Now more than ever, the Bundesliga offers a sanctuary away from the pitfalls of modern football
This season has seen English and much of European football accelerate its dependency on wealthy owners and dubious source of income as the sport continues to spiral out of control.
I found something rather distressing and unequivocally demoralising on Twitter the other day. That, in itself, may not be entirely surprising to anyone. The social media platform was a cesspit long before Elon Musk got his hands on it and things haven’t gotten any better since. But this tweet in particular still made me stop in my tracks and question a number of things.
It was, essentially, a Manchester United fan posing a question to fellow fans of the Old Trafford side amidst news of the club being bought over in the coming months. However, rather than discuss the moral or ethical differences between a Qatari prince and an English businessman, this fan went one step further and suggested that there was a very good chance that neither would be good enough.
“What is more important for a top PL club…” asked the tweeter. “To have a rich owner that injects money into the club or to be part of a successful multi-club ownership group?” He then answered his own question. “In 5-10 years, I think that we would say without doubt that it’s the latter.”
This may or may not be right. Intriguingly, the self-proclaimed expert in sports law used the Red Bull model as one that Man Utd should look to follow. Which, conveniently, underlined Salzburg’s success in Austria but overlooked the fact that their Leipzig branch have yet to achieve anything close to overwhelming success. But that’s not what bothered me.
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