Effective Affectation

Andrew "Andy" Burnham may be a borderline ladyboy who affects an interest in football out of some sort of butch irony. But even people like that have their uses:

Andy questioned whether the big money in football is having a positive effect and called for more fan ownership in football as well as rugby league and other sports.

Football grew out of community and workplace organisations, he reminded us, and that spirit needs to be retained and rebuilt. Of the rich owners now taking over the Premiership, Andy said, “We should not delude ourselves that the reason England is attracting so much interest is solely because of the quality of football. It is also because other countries, such as Germany and Spain, have football clubs which are mutually owned by their supporters, democratic and not for sale. I believe English football is at a crossroads and if it follows the same path in the next 10 years, there is a risk that it will lose touch with its core support.”

As argued here only two days ago (by someone who makes no pretence to follow football for its own sake, but who believes in local patriotism), football and other major sports clubs could be as they are in, for example, Spain, proper clubs with the fans as their members who elect the board, and who can decline to re-elect it. And their grounds could be as in Italy, owned by their respective local councils.

With Newcastle United on the market, the owner of its sponsor, Northern Rock, should step in and buy it. In other words, nationalise it. And by no means only Newcastle United.

The nationalisation, leading to mutualisation and municipalisation as above, of these important focal points of local patriotism is incomparably preferable to their purchase by sovereign wealth funds, which are in fact foreign states. And it would set a very high-profile example, both of the new patterns of ownership and control in the post-capitalist world, and of the accompanying new regime of pay restraint at the very top.