It’s dawned on me, reading some of the comments here and on other threads, that the fundamental problem the league has regarding its reputation is that it’s utterly disunited.
A stable national league in any other country is one where the clubs have bought into what the league stands for, and while that leaves room for rivalries and disagreement, these are recognised as being second to a common good – ownership regulations in the Bundesliga, complete overhaul of the Norwegian league over a decade ago, etc. Here, you would be forgiven for thinking we have 22 feudal vassals who despise their ineffectual overlord, and each other; 22 petty underlings who are too busy grubbing around fire-fighting on their own patch, and cackling when their neighbour’s catches light, to do anything to remedy their lot.
You can’t market disharmony.
You can’t market negativity.
You can’t market bout after bout of schadenfraude as club after club goes to the wall.
You can’t market a history of days-that-never-were when every club got 20,000 through the turnstiles, or a history of inglorious failure. I don’t care which club’s director was worse than another club’s director. I don’t care who shamed the league most in the past. The best service that can be done for the reputation of our clubs and league is to make sure nobody like them ever gets their claws into one of our clubs again. That’s something you can market.
Clubs have to wake up and realise that there’s one boat: 10 berths in first class, 12 in second, a few hardy souls in steerage, and a lot gone overboard to the sharks. It’s long past time everybody rowed in the same direction.
Just saw dcfcsteve's post as I refreshed the page: there's an eloquent truth in the simplicity of the statement.
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