Sunday sees the release of the latest Bum Ref Index which is inspired by The Economists Big Mac Index (this uses the economic fabrication of purchasing power parity [PPP] to compare currencies across the planet). Not only does the Bum Ref Index allow us to expose the worst culprits in the whistleblowing department in the English Premiership, it also allows us to indulge in one of our favourite, if a little repetitive, pastimes of dissing the pseudo-mathematic that is PPP.
The Premiership wears two crowns. The first relates to the liquidity of the global betting markets and the second is the level of corruption in the league. In our experience of modelling financial markets, liquidity and corruption dance a two-step as markets mature to their supreme utopian state of cartelisation and the endemic abuse of information in all public spheres. This journey to a corrupt nirvana is the inevitable conclusion - shareholder capitalism progresses along a path every bit as robust as the stellar evolution demonstrated by the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
So where do we find the Premiership on this journey? The English Premiership is approaching full maturity and the fragmented cartel infrastructure currently defining the marketplace is merely a precursor to a fully mature state. Can't wait...
This freeflow to ultimate corruption within a sector is frequently impacted upon by supernovae in geographically similar sectors. For example, the dynamics towards a European Super League will have a massive impact on the Premiership as the product will be devalued at an even greater rate than Scudie is able to achieve of his own volition when the superstars disappear to new levels of spectacular reality. The Premier League will achieve full maturity for their product before (dis)gracefully retiring to a mature and crooked old age as matches between Boro and Bolton take on the sporting equivalence of the 2:45 on the all-weather at Lingfield.
Incentives lead to corruption which is the prime dynamic underpinning the inevitabilty of the continuance of shareholder capitalism's two-step. They must go on until the feet become blistered, the shoes worn through and the soundtrack hackneyed. Just as a £10 million betting market trumps the £4000 prize money at Lingfield so the £1 billion betting market trumps the loyalty to club, colleagues, the game, your profession. Some individuals take the bait singularly, others act in concert but the process is always the same in a maturing market sector.
The English Premiership is leading in the race to become the first fully mature football league in the world. From a strictly monetarist perspective, Scudamore is performing a fine job. His actions and inactions have created the template whereby the Premiership is primed for the ultimate corruption that typifies a mature market. From a capitalist perspective, the man warrants his twenty five grand per week. In fact he is cheap at price. Just do some back-of-the-envelope maths and it can be seen that a one million annual pay-off for orchestrating the template to allow for the final corruption of the beautiful game in England is hardly significant when one individual game grosses a billion. There's probably a suitably located offshore treasury being put aside by those on whose behalf the man slimes his existence.
The referees also occupy a pivotal role in the maximisation of the corruption of any football league anywhere in the world. We focus primarily on the Premiership as it is the most corrupt of the leading European leagues and yet it markets itself as some bastion of culture and integrity that warrants our respect and admiration.
On Sunday, we'll list the worst performing Premiership referees and, on Tuesday, we will prepare a post looking at club bias with regard to certain match officials in the Premiership, Serie A, La Primera Liga and the Bundesliga. We'll also bang on about PPP from a Libertarian Socialist perspective for two paragraphs.
We bet that you can't wait...
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
