SOCCER’S SOUL FOR SALE - AGAIN

22-06-2007

The takeover of a football club in England's third city wouldn't normally trouble The Stirrer - but we'll make an exception for the buyout of Manchester City by former Thai president Thaksin Shinawatra.

This isn’t simply a case of purchase by a foreign tycoon with a long-standing interest in the English game – as regular readers to this website will know Thaksin was overthrown in a military coup after overseeing a regime accused of rampant corruption.

In case you missed our on the spot despatches from last September,
click here and here

Of course, Shinawatra may be entirely innocent – in which case we are confident that he’ll return home from his current base in England and fight the charges that have now been laid against him.

In any event, he has no business taking his place in the boardrooms at Villa Park or St Andrews next season – not until he’s cleared his name.

That someone with such a stinking reputation and dubious sources of wealth can be openly welcomed into the bosom of English football highlights the game’s complete enslavement to money.

Across Manchester, England’s best known and most profitable club suddenly found itself in hock to the tune of more than £600 million after a buyout by an American billionaire who has never been to Old Trafford.

Chelsea, meanwhile, are allowed to rack up losses of £140 million and £80 million in successive seasons on the back of a Russian oil tycoon’s fortune.

Funny, but we thought that these wealthy chairmen were supposed to be investing in football – not leaving our major clubs at risk of the bailiffs calling.

This is no rant incidentally against overseas ownership.

As Randy Lerner has proved in his quietly effective way at Villa Park, it is possible to come from abroad, invest in a club you love and show real respect for its traditions.

Ken Bates on the other hand – who regained control of Leeds United just days after taking them into administration – proves there’s no automatic virtue in being British.

With Birmingham City being touted to all and sundry, it shows above all else that Premiership football has lot all touch with everyday values of decency and propriety.

Blues were recently associated with Lakshmi Mittal, whose mines in the fomer Soviet Union have been likened to “slave labour” camps
(see our report here )

If you’re rich – no matter if you’ve plundered the wealth of your own country, and regardless of what you actually intend to do with the club you’ve taken over – it seems you’re in.

The Premier League claims to have a “fit and proper person” test for club ownership – quite how Shinawatra jumps above the bar, we’re not quite sure.

Somehow we imagine that Thailand’s vast Manchester Unted fan club is about to get even bigger.

Should football’s authorities to get tougher on the ownership of clubs? Or is it just a free market? Leave a message on the Sports Section of our Message Board.