“Most Premiership fans will have a lower league club that they also support,” Caroline Dinenage observed of the culture, media and sport committee last Tuesday afternoon. As in, less than a week ago. Not the 1970s, which was probably the last time the statement in question was true. Not 2007, the last time the competition was actually called the Premiership. But anyway, here we are at the cutting edge of modern football governance. Seems like these guys are right on top of things!
In any case, a mild grilling from a toothless parliamentary committee – the interrogative equivalent of a toaster on its lowest setting – will have been the least of Richard Masters’s problems last week. The announcement that Everton and Nottingham Forest have been referred to an independent panel for breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules now means that a fifth of the clubs in the division – Manchester City and Chelsea the others – are under some sort of investigation for financial misconduct. Many of the rest are reining in their usual January shopping spree in order to avoid sanctions. If this isn’t a crisis – of legitimacy, of probity, of trust – then it will certainly do until the crisis arrives.
