14 Football surveys, and other su

Following the release of the 'Annual Review of Football Finance' its the time of year that every self respecting newspaper, magazine or website should use it to generate some cheap copy. At GBP120 the 10th edition was still too rich for squarefootball.net, so we went out into cyberspace to find a similar survey available at a more acceptable price!

Whilst browsing the web you come across many interesting and informative resources (in amongst the same old news feeds and made up transfer requests). You also come across some right old nonsense. None more so than the regular 'Which is the biggest team in the world idiocy'.

If you go to the www.sportsviewinc.com site, if you do you'll only encourage them, you'll find the following table. It is quite prominant and obviously IMPORTANT.

MOST VALUABLE SPORTS BRANDS

1. Dallas Cowboys $274.3 million


2. Manchester United $262.1 million


3. Washington Redskins $210.6 million


4. New York Yankees $180.1 million


5. New York Knicks $171.1 million


6. Real Madrid $155.1 million


7. Bayern Munich $150.3 million

Based on revenue, merchandise sales, fan loyalty and local market conditions

Source: Future Brand

Of course it's rubbish. It may be well researched. It may be accurate. It may be the truth. But its still rubbish. Hang on, you might say, the title of the research says 'Most Valuable Sports Brands'. To which I'd reply, that's a good point and if you hadn't raised it I'd have to use some kind of hackneyed journalistic device to bring it up. Its rubbish because it isn't relevant. Its rubbish because no-one cares. Its rubbish because it is a survey, and therefore it needs to prove something to someone.

Do you think Man United fans going around saying 'We're the biggest team in the world, it says so in a survey I've just read, that makes me feel good about United and I feel the need to spread this great story, and possibly buy a replica shirt'. You do? Oh.

Well they don't (this isn't a pantomime so its no use saying 'Oh yes they do'). Such surveys are just an attempt to give the ramshackle business of soccer a tinge of respectability. It is not aimed at the fans, its aimed at stockbrokers, so it really doesn't matter. Oh and stockbrokers aren't fans, just wait until football is unfashionable and watch them make like a fart in a spacesuit (invisible but still leaving a bad taste in the mouth).

The survey quoted also appears to be quite flawed. The Real Madrid 'brand' is worth less than some of their training pitches, and wouldn't be able to buy their own midfield! Don't they pay all baseball players about $200m per season (well they did in the last, spurious, 'Which sportsmen earn the most money' survey I read). Manchester United aren't top - what kind of a survey is that!

So next time you see one of these surveys, just let it go. There is nothing to see.

As an aside what are local market conditions, is it the price of the halibut in the covered market, on the stall between the fruit & veg man and the key cutting/sole & heel bar?

12 Arsene Whinger or useful think

After defeat by Leeds, Arsenal call for the top six to be kept apart in the opening weeks of the season. Is he thinking of the fans in saying that the top sides will provide more entertainment later in the season and that they should be saved for early season European matches. Or is this just another attempt to profit at the expense of smaller clubs?

The top clubs have, in recent times, been given more and more help in avoiding embarrassing slip-ups.

Firstly the number of substitutes allowed has increased from one in the eighties, to the situation now where three from five and sometimes seven can be picked. This favours the clubs with the biggest squads, allowing them to keep many talented players on the bench and increase their tactical options if things go wrong. Also players on the bench know they will play some part due to the rotational system used by many top clubs, which is used to keep bench players happy. These fringe stars would previously have joined smaller clubs.

Secondly the foreign player rulings have been relaxed to such an extent that entirely foreign teams can play in the Premiership. Bigger clubs have better scouting networks and will get better foreign players.

Thirdly, youth academies are often raided by the biggest clubs because they know the fines that are made by the FA will never be too high. This discourages smaller clubs from investing in youth and concentrates the best youngsters at the biggest clubs.

Fourthly clubs in European competition are excluded from the early rounds of the League cup. This is not a bad measure and has been used for years in places like Spain. But the reduction in fixture congestion does help the big sides.

Fifthly the extra revenue from competing in Europe and keeping home fixture revenue has concentrated more cash with the big clubs.

This latest proposal is more subtle, it benefits the big clubs because they are more likely to be gearing their team fitness and maximum effectiveness for the second half of the season, when there are trophies to be won. Very early in the season all the big sides are vulnerable simply because their players are not at their peak. This can lead to too many tired looking challenges (and bookings) and lower skill level encounters.

I guess the big clubs reckon they can get by in the early matches against the cannon fodder but want to stack together the big matches later in the season to maintain peak form and competitiveness at the right time. Look at Liverpool last season, every game for weeks on end was a big match and this extra sharpness took them through three cup final wins. Much the same happened in '99 when Manchester United won the last three matches after being pushed to the wire by Arsenal. Contrast this to the embarrassing end to last season where after winning the title at a canter United were unable to raise their game for Europe.

Overall this is a good idea because there will be more spills early in the season where any early peaking sides (say Everton or Bolton) will be able to beat late peaking sides (say Liverpool), to provide the early season with a spark. The big games left for the end of the season will give our top clubs the sharpness to win through in Europe. This may mean that we will never end up with another Coventry or Wimbledon winning the cup, but with all the other favours the big teams have been getting recently, this was never very likely to happen anyway.