More Than a Game: Saving Football From Itself

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Three lions on the shirt, grassroots underfunded.... A revealing and shocking analysis of the state of the English game. The Premier League is the most commercially successful football league in the world, the self-proclaimed 'best league in the world'. Yet in the summer of 2019, while Manchester City celebrated their second successive Premier League title, Bury FC were thrown out of the English Football League- the first ever FA Cup winners to go out of business. We are at a tipping point. The success of the Premier league has come at a cost, unbalancing English football to a profound and damaging degree. The signs are everywhere- it is estimated that 61 of the country's 92 professional clubs are loss-making; payments to agents involved in transfers in 17/18 were more than the combined income of all 44 clubs in Leagues 1 and 2; supporters face higher prices every season, while travelling the length and breadth of the country at ever more inconvenient times to accommodate TV schedules; young English players find their route to the top blocked; and the socially beneficial community activities that clubs undertake are underfunded. Racist incidents are on the rise, grassroots facilities are in a dreadful state and failed World Cup bids have severely weakened England's standing in the global game. There is an alternative. In this revealing and eye-opening analysis of the modern game, leading economist Mark Gregory reveals the breadth and depth of the problems facing English football, and shows us a way to bring football home for good.

Reviews

Mark Gregory... knows what he is talking about...you will understand a great deal more about English football and its coming cataclysm than you did before... [a] manifesto for change and returning the game to its roots' -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *

Author Bio

Mark Gregory spent the last ten years as Ernst & Young's chief economist in the UK. In a career spanning over three decades he has advised governments and businesses in over forty countries on economic policy issues, specialising in the liberalisation, regulation and commercialisation of the communications sector. Prior to joining EY he held international roles at IBM and PwC. He founded and led EY's sports economics practice, which has advised the Premier League, the ECB, the Union Cycliste Internationale and the Rugby World Cup on the economic issues affecting their sports. He was recently called as an expert to give evidence on economics and regulation to the Fan-led Review of Football Governance. He is a Director of the Centre for Towns and a member of the UK Government's Trade Advisory Group on investment. He is a lifelong Stoke City supporter.