by MadBob

Created on: February 08, 2007   Last Updated: September 28, 2010

There is much to be said on the subject of tradition in football (or soccer; whichever floats your boat) and the subsequent trend of foreign investment which is seen as diluting the Britishness of our favourite game. People stood aghast as Mr Abramovich sauntered down Fulham Road with Chelsea title deeds raised aloft in a clenched and oil-smattered fist. And yet his mutli-millions have enabled a once dormant giant to stand up and be counted, to make the title race more exciting by adding another windmill at which to tilt and by dispersing the silverware. Plus, the millions of pounds must be filtering down to the clubs from which Chelsea have poached the most precocious of English talent - Leeds Utd alone have been compensated for several snatch-and-grab raids on their personnel. It was an outrage to some, but to others, a symptom of inevitability.

Malcolm Glazer, Randy Lerner, Mohammed al Fayed, Eggersson the Icelandic biscuit magnate, that dodgy Russian guy at Portsmouth, they are all canny (perhaps I should scrap Fayed from this list...) business men, looking for investment opportunities. Football is big business, with TV rights, image rights, stadiums occupying hugely expensive real estate sites all very attractive to investors. And Liverpool is now, sigh, no exception.

In the real world, the Reds have to keep up. With such a prestigious history and fanatical yet informed following, it would be unthinkable if it took another 18 years to win their 19th league title. Therefore, it takes money. Gillett is a man with a checkered past, havng been bankrupt following a hair-brained scheme in his relative youth, but his devotion to his projects is noted. He occupies empty seats at his NHL stadium to talk to the fans. He wants to call, personally, the dissenters from amongst the Kop, and most importantly, he's got bags of cash. We need a new stadium? Welcome to the Gillette Fusion Arena, Stanley Park. That's worth 10 million a year for a start. Increased gates means increased disposable income. That's two players a year to begin with. Stevie G and Jamie Carragher aren't going to carry the team for ever.

I concur that it's a far cry from the fabled bootroom tradition, the Shankly and Paisley eras, but then if one of the bootroom boys could come up with 410 million to buy us some good fortune, I should be very impressed. Steve Morgan made a fist of it, lifetime Koppite that he is, but his offer fell short even of the cost of a new ground.

Big business is what we're in. Yes, the sport is for us, the fans, and not for making money, but look at the world. Capitalism is the new sport. It makes me sick, but it's how it is. Let's hope George and Tom don't sell us short. I get the feeling that whilst they remained focused on Liverpool FC, we'll have a great time. I'm interested to see how their NHL interests fair with the division of attention...

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