Big clubs' domination of football reaches new heights

Once upon a time, football (“soccer” in some parts of the world) was a game that occasionally featured fairytale finals. That was when money was not so much a factor and the interests of Arab and Russian billionaires lay elsewhere. Of course, the big clubs/small clubs divide is almost as old as the game itself, but craziness settled in a few years ago. Now that some star players will only play for teams that can afford to pay millions of pounds or euros for their services, all we can do is mourn the passing of the good old days when “giant-killings” happened from time to time.

Make no mistake: football remains fun. It’s even more fun than ever if one’s definition of “entertainment” is seeing how world-class players can perform together on the same team. What’s disappearing is the romance associated with the occasional success of underdogs or no-hope squads. Lesser clubs can still beat Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, but the giants have begun to monopolise the major trophies like never before. In the past when a small club won a cup competition, it represented a “big upset”, but today it often means only that the big clubs aren’t so interested in that particular competition.

And this is probably only the beginning of the real insanity. Sports and commercialism go hand in hand, but the relationship is pushing new limits every day. Money and success are feeding off each other like never before. Kids play football out of love for the game, but the most talented ones will soon find themselves playing for the money. Is it good to dangle the prospect of incredible wealth as an incentive for youngsters? 

It depends on how we look at it.

One possible drawback is that we might get bored. Fans of Barcelona or Bayern Munich may never get tired if their teams win everything in sight, but there might come a point when people start to ask what the point is if the same teams keep winning. Football at club level is fast becoming an exclusive game of the rich. In England, it’s Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. In Spain, it’s Real Madrid and Barcelona. In Germany, Bayern Munich’s domination looks set to continue for years. In France, Paris Saint-Germain wields a mighty chequebook like a sword.

The big, rich clubs are playing “fantasy football” – paying out virtually unlimited sums of money to scoop up every best player available. They chop and change at will. If an expensive player doesn’t fit in, he is discarded and another expensive star is bought in as replacement. The worst part is that these clubs criticise one another for “buying trophies”, while all the small and medium-sized clubs can do is mournfully regard the big boys’ extravagant monopoly.

 The current transfer sagas involving big-name clubs and players are little more than reinforcement of the monopoly theory. Numerous players are changing teams, but the headlines revolve around just three or four. It’s already boring. To fans of the big clubs, it’s bittersweet boredom. To others, it just means the fairytale endings that were once part of the reason they loved the game will happen less and less frequently.