SOME BORO fans are getting jittery as the global carve up of the Premiership continues apace and their cash strapped local club are left behind. American club owners were in town for the NFL Wembley beano this weekend and discussing their exciting plans for the future of the Premiership and it was a party to which Boro weren’t invited.
As foreign billionaires slice up the TV rights cash cow amid vows to buy Ronaldinho, Messi and Jermaine Defoe, some anxious Teessiders look on with jealously and fear. Jealousy at the thought of the £50m splash that seems to be the post-takeover norm for even a middle-ranked club - and fear that the stakes on the Premiership table will rise beyond Boro’s budget and cast us into the Championship abyss.
Now many are even starting to mutter the ultimate heresy and are talking about cashing in local hero Steve Gibson for a foreign billionaire businessman that can help them “compete� in a league now almost entirely shaped by spending.
We know the power of the pocket. Boro’s launch pad into the big time was Gibson’s spectacular spending spree a decade ago that saw off interest from glamour clubs to bring an in-demand England international, the reigning Brazilian player of the year and a Champions League final goalscorer to the Riverside.
But now that outlay to fund Boro’s quest for glory is a distant memory and, anyway, is chicken feed in today’s terms. The expenditure needed to underpin a crack at the top six is now measured in scores of millions - and the fear is that we are being left behind.
Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung is poised to complete his £50m plus takeover at Birmingham and has promised big bucks for transfers.
That follows big money buy-outs at one time mid-table rivals West Ham, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, Newcastle, Sunderland and Manchester City in the past year that have pushed their financial clout into a totally different league.
Manchester United and Liverpool are US owned after deals that dwarf the mid-table acquisitions, Chelsea is funded by the bottomless pockets of one of the world’s richest men, Spurs are part of the global ENIC venture capital outfit while Arsenal is subject to a battle between rival US and Russian groups and a Stateside investment firm is weighing up a £50m bid for Blackburn.
Meanwhile American dairy billionaire Robert Kraft, who failed to take over Liverpool two years ago, has admitted he is still looking for a slice of Premiership action - and there are plenty of Boro fans ready to pimp their club for him.
Make no mistake, gratitude to Gibbo would go out of the window with local identity and pride if they thought they could seal a Faustian pact with the Philadelphia big cheese. Many are just queuing up to hand over their hopes and dreams to any Chuck S Gibbs Jr or Sergei Gibsonov that comes along without asking any questions as to their motives, staying power or their track record so long as they stump up the cash.
But we should be wary of the corrosive effect the rush to sell our heritage to outside investors will have. And we must be vigilant about to whom we are ready to sell.
Manchester City’s decision to sell to Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister deposed in a coup, came on the same day he was charged with criminal corruption in his home country, accused of spiriting billions of dollars of foreign aid out of the country.
Human rights campaigners and Amnesty International have accused his regime of a draconian ‘war on drugs’ in which there were 2,500 extra-judicial killings. But hey, he splashed out on Elano, Bianchi and Sven Goran Eriksson so that’s alright.
Attempts by Human Rights Watch to raise questions about his CV with the Premier League were met with assurances that they have stingent measures in place to stop undesirables buying into their clubs and insisted that a man who the Thai government want extradited on accusations of systematic fraud, nepotism and giving the go-ahead for violent supression of political dissent passed their 'fit and proper person test'. You have to ask, given possession of a big enough cheque book who would fail?
Fans must realise that the game is being packaged up and sold to the highest bidder and that an outsider arriving with a big pot of money is not acting as a white knight motivated by 'sporting glory'. Far from it. Any such cash injection comes at a price. An investor wants a hefty return and while much of that will come from TV rights some will come through higher prices, more cynical merchandising, more ruthless commercialisation, more money making friendlies in Dubai and Japan.
In many cases the takeovers are 'leveraged' funded by loans secured against the assets of the target club itself so the initial too-good-to-be-true transfer cash boost is added to the overall company debt leaving a millstone for the future, long after the lucrative current revenue streams have been plundered and the profits exported.
Imported billionaire badge- kissers who have no love for the game or understanding of what makes their club tick and see it only as a opportunity to make a quick buck is a recipe for long-term disaster. The NFL influenced US faction have talked casually about playing Premiership games in the States as a neat marketing gimmick without realising the damage that could do. Will franchising and expansion to the Glasgow Celtics and Cardiff Dragons be far behind?
The integrity of the game as a distinct and dynamic domestic cultural force with strong links to communities is under threat from owners who do not understand that a club is a precious local resource that transcends matchday, a key to identity and prestige in the towns they represent. That can not be bought and sold.
Fans have an unbreakable organic relationship with clubs forged by generations and that, not league position, is their real strength. We should not wish that away for a transfer fund that may only move us up half-a-dozen places and leave a long term legacy of financial uncertainty.
For short-sighted Boro fans to think of brushing Gibson aside and offering up the club to any foreign chancer or robber baron ready to spend £40m on players but who does not care on jot for Teesside or the team is self-destructive folly.
Whatever criticisms some may have - and when the team are struggling it is inevitable there will be many - Gibson’s sincerity, commitment and pride in the club is beyond doubt. For the past decade Gibson drive and vision has been the motor that has driven Boro forward and his personal kudos in the game is a major asset, not to mention the tens of millions that have been invested in the team, the training facilities and the academy without conditions, without any return and with only the good of the club in mind.
Taking Boro within the Bulkhaul corporate structure has insulated the club from economic volatility and helped ensure it remains a top flight fixture against a background of falling crowds and rising player wages that otherwise would be unsustainable for a club of this size.
He has ensured that we do not need to sell out to a profiteer, even if such a shark would be interested in unfashionable Boro, as we have discussed before. Not that Gibbo would go. He has unequivocally said that Boro is not for sale. And for that we should be grateful.
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