There is nothing more frustrating for the purveyors of a fake reality than a real Reality threatening to block out the projected spectacular one. When such a loss of control of the spectaclised media agenda is brought to our attention, there needs to be a concerted strategy from all interested power parties to alleviate the potential damage to the branded pseudo-entertainment delivered for our delectation. As Guy Debord states: "For what is presented as true life turns out to be merely a more truly spectacular life".
This week offered us a prime example of this template with the latest developments in the inquiry into bungs in the transfer market.
First, we need to check up whether you know your history. This charade has now dragged on for 18 months since Mike Newell whistleblew the rampant corruption in the transfer markets, with money being passed both under the table and between inappropriate parties. We stated at the time that Newell was pushing his luck if he thought that the English game would be grateful for his input and integrity. And, sure enough, we were correct.
Newell was sacked as Luton Town were targeted across the board for their disclosures of criminality - last season, Luton were relegated from the Championship; after going into administration in November 2007, a points reduction ensured that this year they were relegated from League One; and they will start next year in the lowest league with a 15 point penalty and, consequently, a real likelihood that they will end up in the Conference. With a likely three relegations in consecutive years and having additionally lost a large part of their playing staff due to the financial uproar, one would have to expect that the mad lessons meted out to the Hatters will act as a suitable warning for any other insiders attempting to clean up the murky English game.
If the strategy of allowing whistleblowers to provide evidence of criminality is to be dealt with in such an aggressive and pro-corruption style, we are going to find football mimicking other areas of institutional corruption in its collective myopia to the criminal machinations. For example, The Economist quotes: "Government whistleblowers have repeatedly been punished or fired - even when they have been trying to expose threats to national security that their bosses prefer to overlook... In the US, the Office of Special Counsel, which was established to enforce laws designed to protect the rights of whistleblowers, is widely regarded as inept and even hostile to the whistleblower". So, at least Luton Town and Mike Newell are in good company.
Once our attention had been diverted from the fallacious conclusion to the Premiership, the FA and the mainstream media this week announced that one of the two charges brought against six football agents over the Luton fiasco had been dropped. The spinning of this reality in the week following the season is a standard practice of a controlled media attempting to hide away bad news stories that might negatively impact upon the brand. And, despite the Guardian headline screaming that charges had been dropped, the aptly named David Conn disguised the true Reality that one of the charges was still outstanding unless you were willing to slither through his syrupy journalistic waffle to find the truth. The headline = "Charges against agents dropped"; The Reality = "One of the charges against the agents dropped".
The six agents, Sky Andrew, Mike Berry, Mark Curtis, Stephen Denos, David Manasseh and Andrew Mills, have had the charge of illegally accepting payments from Luton Town's holding company dropped while the charge relating to there having been no written agreements to work with the club when conducting the transfers is still outstanding (no doubt to be brushed under the carpet on a wet Inter Toto Preliminary Round Tuesday in July).
We have recently had negotiations with several firms of agents regarding our Holistic Sabermetrics business project and two of the agents mentioned above work for one of these outfits, Key Sports. One of the most striking structural aspects of our interactions with this company was their refusal to apply anything to paper - everything is word of mouth, cash in hand, verbal dealmaking with no feedback to the perpetrators of any particular bending of the rules. This is, however, the standard climate in the world of football agents - it is a highly informal grey market improperly regulated and prone to liaisons with the worst aspects of the black market. For example, when Celtic were negotiating to bring Stilian Petrov to Glasgow, his agent's opening salvo was to place a revolver on the table. Evidently, business is business in Bulgaria!
We could, if we wished, name numerous other similar examples of the standard practices of this sector of our corrupted sport but we wish to link to one of the other areas of corruption that has been filed away in the mainstream media away from any prying eyes. We are aware of a little anecdote regarding a leading agent. This particular agent offered two fellow agents a suitcase containing £40,000 to drop their interest in a particular player who was interesting a particular team. The agents refused but these are obviously the formal business tactics of certain agents.
There is a further issue regarding the grey areas relating to football agents. Individual agents might represent both the clubs and the individual players in a deal. The wide range for potential conflicts of interest together with integrity issues relating to the slicing of a percentage from both sides of a deal are obvious. This whole sector needs thorough regulation rather than the standard lack of oversight endemic in the English game.
Interestingly, one of the prime reasons that we unanimously decided against teaming up with any agents for the launch of the Holistic Sabermetrics project was the issue of our not being able to determine the "real" financial deals undertaken at meetings at which we were not present. One always must take trust to be a non-existent concept in western business.
Of course, the Pompey Defendants are still awaiting news of the police inquiry that has been dragging on for a year and a half since the BBC Panarama programme exposed the bung culture underpinning the English transfer market. 18 months and nothing - this is all rather inefficient for a police state! Mind you, it took 10 years to conclude the hyperreality that drink was responsible for the death of Diana so we should not be surprised by the slow rate of progress of societal inquiries into their own criminalities, should we?
Much of the evidence being used against Redknapp's mob comes from a French citizen who wishes to remain anonymous. So fearful was this person regarding his life if he were to go public himself that the allegations were released by a Parisien lawyer on his behalf.
Guns, fear of being taken out, suitcases of money, massive insider gambling, money laundering and fraud all hover around the arms dealer's plaything, Portsmouth FC. What has been the strategy of the mainstream media to this outrageous conspiracy of corruption? Well, dutifully the news gains its moment in the spectacular spotlight before being dropped so that we might be able to focus on the neoreal news stories that run and run in the press eg Beckham's move to LA Galaxy, Hicks v Gillett, the Messiah returning to Newcastle etc etc. Nice safe spectacular stuff of no consequence to anyone. Indeed, the alleged uproar behind the scenes at Liverpool neatly coincided with the Scousers best run of the season! Reality? What Reality?
All of which rather neatly brings us to the spectacular irrelevance of this year's FA Cup Final between two corrupt teams, Portsmouth and Cardiff City. We know directly of 5 players who are involved in this event who privately trade on matches in which they are involved. Meanwhile, Ridsdale, who should have been barred from the game for life following his interesting approach to financial matters at Leeds United, is known as a bit of an operator while Gaydamak ("I am the biggest man in Israel") and Redknapp are closely linked to certain aspects of the Tel Aviv, Gibraltar and Moscow betting markets. Oh, the magic of the Cup!
The match official for this "vulgarised pseudo-festival" at the Food Mall is none other than Mike Dean. Banned for two months only the season before last for his inappropriate business linkages to an online betting syndicate, Dean was also named by Avram Grant (another pillar if disrespectability) as being: "Good for one team... The referee changed the result for sure. We know that" when he officiated the highly corrupt Man Utd v Chelsea game. Grant took chutzpah to new heights with his assertion that: "...there are a few referees you can influence, like you saw" in reference to the Wigan v Man Utd title pseudo-decider. Following Grant's outburst, Dean declined to comment.
Chelsea should certainly be more than aware that certain PGMOB match officials may be bought by the powerful clubs as they and Portsmouth are the two most avid utilisers of this illicit tactic.
Corruption will only be targeted within the English game when credence and respect is given to the likes of Mike Newell who expose the rampant corruption. As it stands, the incentives are entirely skewed in the opposite direction with the most criminalised Premiership teams being given a place in the seasonal climaxes of the FA Cup and the Champions League Finals. Proper football?!
Debord: "Its [society's] vulgarised pseudo-festivals are parodies of real dialogue... they may incite waves of excessive economic spending, but they lead to nothing but disillusionments, which can be compensated only by the promise of some new disillusion to come".
Can't wait...
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
