Sold! The Heart of Football

As a lifelong supporter of Notts County, who currently languish just outside of the playoffs in the National League (fifth tier), you may think that what happens to the glamour teams in the Premiership is just a distant speck on the horizon to me, and that I should be simply ushered away from any engagement with the proposed formation of a European Super League. “Move along Sir, this doesn’t involve you!” But it does, and it should bother us all even if football is not your thing.

Just to put this issue into a footballing context, Notts were last a topflight side in 1991-1992, relegated the season before the glitzy Premiership came into being. Since then, we have pretty much performed like Newton’s apple falling at a great rate, pardon the pun, of knots.

I poured my heart out in Love: it’s more than just a game which engaged with the bond I have with my club which has, more often than not, been there to usher in the significant changes in my life. The brilliant ones – the birth of my kids, and the not so terrific times – when my dad and best friend passed away. The sense of belonging, community and spirit wrapped up within the very fabric of that special place in NG2 3HJ. The ups and downs (of which there have been many) replicating life itself and in doing so complementing my own successes and failures as a human being.

Particularly since the introduction of the Premiership and the TV rights, global football has become huge business. Just before COVID-19 swept the planet I was in a bar in downtown Mumbai, India with my Gooner son Adam watching Arsenal against West Ham. The locals were as passionate as those I had witnessed at The Emirates. The reach of the higher end of domestic football is incredible, even if I was sat there in my Notts shirt. The Mumbians weren’t miserable so I doubt they were Hammers fans!

But will this commercialisation of an essential part of our community be its ultimate downfall?

I recall a journalist once asking John Madejski, then chair of Reading Football Club, “How do you become a millionaire?” to which he replied, “Buy a football club for £5 million!” Notts were saved from going out of existence when brothers Alexander and Christoffer Reedtz ploughed in a King’s ransom. The money involved is truly staggering.

But should we sit idly by as our sense of belonging is treated as a commodity? Or am I being over melodramatic? Hasn’t everything got a price? Try convincing the fans of Bury and Macclesfield Town.

I would argue no it hasn’t, and hope that the eruption of anger against the planned European Super League is the moment that triggers the awakening that who we are is not for sale. Because if it is, I don’t hold out much hope for any of our other vital institutions. The NHS, The Criminal Justice System, and every other civic function that we take for granted will have profit at its core.

I hope Notts make the playoffs and get back into the English Football League. But just as much, I want my spirt to remain forever free (at the point of access!).

COYP!

© Ian Kirke 2021

All photographs © Ian Kirke 2021