WHEN DID OUR BEAUTIFUL GAME BECOME SO UGLY?
Tuesday 15th March by Tom Ball
I was ready to write pieces about Romelu Lukaku, the title race and the managerial changes in the Premier League in recent months. However, much of that is on the back burner. As a Chelsea fan, this week has been terrifying, sad and confusing. Any feeling that is not a good one essentially.
I cannot think of a more grim example of why the ‘keep politics out of sport’ nonsense that many in our country and the United States spew could not be further from the truth. Many of those fans who told Marcus Rashford to stop being a politician when taking action to stop child hunger are likely celebrating the turmoil that this recent situation has sent Chelsea into.
Chelsea Football Club is a huge and impactful institution on a footballing and community level. The club offered free hotel rooms to NHS staff during the first lockdown while also supporting as a vaccination centre on numerous occasions. The club has also been a large player in the fight against antisemitism.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now put Chelsea on the opposite side of these arguments due to the owner of the club Roman Abramovich being an enabler for the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.
Soon to be former Chelsea FC Owner Roman Abramovich (left) pictured with Russia President Vladimir Putin
Sanctions have taken hold of the club and after some immediate negotiations with the Treasury, the club is still at the time of writing this, not allowed to make any form of revenue outside of prize money. This means an inability to sell tickets, leaving only season ticket holders as ones who can attend Stamford Bridge on a matchday and that includes away support. This is being appealed with support of the FA and Premier League on ‘sporting integrity’ grounds.
They have a limit on the spending of running matchdays at their home ground and have restrictions on the amount of money they can spend travelling to away games, and for a team with one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals, that’s worrying.
All this is intended to destabilise Russia’s war chest and its economy. Putin is said to have many funds hidden with the assets and bank accounts of his oligarchs, Abramovich is one of the most prevalent.
A sale of the club is allowed, the sale is being handled by Raine Group, the buyer must be approved directly by the government and Abramovich cannot financially benefit from the sale.
As a fan of this football club, I sincerely hope that this can contribute to ending what is happening in Ukraine. The geopolitics that this involves is complicated and financial sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs are a cold way of trying to slow down the kremlin’s aggression. My football club is certainly not worth more than war across the continent of Europe.
We must realise that this is football’s reality. Sportswashing has become rampant in football. Abu Dhabi, Russia and Saudi Arabia have all entered the Premier League directors table in the last two decades and Abramovich has become the first to be kicked off that table.
Reports of a bid from Saudi Media Group to buy Chelsea have been met with the understanding that a deal would be ‘difficult to complete'. While this seems like a clash of morality, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund were able to purchase Newcastle United from British businessman Mike Ashley last October.
The consortium that completed the takeover of the club in the North East entered St. James’ Park as heroes at their first game and have seen them turn the fortunes of the club on the pitch around since. Reports of a mass execution of 81 men in Saudi Arabia this week lacks little shock, however.
The United Arab Emirates is a country with a bad and improper human rights record, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour purchased Manchester City in 2008, the club’s stadium and shirt sponsor now reads the name of Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways.
In 2011, Qatar Sports Investment, headed by Qatari Minister and Chairman of beIN Media Group Nasser Al-Khelaifi, bought Paris Saint-Germain, the team that now has the two most expensive players ever on their books Neymar and Kylian Mbappe as well as Lionel Messi.
Al-Khelaifi was charged by Swiss attorneys in 2017 for being involved in the briberies that will take the World Cup Finals to Qatar this year. A World Cup marred in controversy due to the reported death tolls and reports of modern slavery used in the building of the infrastructure that will host this year’s tournament.
A damning state of affairs, Alisher Usmanov is another oligarch sanctioned by the UK government. The former shareholder in Arsenal, who tried to buy the club from Stan Kroenke in recent years, has sponsorship ties with Everton that have now led to reports of a possible sale by Farhad Moshiri.
All these case studies show the issues that the sport faces. The directors' table for Europe’s elite either contains sport washers obsessed with hiding the atrocities of their state or businessmen like Angelli at Juventus, Laporte at Barcelona, Perez at Real Madrid, Kroenke at Arsenal, Glazer at Manchester United and Henry at Liverpool who spearheaded an attempt to create the European Super League last April. The American investment bankers are notorious for loading debts onto their clubs and leaving them out to dry and turning their back on the football. No back turn angered fans more than the 48 hour European Super League.
Roman Abramovich has become the first to be axed because of these politics. Whoever the next will be is a mystery to many. There is no argument that the league is better off without individuals like Abramovich in it.
I am not scared or saddened because Abramovich has gone. I’m scared because I don’t know what this means for the future of my football club. Nevertheless, my feelings are not even a millionth of the hardships that the people of Ukraine are going through.
Reports that the funds within the football club will only last them so long and not until the end of the season scares a football fan. I go to as many games at Stamford Bridge as I can, supported this club my entire life. This club is the reason I am closer to my dad than I have ever been. While many fans of other clubs salivate in the turmoil a rival has been put under, many will align with what football can do for people. The people you meet in the concourse, the idea that despite the most crushing defeats you are still thinking of when the next game is.
I have never supported Roman Abramovich, I have supported Chelsea. Many in the Matthew Harding stand on a matchday will tell you that Chelsea existed way before Roman did and will exist after him. Peter Osgood’s ashes are buried under the Shed End penalty spot, he is also cast in bronze outside the West Stand. All this heritage and history existed before the Russian owner.
For myself and many, the game and your club is an escapism from the hardest parts of your own life. It is a struggle to articulate what this means without being sympathetic to what else is going on in the world. But that is precisely the point. The world’s atrocities have become financially linked to some of the most dangerous and awful regimes and people the world is home to, these people now own our football clubs, Why did our beautiful game become so ugly?
The game’s biggest clubs are controlled by ones with blood on their hands, while the people who allowed their grip on football to tighten play hero, it will only ever be the fans who pay, the Super League taught us all that and this is just another worrying example.