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The Ugly Game By Martin Calladine
Release date: 12th February, 2015
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
List Price: Ł12.99
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After graciously agreeing to pocket billions of pounds of broadcasterâs cash for another three years, the Premier League leapfrogged US baseball to become the second most valuable sports league in the world.
You wouldnât think you could teach the people running such a hugely cash-generative operation anything new, but in The Ugly Game, Martin Calladine makes a cogent, often entertaining case for football to look west and discover what it could become, one capable of handling money and fame without compromising open, fair competition.
Footballâs âelegant simplicityâ, says Calladine, once contributed to its universal appeal, but the game is, he says, âshowing its age, led astray by money; its self-interest making it increasingly a stranger to its audience.â
Calladine was once an avid football fan, but like so many others he fell out of love, describing his gradual disillusionment and break from the game as a divorce, a word which will feel wholly appropriate to many readers. He opted to âreturn to his childhood loveâ, American Football and the NFL.
Gridironâs appeal, he argues, stems from strict adherence to a series of rules which ensure it remains ultra-competitive. For example, club spending is tightly controlled, âto prevent billionaires buying successâ; television receipts are shared equally; smaller clubs can hold onto their players and buying a team franchise is âmore like a tightly-regulated business than a used car auction.â
Each of the bookâs twenty chapters comprise sub-headings, highlighting the NFLâs appeal: stability of ownership; television analysts who tell you things you didnât already know; the operation of a genuine, well-policed salary cap which means owners cannot buy the title.
It could be argued that the Premier League has tried to emulate much of what it sees as good in US sport, but unfortunately, itâs succeeded in concentrating commercial power amongst a handful of clubs. Sure, American Football is a glitzy, commercially-attuned sport, but itâs also remarkably egalitarian which is why it remains so competitive. Perhaps this is also why the NFL remains, by some distance, the worldâs richest league.
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