Are Manchester City Ruining Football?

Over the past six years, Manchester City have garnered criticism from several corners of the footballing world for the way they go about their business – paying large transfer fees for players and giving them huge wage packets to boot. When The Blues won the Premier League in 2012, they were accused of “buying the league” by some. Whilst this may be true to a degree, there are many reasons why that statement isn’t correct in the slightest.

Business Studies will teach us that any business has to spend to expand. Indeed, there is the famous phrase, “you have to spend money to make money”. No matter how traditional football is, and how deeply rooted it is into communities, it is most definitely a business now. The reason that more and more foreign owners are coming into the Premier League every year is because they see it as a good business prospect.

All football clubs have a collective aim – to grow and succeed ahead of all rivals. This is a very business-like aim, and one held by most organisations that are outside the sport. Whilst clubs have to work within their means, they also have to try and grow at every opportunity they can, which is why City are doing what they do at the minute purchasing some of the world’s finest players.

If you look at players as staff or employees, then them having higher wages based on their quality is not strange at all. Of course, there are very few office workers earning £100,000 per week, but the concept still applies. Any business owner who employs staff knows they have to offer the best and most experienced workers the best wages, or else they’ll be attracted elsewhere. This theme is continued is football, albeit on a much bigger scale.

However, much like in non-sport business, there are a lot of regulations to abide by in the sport, with more coming into play all the time. There are the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations, which require superb management of spending and finances, a task which would be difficult for most experienced businessmen. This is why we see a lot of people in positions of power at other companies outside of football coming into football in equal positions of importance. Ferran Soriano, formerly FC Barcelona’s vice-president and the ex-chairman of Spanair, took over as the chief executive of Manchester City in 2012, and under the leadership of him and Txiki Begiristain, The Blues are forever growing.

Of course, this isn’t just an isolated example, and is repeated throughout the footballing world, with one of the most prominent examples being at Chelsea, who also play in the Premier League. Since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich took over the club in 2004, they have become one of the strongest and most famous clubs around. The Russian owner has spent much of his personal fortune building the club up over the last 10 years, to great success. Again, he is running the club as what it is – a business.

People can talk about passion and how important it is to the game, and I agree to an extent. However, passion isn’t what keeps businesses in the real world afloat, and it doesn’t do that in sport either. Money does. Whilst it is important that all passion for the game isn’t removed completely, it is also important that people remember most club owners are only the owner because it is a business investment for them. They are, in essence, investors looking for a cash cow or a club with the potential to grow fast.

Going back to Manchester City, they are using a proportion of their wealth to give something back to the community. Not only are they building a huge training complex which will be available to the general public as well as the ever-growing City youth sides, but the club often put on charity events that promote a sense of togetherness within the club, and helps the fans feel connected. And, for all their wealth, The Citizens are hardly extortionate in their ticket prices, which they could be given the quality of football on show.

On a not-so-business note, the fans of Manchester City most certainly deserve success. Despite the renditions of “where were you when you were sh*t” from most visiting teams to The Etihad, City have always had loyal support no matter what anyone says. The fans have followed their team to Division Two and back, to Wembley to see City go 2-0 down to Gillingham and still win it. After decades of pain and hardship, the loyal City supporters need some reward for their commitment. With Old Trafford just up the road, giving up would be easy. However, that isn’t the Mancunian way to do things. “Ruining football”? Not likely.