Britain’s sports minister criticized English Premier League players for a lack of long-term commitment to their clubs and backed Liverpool fans hoping to oust the club’s American owners.
Andy Burnham said he witnessed a completely different level of passion in Beijing, where Britain enjoyed its most successful Games in a century.
“The sport there felt like real sport, real passion, real competition,” Burnham told Wednesday’s meeting of the Share Liverpool FC group, which wants to regain control of the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. “Sometimes when I watch the Premier League, I think it’s becoming — what is it becoming? Does it really mean as much to the people who are playing? ... I think that today’s players don’t have that same level of emotional attachment to the clubs they represent.”
Burnham later said that the Premier League has become “a little bit detached and a bit unreal.”
“With so much money involved, does it mean as much to the individuals in it?” he said.
Despite being a fan of city rivals Everton, Burnham was speaking at the relaunch of a long-shot member-share scheme being masterminded by Liverpool supporters and former players, including John Barnes and Phil Thompson.
Burnham urged them “to take the club back from within” and set an example for the rest of soccer.
“My worry long term is if the Premier League becomes a league table of individual wealth for the 20 wealthiest individuals around the world, what will that mean?” the culture, media and sports secretary said. “It won’t mean a great deal at all — and that will mean we have lost something incredibly precious, which is institutions like Liverpool that inspire local pride.”
Liverpool fans have been infuriated by Hicks and Gillett burdening club with debt since their takeover last year and for failing to sufficiently support manager Rafa Benitez in the transfer market.
Burnham would not directly criticize the American owners by name, but was outspoken about the recent trend of billionaire businessmen taking over clubs.
“Football finances are very fragile and we have seen examples in the past where clubs have overreached themselves and it has had devastating consequences for the supporters more than anybody,” Burnham said.
Drawing inspiration from Barcelona’s model, Share Liverpool FC hopes to get 100,000 fans to each contribute up to £5,000 (US$9,200), but has attracted interest from less than 30,000 since launching in January. Stockholders would be limited to a single share, with each member having one vote. Key decisions would be made by an executive board elected for a three-year term.
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