The pandemic has humbled football fans everywhere. Empty stadiums have removed the power fans used to wield, not least their freedom of expression in the stands, including the freedom not to show up at all.
Brazil, the football scout’s heaven, can be hell for fans. The country’s football industry remains as corrupt and dysfunctional as the Jair Bolsonaro government. YouTube channel, on which they dissect the fortunes of the Rio de Janeiro superclub in forensic detail every week. Flamengo are one of the better-run clubs in the top flight.
There is a plan to enfranchise ordinary Flamengo fans, though, which is an exciting development for the Flanalíticos crew. “The subscribers will soon also be allowed to vote for the president, which is something that would increase their influence,” says Luigui. Yes and no. Take European champions Bayern Munich, who are 75% owned by 293 000 official club members through the registered sports club that owns three-quarters of the commercial entity. The remaining stock is held by giant sponsor-partners Adidas, Audi and Allianz.
One of the clubs fighting for a better system is FC St Pauli, the left-wing Hamburg club beloved of socialists, punks and hipster tourists. This plainly unfair system is defended on the basis that the two el clásico giants represent half of the “market value” of the “product”. And how does one sustain such a dominance of the product? By pocketing half of the money every year. The other clubs accept the deal simply because they have to. That’s capitalism.
But even such principled clubs are still participants in the inequities of the football industry in Germany and elsewhere. The best players, for example, are grossly overpaid. There is an argument to be made that pay structures in football are unusually labour-friendly in the sense that the industry’s most productive and indispensable workers – the players – get the bulk of the money.
Unlike its more achievable comrade, #OleOut, #Glazersout at least has the virtue of identifying an underlying problem. Manchester United’s US owners, the Glazer family, have sucked £89 million out of the club over the past five years.
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