the incredibly short sighted view that a lot currently do? Will this virus be the catalyst for a step back and a new, more strategic and visionary approach based on sustainability instead of the boom and bust attitude based on the last three results?
The problem with constantly chopping things after three to six months is that we can never know if something might have worked out much better had it been left alone.
These five changes are not only big, but would surely gain agreement from most true fans of the game. After all, who wants to see crappy interpretations of the law, clubs going out of business, fans viewed as unimportant, the top players all injured and most of the key decisions being made by few that stand to benefit now, regardless of what it means for the future?
Which leaves one final question.
How many of these five particular changes will actually happen?
My guess is maybe one. And that’s at a push. But during the biggest crisis to hit the game since World War II, you could also ask that if they aren’t implementable now, then when?
My guess. Possibly never.
And if I’m right, then maybe we should be asking the fourth official to get his board out and hold it up with the names of all the people that could make it happen but choose not to.
Change, after all, comes from within.
words Darren Young, D3D4 columnist