Too Big To Fail; Masters/Atticus Finch, Scudamore/Kissinger; City Twitter; What George Osborne did next; 1971 and all that; Big Eventer of the Week; Happy 20th Birthday Access Sport
Overthinking the sports business, for money
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by We Are Sweet, the leading provider of digital platforms for the sports industry.
Are you responsible for digital but not sure what to do with all the data you’ve collected?
We Are Sweet excels in crafting best-in-class software, ranging from unique engagement experiences to next-generation websites. With more than a decade of innovating alongside names like IMG, ATP, Professional Triathletes Organisation and Formula 1, you can trust that their software delivers.
Whether you're looking to kickstart your community and transform the way you communicate with professional players, bring data to life in a second-screen experience, or need a website that monetises fans, We Are Sweet is the digital partner you need.
Visit www.wearesweet.co.uk to turn your digital aspirations into tangible success stories.
Are City Really Too Big To Fail
This week’s podcast looks like being our biggest ever.
Guests Nick Harris and Stefan Borson took me deep in to the Premier League’s legal case against Manchester City.
I learnt loads, so will you.
Winning the narrative
There are two things happening simultaneously.
There’s the law and there’s the story.
The court and the court of public opinion.
The facts and the narrative.
The law will grind to a solution in time. And it would be daft to offer any analysis of the detailed arguments here - listen to Stefan Borson on the pod for that.
But I’ve had a couple of days immersed in the latter, the fight over the narrative, courtesy of Football Twitter.
We published the podcast at lunchtime on Tuesday.
By the evening I was getting messages from City fan mates that the pod was being shared and dissected across club sites and message boards.
A glimpse of the UP Twitter feed gives a flavour.
It runs from Simon Pearce’s smoking gun email through to the minutiae of sponsorship valuation analysis of the Etihad deal in Nick Harris’ substack, which was the initial catalyst for the podcast.
The lawyers will wrangle and a judgement will be made.
But what then?
What are the second level implications of the case?
This gets us to the big question: Are Manchester City too big to fail?
Too Big To Fail is about systemic implications of corporate failure.
The idea of interconnection: If a big bank or insurance company goes down it would be disastrous for the greater economic system. My pension, the value of your house.
Transpose this to football:
If City are found guilty of falsifying ten years of accounts, it will set off a chain of events that will ultimately bring down the Premier League as we know it.
Every club in every year of the Premier League since 2014 is looking at what it means for them.
How much money did it cost us in lost places, relegations that never were and Champions League spots that didn’t materialise.
All because….City.
Lawyers. Court hearings. CAS will be like the January sale at Lidl.
Chaos.
Who do you want to be when you grow up? Atticus Finch or Henry Kissinger?
How will history judge Richard Masters?
Again, you can sense the narratives forming.
As I say on the podcast, my instinct is to support the stance he’s taken, for standing up and doing the right thing.
But is that just sixth form politics?
Is Stefan Borson (a City fan) right when he calls naive self sabotage: ‘The greatest act of self harm in sports business history’.
This gets us to another storyline.
This features Masters being bullied by Levy, Silver Lake, Fenway and the Glazers? (Note the growing storyline that Masters has lost the dressing room).
No way Scudamore/Kissinger would’ve let this happen, etc etc.
Certainly, it would be ironic wouldn’t it, just as the government seeks to regulate to reduce inequality, that the Premier League solve the problem themselves, by undermining its own commercial value by rendering the last ten years irrelevant.
Nobody likes settling.
It’s a horrible word with its connotations of compromise. Making do. Sucking it up for the greater good.
That’s not how it’s supposed to work. The bad guys get put away and the rest of us get to feel like righteous for a day.
So why do I get the feeling that real life isn’t like that.
As football clubs become financial assets, Alan Greenspan’s quote is worth keeping in mind.
‘If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big’.
Is sport a strategic asset?
For Man City, read The Daily Telegraph.
Should foreign states be allowed to own British newspapers?
See Lord Forsyth’s argument in the Lord’s yesterday - there are some things a country shouldn’t sell to other countries.
Oil rich theocracy, soft power, cultural and political influence; the gang’s all here.
And fresh from creating a decade of austerity, note who’s helping behind the scenes…
Growing the Game, continued.
Been sent this pic several time this week.
1971 and all that
Good piece on a forgotten tournament.
Access All Areas
We were out and about in town last night.
20 years of Access Sport.
Great team, great cause.
