Bleeding Hearts
The recent comings and goings at Hearts are providing us with a vision of how football is changing in the UK.
Over the last month, the manager, chairman and chief-executive have all left the club as the Hearts owner, Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov, has ruthlessly seized control of the club, leaving fans puzzled and angry. The reaction of the fans is in stark contrast to last September when Romanov bought the club, settling their huge debt with the Bank of Scotland, and securing the future of their stadium. Back then he was a saviour, but now, after reports that the money owed to the Bank of Scotland was merely transferred to another lender, he is vilified.
The sad thing is that the game only has itself to blame, and the situation at Hearts is likely to be replicated across the country as other clubs seek wealthy foreign businessmen to dig them out of their financial mess. The countries two largest clubs, Chelsea and Man Utd are already under the ownership of foreign businessmen, and reports today suggest that Liverpool are seeking large investment from the US.
As clubs continue to over-stretch their finances they put themselves at the mercy of foreign businessmen looking to plunder them to leverage their investments and massage their egos. Chelsea appear to be the exception to this rule, though who knows what will happen when Abramovich gets bored with his plaything and switches his attention (and money) elsewhere?
Posted 2 years, 9 months ago on 9th November 2005.
- Mind Your Language
- The Best
- Life in the Undergrowth
- A Wee Break
- Bleeding Hearts
- One True Layout
- I am 4
- Jakob's Weblog Usability Mistakes
- The Campfire Headphase
Comments
True, the money’s not going to last forever, so the ones that invest in nuturing the talent in the academies are the clubs that’ll prosper in the long run.
If the clubs are really smart, they’ll realise that it’s all about the youth team now.
Chelsea seem to want to buy the best players but they have a long way to go before they’re youth team is good enough. At the moment, it feels like the Northern clubs have a big advantage in this - Newcastle United, Manchester City, Manchester United, Everton and Liverpool all seem to be very capable of bringing youngsters through the ranks.
Duncan · www · 2 years, 9 months ago