April 1st - An Early One ~

Interesting stuff here. Picking up on NHH and ursus's points, it does certainly seem that Scudamore gives off that sense of a lonely isolated rich king. He's got (most of) his world at his feet, but feels he can only really justify himself by doing more, because that sort of logic of perpetual turbo-growth is the only thing that got him his position in the first place.

Which brings us back to 1992. The problem is, ultimately, that Scudamore's position should not exist. There should be no separate administrative entity called the Premier League. It's a reductive back-to-basics point perhaps, but it remains as pertinent now as it was 16 years ago when we were arguing like hell about just what an awful, divisive, damaging development the Premier League breakaway would be. It's only because the position of Premier League chief executive is there in the first place that we're in this mess. It shouldn't be.

One more point, from the point of view of smaller club fans, re this:

    quote: Then they could fuck off and leave the rest of us alone.

It's understandably tempting to see the big ugly clubs around us in this way, but I really think we shouldn't. It ruptures the "unity of experience" element that brings football fans together and is essential to defeating things like Game 39 and essential, even, to the essence of the game's appeal – this sense that we're all on a sliding scale of the same game. I don't want the top clubs to fuck off (even though they induce phenomenal amounts of tedium and distaste in me); I just think it's essential for the game's wellbeing that they be brought down a peg or two and reminded that they are playing, on the pitch, exactly the same game as the rest of us.

Posted by E10Rifle 03-03-2008 Go to thread

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