Football League - On a Precipice?

Last week, Greg Clarke, the Football League chairman has stated on BBC Radio 5 about how many clubs, an ever increasing number are heading for a "debt precipice". With many clubs in the football league already in debt, and not many even breaking even each season, the level of debt within the football league is increasing every season with this becoming all too common as more and more clubs move into administration, Plymouth Argyle looking set to be the latest one as they served a notice of intent on Monday, with the club now having 10 days to go into administration.


The main problem that Greg Clarke discussed was the way the debt was being handled, and not necessarily the level of the debt that the clubs hold in total. During the interview, he stated how the debt, even if serviced now, and cuts taken today, it would be five years or more before any serious effect was seen within the clubs with regards to the debt. Currently, the twenty four clubs in League Two are all signed up to an agreement that bounds them to not spend more than 60% of their turnover on wages. 


This protocol of wages being limited is trying to be extended to League One as well, but has apparently hit some resistance, presumably from the larger clubs in the division who are spending higher wages as they try to push for promotion, such as Southampton and Huddersfield. The UEFA financial fair play rules that state all clubs need to be breaking even over a five year period to enter a tournament under their ruling is something that the Football League would like to try and implement in the future if they cannot bring in their wage restriction rule to the Championship as well within the next few years.


During the interview, it was suggested that the clubs were needed to be forced into following these protocol, Given the difficulties in trying to get consensus from all of the clubs in agreeing to this protocol. However Mr Clarke has said that the Football League is a democracy and not an autocracy, meaning that although it may take time at first to win the clubs round, he would much rather win the clubs round than impose rules which might not be agreeable to them. He states that quite often, football can be "quite backwards in it's ideas", which leads to this large amount of time with , many clubs being a bit of a roadblock against change within the game.


The interview on BBC 5 Live was conducted in relation to Greg Clarke giving evidence for a government enquiry into the way the game is governed within England, with a series of hearings being held over the next few weeks before a report is presented to parliament. It can only be hoped that the parliament think better of the governance than Sports Minister Hugh Robertson who has described football as "the worst run sport in the country", although with the excessive amounts of debts that The FA, and The Football League have let clubs build up in the past may prove to work it's way against them in this enquiry.