Good governance is the one core competency required by the administrators and officials, for that is all they are, who oversee all market sectors. When, as at Northern Rock or the Premier League, the infrastructure is shown to be invalid, as measured against the yardstick of benchmarking, change must be enforced.
So, Darling/Brown, seemingly not content with simply throwing £55 billion of taxpayer's money at Northern Rock, have now nationalised the blighted bank as a last gasp option after all the bids either withdrew over a lack of governmental guarantees (the free economy at work again) or resumed their original market status following an engendered pseudo-bid in an attempt to beef up the market (no corruption in government tendering processes). When Brown gave the Bank of England the right to set interest rates, a key lever of democratic control passed to the financial sector. The infrastructure obviously allowed for Britain plc to punch above its weight as the government backed off from imposing any restrictions on the degree of psychopathy within the system. But, the bankers couldn't look after themselves as their desire for bubbles and busts, with associated bonus profits, always took precedence over regulatory oversight. Our Trading Team knew Northern Rock was in peril long before the market reacted and the Bank of England was provided with a stage upon which to display its incompetence. Mervyn King should get out more... Free markets!!
Professor Eric de Keuleneer stated in a recent letter to the Economist: "Adam Smith proposed that if profit is attained in a competitive market, working with clear rules and transparent information, it becomes 'socially legitimate' because it has created value... some businesses try to convince us that they have become 'socially responsible' through their deceiving propaganda in order to make us forget that they do not fulfil the basic conditions (competition and honesty of information) for the social legitimacy of their profits. They also lobby against regulations that try to remedy this. It would be good if some companies were reminded that... a respect for markets and consumers would provide social legitimacy". Leaving aside the rather obvious question regarding whether profit can ever be socially legitimate and de Keuleneer's overview of shareholder capitalism is surely accurate.
The lack of regulatory guardianship of the banking sector in Britain created the first bank run since Victorian times and the architect of the infrastructure that enabled this bank run to occur is now the prime minister who has taken the "decision" to nationalise the bank. Symmetry? Perhaps but free markets?
It seems strangely valid that dysfunctionality is the core competence at Newcastle United as well as Northern Rock as the two entities continue to provide entertainment by demonstrating that poorly executed capitalism is a highly efficient destroyer of value. When Newcastle United run out on to the Messiah's turf with the Northern Rock sponsorship logo blazened across their shirts, they might as well have the slogan "We Are Really Shit" written instead. You are linked to the worst bank in the country, 150 years since anybody has been as stupid as "your" bank... Northern Rock have impeccably poor timing too, a corporate style that developed before the quality of their loanbook became a matter of public interest, when the bank was forced to withdraw an extensive 2006 World Cup advertising campaign featuring Michael Owen after Newcastle's hot striker collapsed as soon as the tournament started. We look forward to the pitchside advertising at Newcastle on Saturday - Northern Rock... The Strength To Be Nationalised.
Perhaps Newcastle's results might be helped by removing the sponsor's name from the shirts. Choose something more optimistic. As they are frequently so helpful to your cause, how about the PGMOB? Or go the whole hog with AirAsia? A further tactic that might enhance Newcastle's results is to keep Kevin Keegan out of the dressing room at half time in away games - the four Premiership away games since the Messiah returned have seen 15 second half goals conceded and none scored!
So, bring the setting of interest rates back into the Treasury and then sack Brown, Darling, King, the Northern Rock board, Owen, Keegan, Mort and Ashley before moving on to public nuisance, Richard Scudamore. The two key pieces of information regarding Scudie's 39th Match ruse are: i) he never consulted with anybody beforehand and ii) he seems to think that he doesn't have to. The Premier League (PL), effectively, IS Richard Scudamore, which is presumably why he deserves his £1.25 million per year. His personal rottweiler, Richards, is the only other input to the levers of power within the PL and such a structure is primed for corruption. Scudamore, or any other PL chief executive, must be constrained by a balanced board otherwise he may simply choose to operate outside of the law (as the PL reading of the regulations always allows a suitable loophole or over-riding principle to be found). There is no systemic value in having so much power vested in one individual. The only power bases to gain from such a weak regulatory structure are those which might choose to by-pass the law on their route to profits.
Not only is Scudamore too powerful and selling the game to the betting markets but he is also incompetent (in a Milton Friedman sort-of-way). Why can't people just appreciate that he is maximising the game's value?!
* He claims all twenty Premiership clubs are in favour of the 39th Game which must be news to Liverpool, Manchester United and Reading who have already voiced concerns.
* Only Wenger has publicly supported the plans but he also sees the inevitability of a European Super League (see below) so he is obviously hedging his positions.
* Blatter said last Thursday that plans to take Premiership games abroad "will never happen". He continued: "Those that are richer than the others, they have more responsibility and what the PL is trying to do is contrary to this responsibility". He called Scudamore's plan "an abuse of association football" before confirming that: "We have not been contacted before by the league to ask us what we think of this idea. You speak about rude but I think it is irresponsible".
* Blatter's hint that the 2018 World Cup bid might be compromised if the PL continue with their Murdochracy media strategy has forced the FA hand and now Triesman and Barwick are opponents of Scudamore's policy statement. Triesman squealed: "I am determined that our international and domestic relations must be sustained at the highest level, and I will not countenance any damage to those relations". Are we still talking about football here, pal? The government is also cool to Scudie as fans can vote and Brown wants for a World Cup to wave in the face of Blair's Olympics.
* The Japanese FA are against it as are their Australian equivalents; Mohamed bin Hamman (Mr Big at the Asian FA) doesn't like the plans; Michel Platini quite reasonably spat out words like "absurd" and "arrogance"; Bernie Eckleston is against it (unless someone offers him a suitable slice of the action); fans are threatening to boycott the Premiership sponsors.
* Scudamore has a history of creatively reading the rulebook as Sheffield United found out last season in the "When is a Third Party Transfer Not A Third Party Transfer?" saga. Sheffield's supremo claims the PL is "poorly governed".
Scudamore is so arrogant that he consulted nobody prior to the launch apart from the 39th Game private sponsors (including Roy Eddington and Rupert Murdoch). Blatter came over all Cantona-like with his thinly veiled threat: "If only Fox and Sky and a Murdoch organisation [is showing the games] then Mr Murdoch should feel he is stripping the shirt a little bit too much". Mr Murdoch doesn't do "feel" and I can only assume that "stripping the shirt" is simply a teutonic version of "taking the piss"... Scudamore didn't mention his plan to his member clubs, the FA were informed 2 hours ahead of the press release and have still not seen detailed proposals, FIFA and UEFA were kept out of the loop, so were the FA's of the target territories. So long as Murdoch and Shinawatra knew, Scudie is doing his job. The lack of strategy is further demonstrated by the fans main concern, what will the 39th game be? Scudamore reassured us all with: "none of the solutions are entirely self-evident". Strange how the fans always veer to the meritocracy issues while the PL swerve to the profits...
All these shenanigans form a part of the continuing power struggles as a whole array of inappropriate operators try to increase their share of the action. The last week has seen numerous breakpoints within the footballing sector eg the alleged breaking up of the G14(18) at its "final" meeting last Friday or Quest getting the contract to audit how Soho Square regulates the transfer market. Prediction... several years of inaction will be followed by a couple of publicity stunts indicating that some consultancy work might have been undertaken prior to the whole edifice falling down on a technicality, or some such narrative.
Although he sits on the fence, Wenger is surely correct that the European Super League (ESL) is the reality that the PL fears. When the Big 4/5 depart, the PL product is instantly cheapened - the 39th Game might not prove so sellable in Bangkok if it is Derby v Boro. The ESL could more feasibly tap into global venues by building such a structure into the initial template for the ESL tournament. Scudamore's race for a competitive advantage has surely done nothing more than to accelerate his own departure from his depreciating post.
Belatedly, Scudamore is realising the poor call of no consultation. In response to Blatter's drawing of the battle lines (I can't remember the last time we backed Blatter on anything! Just how bad is Scudamore?), Scudie gushed: "I want to explain the reasons for this proposal to Mr Blatter because I do not think, on the information he will have received so far, he has been given the chance to understand it". Which is public school for: "We kept him in the dark. We are now willing to meet him on our terms".
What are the odds on a Kerry Packer-style split in the game with the frontlines drawn between UEFA, the disbanded G14(18), the PL, the ESL, with a whole array of inappropriates squabbling over ownership of the product of football?
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
