sport news Why football is in danger of killing itself with bureaucratic nonsense. It's ... trends now

Financial regulation, such as it is, might end up killing the Premier League if we're not careful.

If we are getting to the point where you cannot believe the table until the accountants and lawyers have ruled then the thrill of the competition becomes an illusion.

Another so called innovation, VAR, is a prime example of a good idea implemented badly. In the same way that we can no longer properly celebrate goals until the traffic wardens of the refereeing fraternity have approved them, we now can't believe the league table until a bunch of faceless lawyers have spent months in tribunals.

Football is in danger of killing itself with all this meddling. If the game carries on down this road viewing figures and interest may dip and the sport will then be facing an existential threat. We have to be really careful with what we're doing to our game here.

Football does of course need some form of control, basic disciplines and sporting merit consequences so while I believe some sort of financial governance is required given that clubs aren't just businesses but also valuable community assets, I worry that the instrument being deployed is a blunt one and if it continues in this fashion it could kill the world's most investable league.

It is now clear that the current rules were not properly enforced and badly thought through. They're not working. We're seeing the ramifications of something we thought was a good idea but when it comes to enforcement, it becomes a real challenge.

Like most things in politics, from the NHS to illegal immigration and now our national sport, issues are used as political footballs to gain and garner public engagement by politicians who do not understand the economics of football.

And all in the pursuit of solving a limited number of very poor ownership examples in the EFL. But if you overregulate football you will strangle the game. Those that think an independent regulator will be victory for football and fans aren't thinking clearly about what will happen if more bureaucratic nonsense is inflicted upon the game.

European leagues must be sniggering behind their hands as the dominant English leagues snatch defeat from a resounding victory over its continental rivals.

I make no secret of my disdain for the independent regulator but the only merit to having one is as a stalking horse, a threat to leverage more money from the Premier League to the Football league. Doing so would make up for the missed opportunities of the past and the incompetency of the EFL in years gone by when they failed to agree a more equitable distribution of TV money.

Nottingham Forest are an example of why we do need controls on how clubs operate. They spent £170million on new players after winning promotion, raised their wage bill by £70-£80m and put no shirt sponsorship on the front of their kit for the season. So they knew what the outcomes were going to be. 

They were also going to breach Financial Fair Play in the Championship so I don't know what the fuss is about or why they claim not to trust the Premier League. They didn't care and chose to believe that sanctions were likely to be financial rather than sporting.

If you have the choice between selling Brennan Johnson for £20m less than you think he's worth or getting relegated because of a points deduction, what are you going to do?

It was absurd to spend so much on new players. It's nothing to do with trying to compete. Spend less, spend better, pay lower wages, sort your shirt sponsorship and there's the end of the problem.

Back in 1985 the TV deal was £1.5m with nine live games on TV, attendances were down, facilities in the dark ages and hooliganism was rife. Roll forward to the present day and we have one of the best attended leagues in world football, 320 live games, brilliant stadiums, enormous revenues and worldwide investment.

Look how far we've come. There really isn't much wrong with football besides people at times struggling to make sense of the economics of it but that has always been the case. And now people want to take drastic measures to undermine what we've done so well.

Yes, there are a few challenges now and finances can be better governed but when you look at the unprecedented success story of English football you realise the only thing holding the EFL back was its own incompetence and lack of unity in the leagues. So now you're going to put a quango in to regulate it. Wow, well done us.

It's typical of the mentality in this country. We self-flagellate and self-loath and moan about what an awful country we are when the reality is different.

Who thought our game would ever dominate world domestic football? From participation on the pitch, to investment off it, to the infrastructure around it, in every sense we are No 1 and now we're pulling it apart.

The independent regulator, by its very nature, is not a free-thinking, clear-thinking market maker. It will control, stifle and kill the effervescence and dynamism of the industry. It's what they do.

The people seemingly in favour think this is somehow a reclamation of the game, a panacea against bad ownership models without realising the very nature of sport engendered these outcomes. It's part of the jeopardy of life.

We really don't need a hammer to smash an acorn. They'll start picking and poking and looking at things in a way that will stifle the game. Does anyone want that?

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