In The Football Man, his acclaimed 1960s portrait of the national sport, the writer and journalist Arthur Hopcraft wrote that “the way we play the game, organise it and reward it reflects the kind of community we are”. Viewed from the present, that is quite a depressing thought.
England’s football family is an unequal, fractious and divided one right now. Booming broadcast revenues, the success of the Premier League and the legacy of an anything-goes approach to club ownership have channelled enormous power and wealth to the top of the domestic game, but created deep insecurity elsewhere. Despite having signed a record £6.7bn domestic television deal in December, Premier League clubs continue to resist calls to level up enormous financial disparities between leagues. As a turbo-charged elite hoovers up trophies, TV contracts and big bucks, clubs outside that gilded circle struggle to survive and remain vulnerable to reckless and exploitative owners.
