Mr. Ian Ayre or How I Started Worrying about Money and Learned to Hate Sport

Football is as financially unfair a sport as any in the world. Ian Ayre, Liverpool’s Managing Director, hates this. Ian Ayre believes it could be more unfair.

American sports lead the way in the distribution of profit, keeping their leagues exciting and stable. They not only share television rights but merchandising and tickert sales. Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group know this, as they own a team in every major American sport. But instead of looking to the admirable set-up in America they are deciding to use Spain, a staple example of sound financial management, to solve their problems.

They have looked to the highest-quality league in Europe and picked the single worst aspect of it as an example of good practice. Even in Spain, the realisation that Real Madrid and Barcelona’s monopoly of TV rights is not a viable way to run the league of 20 teams. By selling their overseas football rights individually Liverpool will be able to create a financial gap between themselves and the other 16 teams below them (in terms of brand identity). Liverpool need this gap to hide the fact that Liverpool are in terminal decline.

Sure, they’ve got big players, a solid fanbase and a fantastic brand but the fact is Liverpool are not a big team. They are trying to claw the last drops of advantage from the fact that in the Far East people still care about Liverpool. Only half of Liverpool cares about Liverpool.

Ian Ayre is in a moral matrix. He doesn’t like the unfairness of oligarchs being able to outbid them for every player, but he doesn’t want a level playing field, or how could Liverpool possibly remain a top club? Instead, Ayre wants to set up a system that will disproportionately benefit Liverpool, a team hanging on to their heritage, with the baying wolves of Tottenham, Man City and Stoke behind them.

The heart bleeds for Ian Ayres, and big-ish fish that compete compete with the biggest fish. Won’t somebody please think of them?

Or perhaps we look closer at our deeply unfair sport, rife with corruption and based entirely on spending power, and try to change it for everyone. All we need to do is glance over the Atlantic to the NFL, NBA, MLB and other acronyms. Manifest destiny. But not the kind Ian Ayres believes in.

Follow on ye’ old Twitter: @mattpottinger

Related posts:

1. Why Couldn’t They Do This During My Sport Lessons At School…
2. Villian of the year: Balotelli rant makes us hate him even more…
3. All that money spent … and City are still useless