The Champions League is responsible for almost 80% of Uefa’s annual income. Yet Uefa president, Michel Platini, regrets “Champions League dominance”.

“Other (European) competitions have been killed – destroyed even – by the tremendous attention given to the Champions League, but we want the Europa League to rise again” said Platini to the German “Bild”.

It is only natural that the league with the best teams will be the most interesting league and take all the attention from second best league. No one should “regret” it and Uefa should embrace it and strengthen their most powerful brand.

Europa League is a dead leaf lingering on a branch and is waiting to drop to the ground. It’s alive only because Uefa put it on a respirator. It should be dead like Inter-Toto Cup or the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Uefa should fully concentrate on making the Champions League, the sports tournament with the biggest sports brands in the world, a lot more interesting, which will make it more profitable and will allow Uefa to deliver bigger solidarity payments  to Football associations  around Europe.

Platini talks about this nostalgic time when “everyone had a chance to win a European Cup”. It was never the case and now, with the Champions League inflating the coffins of just a few super-clubs – as Jonathan Wilson wrote -  the European Cup will never be a “fair” competition for team from outside this closed club of super-rich football teams.

Europa League and its lousy income (Check out SwissRamble’s post) do not help smaller football clubs to gain “prize money” and close the gaps from Champions League clubs – it perpetuates the financial gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Like Michel Platini’s Financial Fair Play.

If Platini wants to close this gap there are plenty of ideas he should look at.

Here is what I think Uefa should do with The Europa League and The Champions League: A New Champions League Format 

And here is a few ideas that will help close the financial gaps in European football: Uefa should seriously consider an alternative to FFP

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @SOCCERISSUE

Lately there’s been a lot of talk in the United Kingdom about the success of German football. The upcoming all-German Champions League final has  turned them from “delusional and weird” into the ones who were “right all along”.

The Times’ Tony Barrett recently tweeted that “the shame for football in this country is those in favour of fan ownership are too often dismissed as cranks or militants”. It seems that following the success of FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, “cranks and militants” are no longer the only ones who support fan ownership.

Even new Manchester United boss David Moyes believes that the Bundesliga is enjoying the benefits of the fan ownership regulations, low ticket prices and youth development system that left the Premier League trailing. The former Everton manager has become an avid follower of the Bundesliga in recent years.

According to him, the 50+1 ownership rule that prevents outside investors from owning more than 49% of a club has created a healthier competition than the Premier League.

He also cites Germany’s standing as European champions at Under-17, -19 and -21 levels, plus the increasing numbers of young, homegrown talent in the Bundesliga as evidence of a well-run league. “I think that [50+1 rule] is encouraging,” said Moyes of a league that, with a few exceptions, is populated by clubs who are member-owned. “There have been a few different winners of the Bundesliga over recent years. I know this year Bayern have scaled it but last year Dortmund won it and it wasn’t long ago Schalke won it and Bayer Leverkusen came close. Their youth teams and the way they develop players has been good … the Germans have been really good in the way they’ve got their league right.”

Moyes added: “When I’ve been to see games in Germany I’ve been amazed by the atmosphere. People talk about the atmosphere in the Premier League but over there it’s incredible. The stadiums are full, behind the scenes it works fantastically. The ticket prices aren’t outrageous and nearly all the games are completely sold out. The big thing is that they’re nearly all in terrific stadiums, too. Nearly every club has a modern, up-to-date stadium, whether it’s a bowl or a square-sided one.”

They’ve really progressed since the World Cup in 2006. I  think they’re all important factors in modern life. If you want to go to the game now, you don’t want to pay too much but you also want a good seat with an unrestricted view where you can see the pitch. Generally I think that’s what they do over there.”

Moyes also points out that the sheer number of Germans who play football or actively support the clubs is one of German football’s strongest points. He once suggested that everybody in the Premier League should take a pay-cut in order to lower the price of tickets. It should be noted that many English fans prefer to watch the games in pubs and restaurants simply because they can’t afford the price of tickets and TV channels.

Social Conscience

The Bundesliga’s lasting power is directly related to football’s social responsibility as an educational tool for the masses. Even famous author and philosopher Albert Camus, who played as a goalkeeper in his teens, once said ”everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football”. The sport’s social obligation is based on the understanding that football is not a business, and it’s not about creating individual profit – it’s about entertaining the masses and creating a sense of community.

When speaking about the low price of season tickets in his club, Bayern president Uli Hoeness mentioned this sense of social conscience: “We could charge more than £104. Let’s say we charged £300. We’d get £2m more in income, but what’s £2m to us? In a transfer discussion you argue about that sum for five minutes. But the difference between £104 and £300 is huge for the fan. We do not think the fans are like cows, who you milk. Football has got to be for everybody. That’s the biggest difference between us and England”.

The German population’s high level of involvement in the game made it much more desirable for sponsors to pour money into it. This is the reason why German football’s revenue from sponsorship and commercials is the highest in Europe. The companies are basically subsidizing the inexpensive tickets, which is something that is regarded in England as crazy.

Today, several fan organizations in England have come together in hopes of lowering the price of tickets. Even Liverpool and Manchester United fan clubs  demand that ticket prices be lowered, citing that the new broadcasting deals with Sky and BT will generate 70% more revenue for the Premier League clubs.

English football’s main source of income comes from TV broadcasting rights, which is why clubs don’t make it a priority to be approachable to all fans.

German clubs are more dependent on match-day income and merchandise sales, which is why their connection with the fans is a must.

The Germans may have risen to the top of European football due to their healthy business model, but they might not be able to stay there for long.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

The Liberals are Coming 

Manchester United are generating more revenue from sponsors than ever before. They’re closing up on Bayern Munich’s commercial revenue (Bayern’s total stands at £160.5m, while United’s is £150m). The Red Devils’ commercial success has a lot to do with their American owners, the Glazers, who understood the brand power and global potential of the club, and used American marketing methods to create a powerful brand.

Arsenal also has an American owner in Stan Kroenke, and their chief executive (Ivan Gazidis) was once the vice-commissioner of the MLS. They are likely to show a substantial increase in commercial revenue due to new sponsorship deals with Emirates and Puma. Liverpool are also American-owned, as are Sunderland and Aston Villa. Manchester City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, was educated in Boston at a private university.

On the other side of the map there are Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern sheikhs with absurd amounts of money.

Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich does not seem to be slowing down on his spending ways in the near future. The rumored re-appointment of José Mourinho as Chelsea’s manager might bring the club back to the top of English and European football. Chelsea might not be able to meet the conditions of  Financial Fair Play if they go on another spending spree, but the club’s supporters shouldn’t be too worried – Abramovich will find a way to sneak in several new players to the squad, sell unwanted ones to his friends at unreasonably high prices, and generally “tweak” the numbers in order to get UEFA’s seal of approval. We must also remember that Chelsea’s income is significantly higher than that of any German club, besides FC Bayern.

Meanwhile, Sheik Mansour’s Manchester City is being rebuilt with a few of the same staff members that built Barcelona.

It’s true that the English clubs haven’t had any success in the Champions League this season, but their liberal model and great popularity of English football all over the world will allow them to raise funds from all over the world in order to compete with the German clubs.

And what about the local community in England? Well, today they almost seem like and afterthought, in what might be the Premier League’s Achilles’ heel. It might blow up in their face in the future, but today, with the huge amounts of cash pouring in from all over the world, English clubs don’t appear to be concerned. Actually, they seem more concerned about that young French midfielder they need to warm their bench.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are doing their best to compete with Europe’s elite, while their local economy is on the verge of collapse. The Spanish clubs’ income is bound to hit a wall sooner or later, and their huge debts will also play a part. Every move that Spanish banks make is carefully inspected by European authorities, and that will also make it harder for Barcelona and Real to adventurously explore the transfer market.

While there is no doubt that the Spanish juggernauts will still be impact players in European football, we still need remember that most of the time, when the opposition was tough, they were not able to rise to the challenge. All season long the Spanish giants manage to easily defeat significantly weaker teams, ones that were crushed by their financial bullying in recent years (Real Madrid, for example, received €140m from broadcasting rights, while Grenada received less than €12m). This actually hurts them, because there is no competition to make them try harder to improve. They are less trained in real battles than the German or English teams.

In Italy, a “collective” broadcasting deal is leading to what appears to be the beginning of a concentration of power in a small number of clubs.

So, It seems as if the only ones who will be able to consistently compete with the rising power of Germany are the English clubs, with their American ideas and Eastern money.

Isn’t this a rerun?

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @SOCCERISSUE

Manchester City and baseball giants the New York Yankees have formed an agreement to purchase an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer. New York City FC will become the 20th club in MLS in 2015 after a deal worth around £66m was concluded.

Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is also the owner of Al Jazira Club.

Now, according to Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules, Sheikh Mansour will not allow to cover his English club’s losses. However, there is no regulation that will prevent Mansour’s other clubs from signing Manchester City players and taking them off the City’s wage bill and providing the club with another “external” income engine.

I don’t want to be cynical, but New York City FC might be an easy way for Sheikh Mansour bypass FFP.

In short, Uefa should seriously consider an alternative to FFP.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

Dear Gunners,

We all came here to celebrate winning the fourth place cup. Arsenal’s only trophy in the last 8 seasons. So - Congratulations! Please enjoy St. Totteringham’s Day as well.

We can now start speaking on the important summer ahead.

First order of business: Schedule for the summer.

19/5/2013 – 21/5/2013: Relax

22/5/2013 – 1/6/2013: Get an experienced goalkeeper. Sell or release players who are just not good enough for one of the richest clubs in the world. You know who you are guys – get your agents on the phone.

2/6/2013 – 1/7/2013: 1. Get a striker who will add variety and creativity to the squad; 2. Add a new centre back – three are not enough; 3. Buy a new midfielder who can play box-to-box and will add more brawn to the team’s light-weight squad.

2/7/2013 – 1/8/2013: 1. Preseason. 2. Try to make a statement in the transfer market. Buying a player who can upgrade the team is something that sends the right message to the squad and fans. It will also change the perception that Arsenal are satisfied with being fourth best. Nobody wants to play for a team that is satisfied with that. Oh, yeah – win the Emirates Cup.

1/8/2013 – 25/5/2014: Attack!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

Nobody prepared his team for a match like José Mourinho. His famous dossiers, DVDs and motivational speeches were second to none.

Mourinho’s strength was also his ability to turn inner-conflicts and conflicts with the media or the referees into pure motivational fuel for his players.

There were a few managers who got so close and personal with their players like Mourinho did. He always said: “The most important thing is to always be together, as a team – after a win we’ll hug and after a loss we’ll hug”. Yesterday night he wasn’t on the field to hug his players after their lose to Atlético Madrid.

Mourinho’s teams were always extremely hard to beat. They were better prepared, better coached and more motivated than their rivals.

However, it seems to me that Mourinho’s Real Madrid collapsed into anarchy in the dressing room. Mourinho lost the dressing room like never before but more worryingly for him – it seems to me that his Real Madrid are not the most prepared team in the world anymore.

Other coaches caught up with Mourinho’s techniques and methods. His antics don’t have the same crippling effect on the opposition anymore. Teams are no longer blown out of the water by Mourinho’s brand of powerful, direct, smart, counter-attacking football. Teams are no longer afraid of Mourinho.

Did Mourinho lose his deterrent force? Have we witnessed an end of an era yesterday?

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

There is a consensus that Zinedine Zidane is one of the best footballers ever.  David Beckham, on the other hand, will never be considered as one of the greatest ever players and I have the feeling it’s only because he is good looking.

His good looks made him more famous than most footballers alive and made him one of the richest athletes ever. I think that  made people scoff at his amazing achievements as a footballer. He was dismissed in Spain as “Super-model”, In Italy they called him “prima donna” and even in England some minimized his contribution to being  a “shirt seller”.

However, Beckham won the Premier League title 6 times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. He then played four seasons with Real Madrid winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club. He also won the league in the USA and France. In every club he played for he was one of the most important players in the squad. A set-piece specialist with a thunderous right foot. Rivals’ managers feared him and asked their players not to foul his teammates near the box.

Beckham made good goal scorers great and great goal scorers unstoppable. He assisted 145 goals. He himself scored 97 club goals in 534 top-flight league games. He won 115 caps for England (17 goals).  He might not have won anything with England but who does?

If we compare Beckahm’s career to Zidane’s, then one might wonder why on earth anyone would question the Englishman’s greatness.

At club level Zidane won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and two Serie A league championships with Juventus. He scored 95 career goals in 506 appearances at clubs he played for – assisting 92 goals. He won 108 caps and scored 31 goals for France.  He led France to a world cup win and a Euro win. Are these wins alone making him a greater player than Beckham? Maybe.

But what if Beckham was an average looking man? Would we have considered him as great as Zidane or at least at his greatness level? I think so.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

Beckahm. Only “very good”

Bacary Sagna has been less than average for Arsenal this season. Yet, according to him, he has offers from PSG and Monaco – two clubs owned by billionaires and are looking for big name signings and experience players.

I see some Gunners are upset about Sagna’s comments (“It makes me proud to read PSG are interested. They are a very attractive club” and “Monaco would be a new challenge”). These comments might be disrespectful to Arsenal but on the long run – PSG and Monaco offer Arsenal a “safety net” which Gunners should appreciate.

It’s not a secret that Arsène Wenger loves to sign players from the French league – despite the fact that the standards there are declining.

As a result it is a few years now that Arsenal are “stuck” with many players who are just not good enough for the Premier League but their wages are too high for them to return to the French league. Therefore Monaco and PSG, who will over-pay for almost anyone because of their owners, are the perfect solution for many of Arsenal’s expensive outcasts.

Marouane Chamakh, Gervinho, Park Chu-Young (Ex-Monaco player), Abou Diaby, Sébastien Squillaci and even Francis Coquelin can finally have a “home” to return to. They are all on more than £50,000 per week at Arsenal (a part from young Coquelin). That’s a huge waste of money that Moncao and PSG can help reduce.

Arsenal have poured millions into the French first division – and I have the slightest feeling it will continue. It is time for the French to pay back!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

In the last few weeks I had a lot of arguments with people about Real Madrid and Barcelona. After their Champions League semi-final exit, people were saying that it is “an end of an era”. Barcelona fans were talking about the need to replace Xavi and Iniesta (!) and Real Madrid fans said that the new coach will need to overhaul their “mediocre squad”.

A lot of the people were also surprised the German teams’ success that “came out of nowhere!”

I asked these people, who talked about disassembling Barcelona and Real Madrid, if they believe in God. Many of them said yes. I wasn’t surprised.

I’ll explain.

Barcelona is not in need of an overhaul. This is a club that’s been playing the same way for more than 25 years. In the past couple of seasons, they are coming back down to earth after the magnificent highs they have experienced in the heyday of Pep Guardiola’s regime. This season has been tougher than the last, as several key players succumbed to injury, and Xavi may have lost a step due to his age. The team may have also lost some of its desire to conquer, while several new players have struggled to make an impact (Fabregas, for example). The fact that coach Tito Vilanova had to fight for his life during the season couldn’t have helped, either.

It’s true, though, that Barcelona need some new players. They should start by signing a centre-back (it’s long overdue). They also have to consider acquiring a right-back, as Dani Alves looks like he may have run his course at Camp Nou. One thing is for sure – Barcelona will need to add a new player to their attacking game, as they are looking for someone who will be more creative and skillful than Pedro, Alexis Sanchez and David Villa. Malaga’s Isco and Santos’ Neymar are rumoured to be on the club’s shortlist, and they might fit in wonderfully.

They definitely have money to spend, and they are certainly not looking to make drastic changes.

Another team that shouldn’t go too crazy this summer is Real Madrid. While many people have said that these past few seasons have been a failure, this is not the case. This club has reached the Champions League semi-finals 3 years  in a row, and they have won the championship last season despite the efforts  of one of the best football teams in history. While Jose Mourinho will leave, Carlo Ancelotti is rumoured to be replacing him. A world-class manager,  Ancelotti will make sure that the Blancos remain one of the top clubs in the Champions League.

Real Madrid’s squad is full of quality players. They might need some “freshening up”, but no one is going to demolish a squad that cost more than 400 million Euros to build. Selling Higuain and di Maria, who are simply not good enough for them, and replacing them with players like Gareth Bale and Edinson Cavani should be more than enough.

Now, let’s look at the other 2 clubs who played in the CL semi-finals.

As I wrote, many people seem to be slightly surprised by the German teams’ success in the Champions League. People say they “did not see them coming”, with some even regarding the rise of German football as some sort of a “fluke”. They claimed that if Leo Messi wasn’t injured, the result would have been different.

FC Bayern certainly did not “come out of nowhere”. This is a team that reached the Champions League final in 3 of the past 4 seasons, losing last season’s trophy in a penalty shootout. Borussia Dortmund is not such a “great surprise” either, after winning consecutive league titles in Germany.  These two clubs are built on the foundation of their great youth academies, while doing great things in the transfer market.

Bayern Munich’s success is the result of having to deal for years with the English clubs’ strength and depth, the Spanish passing game and Dortmund’s energetic style of play. This team did not appear out of thin air – they are a product of a long and painful process, of defeats and renovations.

FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund did not simply become great overnight, so when so many people suggested this exact thing, I asked if they believe in God. Why? I think the way people see football has to do a lot about understanding the concept of evolution. A religious man does not believe in evolution.

Many of the people I know believe in God, or some sort of spirit or life force.

I don’t.

After years of growing up in a country that teach more bible than biology, I sobered up by reading books of Friedrich Nietzsche, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and many more atheists. It helped me understand the concept of evolution better. It has nothing to do with “belief”. Evolution is overwhelmingly validated by scientific evidence unlike creationism. Evolution is scientific, religion is belief based on nothing but “leap of faith”.

The belief that something needs to be “torn down and rebuilt” in order to fix it is based on the idea that things that are “created from scratch” can also disappear in an instant. The Bible is full of stories about how God destroyed, drowned, burned down and punished things that he himself created in order to rebuild it the way he really likes.

It seems as if many people simply can’t grasp the idea of things evolving through conflict, and creating better methods to survive and flourish. People who believe in “salvation” in football through wrecking the existent and rebuilding from “scratch” – simply don’t understand the concept of evolving.

Evolution means that you fall down and get back up. It means to live and learn, and is the exact opposite of a quick fix. Evolving means finding a long-term solutions, and not only thinking about “here and now”. Evolving is to try, fail, find another way, fail again, and try again… It requires a long-term vision. Failures are not in conflict with genius – they are part and parcel of it. “Talent” is not a gift, it’s a product of hard work.

Football teams are not “created” great – they are built and developed. Even clubs bought by billionaires need to go through some kind of process in order to become great.

Most players believe in God or in some sort of spirit. I am well aware of that because many of them have religious rituals they are doing in public – praying, pointing towards the sky (either to thank God or to salute to someone who died), wearing “I belong to Jesus” T-shirts, etc – but that is why they are players and not in charge of building teams.

I’m not sure how many of the great managers are atheists. I know for a  fact that Johan Cruyff, perhaps the most important figure in modern football, is atheist. I know that Mourinho “believes” in God and is even writing his own “Football bible” for him.

Maybe that is the fundamental difference between Mourinho and Cruyff and his disciples (pardon the irony). One (Mourinho) believes that “the greatest lie if football” is when a coach says he needs time to make the team play the way he wants – and the other (Cruyff) believes in the patient evolution of a club through conflict and solving problems. I believe most managers understand the concept of evolution.

Bottom line is that great teams are not “created”. They are a result of an evolutionary process. I think that atheists understand this better than religious people.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @SOCCERISSUE

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Porto acquired Falcao for €3.9m from River Plate of Argentina in 2009, and sold  him to Atletico Madrid for €40m euros two seasons ago. As part of his move to the Spanish club, €1.8 — about 5 %of the fee — went to Dutch financial holding company Natland Financieringsmaatschappij BV.  Huh? Yup. A Dutch bank made profit from the transfer of a Colombian striker from a Portuguese club to a Spanish club. Globalization in a nutshell.

Falcao’s agent, Jorge Mendes and Peter Kenyon, former Chelsea chief executive, have also made nice profit from selling their Colombian stallion.  Some barons and oligarchs, who figured out a way to get money from the football world without investing in a team, have also made great profits from the transfers of Falcao.

Nobody really knows how Falcao’s transfers have benefited the bank accounts of the world’s richest because in the murky business of third-party investment funds transparency is a bad word.

Falcao will now join Monaco for about €60m. It’s an odd transfer that will prevent the Colombian striker from playing Champions League football for at least one more year.

Falcao was wanted by the best teams in the world. He could have certainly played for the best teams in the world. However, it won’t be happening for reasons that seem 100% financial.

The “invisible hand” has signed Falcao’s contract at Monaco. I’m not really sure Falcao had a real say about that. Nobody knows if he was pressured to sign a contract with Monaco or who pressured him to do so. There are some very powerful people who bought “Falcao shares” and as shareholders they want to have a say.

There are some serious questions about the purity of this transfer. It seems that the sporting reasons are completely marginalized by the financial reasons.

3rd-party ownership should be totally transparent or totally banned.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @SOCCERISSUE

Thanks to science and research, we know more than ever right now. In two years time we’ll know even more.

Because we know a lot more, we need to remember a lot more. Simple logic.

Because we know a lot more and need to remember a lot more, there are more experts in each field.

It’s true in football as well.

Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, scouting was done by one person – today it takes a department to scout efficiently.

Once upon a time, a coach had 3-4 drills, today there are more than 100 drills to choose from just for coaching pressing.

Once upon a time clubs didn’t coach players under the age of 12 but now there are clubs that understand it’s essential to train kids as early as possible. That means that some clubs have under-4 teams. “Bambino teams” they call it.

Obviously, 3-4 year olds need different training than 12-13 year olds – this means you need more coaches and experts for the younger ages.

Once upon a time, a coach chose between 4-4-2 or 4-2-4. Today teams are lined up in a 3-4-3 formation or a 4-3-3 formation – or 4-2-3-1, or 5-4-1, or 4-5-1, or 4-3-2-1 and so on.

The football industry is a huge industry and it is getting larger and more sophisticated each year. One manager, no matter how talented and determined, can’t do everything on his on.

The “English Model” of one manager that controls every professional aspect of his club is dying.

Alex Ferguson might have chosen every youth team coach in Manchester United and knew every cook in the Carrington Training Centre by first name  - but without decentralization of his authority, he wouldn’t have survived so long as a top manager.

There are a few more “football managers” out there. They are in full control of clubs but in the future they will be gone. Managing a football team is not a job for one man.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @SOCCERISSUE

Ben Watson jumped for this ball like it’s the 90^th minute of the FA Cup final.

He jumped for this ball like he plays for a small team with no chance to win one of the biggest prizes against one of the  richest teams in the world.

It seems like he leaped about 12 feet  high.

And then he headed the ball like his career is depended on it.

He headed it like if he’d score it, his career would change and he’ll be a hero remembered for the next 50-6o-70 years.

And he nailed it.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue

We know that the Spanish football league is investigating a game between first division clubs Levante and Deportivo La Coruna for possible match-fixing. It’s also common knowledge amongst football reporters, administrators, players and even fans that a vast majority of countries in Europe suffer from match-fixing with up to 400 games per season rigged.

According to Europol at least 680 games globally were suspicious, 380 of which were in Europe. A few weeks ago, Sportradar Security Services, which employs 35 highly experienced staff and monitors bookmaking activities across the entire industry, exposed the true extent of a crisis regarded by FIFA and UEFA as currently the gravest issue to attack football.

“We uncover between 250 and 300 matches a year that are fixed,” said Ben Paterson, integrity manager at Sportradar Security Services to InsideWorldFootball. “Out of 53 UEFA member countries, we have seen problems in upwards of 45 of them in varying degrees.”

The majority of matches that are fixed go through the Asian markets. said Paterson. “There is so much money there and the odds are so competitive that match fixers can bet vast sums anonymously”, Paterson said. “We highlight to the relevant people that such and such a match is suspicious, and wherever possible also highlight individuals.”

This is a real threat to the football industry. Once the fans suspect every game of being corrupt, they will not buy tickets, sponsors will not sign deals and TV companies will prefer to invest their money in reality TV for the brain-dead rather if football.

So, how can football fight the match fixing cancer? Not with money – because the betting industry is a lot larger.

The match fixing industry is based in the far east, and is run in very organised and sophisticated methods.

These people change the course of football matches for over a decade, and have many different ways to do it – either by simply bribing a referee, or by putting a fake Togo “national team” in a match. They have “agents” in football clubs and football association. They are ruthless, unafraid to threaten or even murder those involved in the game at every level. Their only goal is financial gain.

According to estimates, about $3 billion are gambled on football every day. That’s about $1 trillion per year.

Theoretically, even a player that earns $3m a year can be easily bribed, so think about how easy it is to bribe a player whose club is in debt, who plays in unimportant matches, who doesn’t get paid well enough by his club (or worse – isn’t paid at all).

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

The connection is this: The 733 top-tier European clubs have fixed assets with a sum total worth of about €21.8 billion. The total income of these clubs stands at about €16 billion per year. Football may be a big industry, but it is nothing compared to the match fixing industry that makes money off of it. So, it seems that the European football financial muscles are just not robust enough to fight the huge betting industry on its on.

In the past 5 years, European clubs have shown a financial growth that averaged at 5.6%. This is a great statistic when compared to the average growth of the European economy, which stands at a mere 0.5%. In 2011, Europe’s top-tier clubs have enjoyed a total income of €13.2 billion – a sharp increase from 2009 (€11.7 billion).

The income is up a lot because of Television income is also on the rise, averaging a yearly improvement of 8.2% over the past 5 years. Sports on television is a great asset for TV companies (You can read why here: “European football is not making enough money“).

These numbers might tell the story of great financial growth, but that is only one side of the story. While “growth” may be a code name for “success”, it is also a way of disguising other pieces of data. These “hidden numbers” are very alarming.

The bottom line shows that in 2011, European football clubs have shown a loss of €1.68 billion. This is mainly due to the 43% increase in player wages shown over the past 5 years. Players have received €9.4 billion from clubs, who have shown a tendency to spend way more money on players than they actually have. The teams that compete in UEFA competitions have fixed assets (mainly stadiums
and training grounds) worth about €4.8 billion, yet they spent over €6.9 billion to purchase their players.

In 2007, European clubs have shown a loss of €600m. This number has dramatically risen in 2011, as clubs have shown a €1.7 billion loss.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

This is a very troubling trend. UEFA claims that 1 out of 7 clubs can be described as “worrisome”, while 38% of clubs have a debt that is larger than the total worth of their assets. Above all of that, the sum total of debt in European football stands at over €18.5 billion. 68% of clubs’ debt to current or former players or other clubs.

Another worrying trend shows that the billionaires, who usually view football clubs as nothing more than a “cool toy”, have created a great divide between the “haves” and the “have nots”. The Deloitte Money League even tells us that a new group has been created – the “have a whole lots”.

In 2006, top ranked Real Madrid had an income that was 3 times larger than Lazio, who were ranked at number 20. In 2012, Real had an income 4.5 times larger than Newcastle, also at number 20.  The margin will probably only increase, which means that clubs at the top of the pyramid will have an even greater power in the transfer market.

Financial Fair Play says that clubs will not be able to spend more money than they earn, and that outside investors will be able to spend money on infrastructure, but not on players. This basically means that clubs such as Newcastle will not be able to attract investors, making it nearly impossible to bridge the gap between them and the elite clubs.

This will create a state of super-power clubs, who will use their advantages to weaken the big clubs. The big clubs will weaken the medium-sized clubs, who will in turn hurt the small clubs. It’s basically the upside-down version of trickle-down economics.

This also means clubs will have plenty of games with nothing at stake. That “soft belly” of football is also where the illegal betting masters can strike. Games with no real sporting meaning are too easy to fix. For match fixers they are money on the floor.

A Tuesday night game between to “medium” sized football clubs with nothing real to play for can turn into a feast for criminal masterminds in the far east. This happens a lot in smaller competitions, but it’s probably happening in the major leagues as well. Even in the Champions League, where at least 20% of group stage matches have no real sporting edge can be “sold” to bettors.

So how can a financially fragile industry resist this brutal, wealthier force? It can’t. At least, not in the way it’s being run today.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Football needs to embrace the Spartan spirit. Remember the battle of Thermopylae, when at least 250 thousand Persian soldiers invaded Greece, and were fought by about 5,000 Greek soldiers, led by 300 Spartan warriors. This battle is a great example of how a small army can, with good education and training, defeat (or come close to defeating) a much bigger force. It’s a great example for quality over quantity.

Decreasing the number of teams in the top-tier leagues will improve the ability to monitor and supervise them. A higher quality of management, players and referrers will improve standards. The smaller, higher-quality leagues will have a higher standard of regulations, and will be more effective in their fight against match fixing. Smaller leagues also mean that each game will have more sporting significance – meaning they are much less exposed to match fixing.

The question is - can FIFA and UEFA, “football regulators” fix the match fixing problem by professionalizing the game?

No. These are political bodies with an interest to expand as much as possible.

Michel Platini has opened the Champions League for teams with no real chance of doing anything meaningful and for what? For the votes of the smaller football associations? This has deluded the quality of The Champions League and turned many of the games in this prestigious to unimportant.

FIFA, for ages now, give small, unorganized, unprofessional football associations - the same treatment as they give to the biggest football  associations and federations. Why? Yup, you guessed it – for their votes.

Can UEFA and FIFA, turn the leagues and their tournaments to more professional, better regulated and less exposed to match fixing?

They don’t even want to to it. That’s why football is so exposed to match fixing. And that’s why the match fixing problem is not going to be fixed anytime soon.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @Soccerissue