FOOTBALL THAI'D UP IN DEBT

31-07-2007

Well, well, well…it's only taken the rest of the media a month to catch up, but finally questions are being asked about Manchester City's new owner - the former Thai president Thaksin Sinawatra.

BBC Five Live are running a documentary at 7pm tonight called “A Fit And Proper Premiership”, in which Human Rights Watch accuse him of being a “human rights abuser of the worst kind”.

It’s claimed that Thaksin oversaw a “war on drugs” in which 2,500 people died - with allegations that manywere victims of extra-judicial killings.

None of this will come as a surprise to Stirrer readers.

Last September we had a despatch from a Thai resident who wrote in the aftermath of coup that overthrew Thaksin about the “rampant corruption” that had flourished during his reign.

Our correspondent wrote: “His policies were undermining democratic development in Thailand and causing unprecedented divisions in the country, to the extent that the risk of bloodshed was very real.” (see the article in full here)

We also carried another report shortly afterwards outlining why Thaksin was so popular among many people in his country - and distrusted by others (see here)

Thaksin denies any wrongdoing, and will eventually have the chance to defend himself in court in his own country.

In the meantime, the question is whether our Premier League really needs to court overseas millionaires with such serious allegations hanging over them? And the answer is, incredibly,yes.

Here’s why.

Ever since the Premier League was set up in 1992, the gap between football’s haves and have-nots has never been greater; it was specifically designed that way to ensure that the bigger clubs could exercise their economic muscle at the expense of the rest.

That’s why although clubs like Manchester City have more income than ever before, the financial demands on them to keep up with their city rivals United and the rest of the so-called Big Four have also escalated.

In City's case, that's led to the accumulation of debts reckoned to be in the region of £40 million.

And so a league which can pay middling players like Scott Parker 75K a week, also finds itself in the midst of a mini financial meltdown, where member clubs can only compete if they have billions shipped in from overseas.

Blues and Villa have both been caught up in this movement as well; and whileforeign investment is not necessarily a bad thing (Randy Lerner is proving that) it should be treated with proper caution.

All the more important, then, that the league’s “fit and proper” person test for club owners is rigorously applied; and all the more fanciful to assume that it will be.

The truth is that football sold its soul when it created the Premiership - it shouldn’t come over all surprised now if theDevil comes calling for his debt.

See also The Stirrer’s film about the Glazers’ takeover of Manchester United. It’s free to view. Just click here.

And see our previous article click here