AMBITION CAN PROVE COSTLY
HARDLY a week goes by right now when we don’t hear about another Non-League club in financial difficulties. Why is this happening, and where will it all end?
I’m not doom-mongering but sincerely believe that the biggest threat to NonLeague football right now is clubs’ ambition exceeding their capability to fund that ambition.
This is the first in a short series of articles looking at what’s driving some clubs to throw caution to the wind in search of glory. I’ll be looking at the impact on other clubs and asking whether NonLeague football is in danger of becoming unsustainable.
THE PRICE OF AMBITION
Every football fan wants to see their team buying the best players, winning trophies and titles along the way. When a club can’t afford the former it usually means (with some notable exceptions) they don’t achieve the latter.
Managers usually want the same thing, and I don’t blame them for that. After all, it’s the manager’s job to ask for what he can’t have, and it’s the chair’s to say no. Unfortunately, in more and more clubs this isn’t happening.
With talent at a premium, players have the upper hand in any negotiations, especially if agents are involved. They play one club off against another without thinking (in the words of Petula Clark) the grass may not be greener on the other side.
It takes a strong chair and board to maintain an affordable pay structure and say ‘no’ to unrealistic demands. When they do, they get vilified for a lack of ambition. Yet, how many actually stop for a moment and consider whether the club can afford to show that ambition?
SPIRALLING WAGES
The consequences are there to see. Last season we lost two NPL clubs for off-field reasons. Marske United couldn’t sustain their player commitments in terms of contracts and wages. New owners quickly saw that their business was not viable, so they took the courageous decision to resign and regroup. Loughborough Dynamo realised that they could not sustain Step 4 football, despite (or maybe because of) having their best ever season at that level. They completed the season. It must have come as a terrible shock for players, officials and supporters but that decision allowed the club to live to fight another day at a lower level in the Pyramid. Whilst sponsorship deals can fall through, commitments get broken and other unforeseen events occur, the consistent factor in most cases of clubs that have got into financial difficulties is unaffordable wage bills. I know of Step 4 clubs offering players £500 a week or more. That’s fine if the club has wealthy backers, but utter madness if the club simply decides to ‘have a go’ in the hope that the cost will be covered by bigger attendances, an FA Cup run or greater sponsorship. There’s no place for hopes in a football budget.
It only takes a couple of clubs to get giddy before it becomes contagious. Others feel they have to follow suit to compete, with sporting integrity and responsible management thrown out of the window.
Call me cynical, but every time I see a club appealing for financial help, my first reaction is to wonder how much they are spending on players. After all, there are only two promotion places available in most divisions, so why bother?
WHERE’S THE HELP?
When a club is in financial trouble, the cry goes up (usually on social media) “the authorities should have done something about it”. What do they expect? It isn’t the FA or the league’s job to run clubs’ businesses.
The only people who can stop clubs spending what they cannot afford is those who run them – to a degree. Contrary to popular opinion, there isn’t a bottomless money pit at the Premier League, let alone The FA. Even if a financial bail-out was possible, it would effectively be an endorsement of poor financial management, or worse.
For a League to do so would mean giving money that belongs to every other member club in that competition. A Hardship Fund has been mentioned, but most clubs in the NLS could justifiably claim to suffer hardship in one way or another. It would have to be a very big fund indeed.
The help that is available to clubs is professional advice on how best to tackle the situations in which clubs find themselves. The trouble is, clubs are reluctant to admit they need help, often because they fear the reaction of their fans (and players). By then, it may be too late.
FANS HAVE A BIG PART TO PLAY
If you’ve managed to get this far, chances are that you’re now depressed at my doom-mongering. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way, and fans have a big part to play in ensuring that their clubs show ambition that is affordable.
I’m not naive enough to ask any fan not to want success for their club. Neither am I suggesting that everyone becomes a forensic accountant overnight. But fans have to acknowledge a responsibility to prevent wild spending, whether shareholders or not.
Some clubs are already passing a proportion of their spending onto fans. I could name half a dozen clubs where the prices for a cup of tea, a pie or a pint have taken the cost of the matchday experience past £50 at Step 4 level.
Ask for financial updates at Fans’ Forums; it isn’t just shareholders who are entitled to know whether their club risks points deduction, or worse.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF ALL
Ultimately, the saddest part of all this is that history shows that the clubs promoted at the end of the season are usually those who have spent the most to acquire the best players.
In next week’s NLP I’ll be looking at what a solution to this problem might look like, from greater regulation to fan-ownership, to wage caps. I’ll be asking ‘what price sporting integrity?’.