This week has brought the paradoxical contrast between US major league sports (operated on a quasi-socialistic franchise basis) and the UK's Premier Lague soccer (a mad free-for-all) into the sharpest possible focus.
Let's start in the Premier League, where the bizarre ritual known as the January trading window has just concluded. Chelsea FC, having just announced a £75 million loss for 2010, spent a UK record £50 million on striker Fernando "el Nino" Torres from Liverpool, plus another £20 million plus on a player from Portugal. Chelsea is owned by the Russian megabillionaire Roman Abramovich. Liverpool promptly turned around and paid £35 million for striker Andy "Asbo" Carroll from Newcastle United, and also spent a further £23 million on a Portuguese player of their own. Liverpool are owned by the megabucks US owners of the Boston Red Sox, whereas poor old Newcastle are saddled with an owner, Mike Ashley, who is almost certainly a billionaire but is seen as a bit of a cheapskate. Any suggestion that all this might not be healthy for the competitive order of the national game is shrugged off. Never mind the quality -- count the money!
Meanwhile in the US, Super Bowl XLV (or XXXXV if you like your Roman numerals more prolix) will be contested by the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Green Bay? Population 100,000! If you want to find it on a map, start at Chicago and head north. (Keep going!) The team is owned by the city's residents. Pittsburgh? Once the Steel City, now the epitome of the Rust Belt. Declining economy, falling population. At the unfashionable end of Pennsylvania, if that's possible. The equivalent in English soccer would be something like Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday fighting it out for the Premier League title, which is simply inconceivable. The NFL, alongside the other major leagues, long ago realised that keeping the product competitive would be in everyone's interest. The Premier League, bolstered by TV rights money, couldn't care less.
That's supposed to change soon, as Europe-wide "financial fair play" rules start to come into force next year. The Chelseas and Liverpools (and Man City/Man Us and Arsenals) of the league swear they will abide by them, but I'd risk a small bet that even now they've got lawyers working on some sort of restraint of trade challenge.
I won't be risking even a small bet on Super Bowl XLV, but in the interests of sticking up for the little guy, let's go for the Pack by a converted TD.
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