Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2010 » June » 06
by Walter Broeckx
This is the follow up on an article that was on this site and that you could read here.
Back to the Champions League and the fact that if the new ruling comes in place and if this would mean that some big teams could not play in it. Would this be a disaster and for whom? It could spell disaster for the big teams itself but would it spell disaster for the Champions League itself? If Arsenal would miss out on being in the Champions League it would not harm us much when we just look at paying off the debts for the Emirates. We can survive if we just play in the CL every 4th year. It would be bad for us fans and maybe some players would want to go but we would not lose all and everything like Leeds did a few years ago. We would make less profit or none at all in such a year but we wouldn’t be hit as hard financially as the other teams in the EPL who had based their total structure on this income every year.
People say that the we do not want to see a final between let us say Cluj (champion from Romania) and Anderlecht (champion from Belgium). In fact this could have been a final before the Champions league as both countries have had teams in the final of Europacup 1 in those days. But not anymore since the Champions league like I explained in my previous article on this.
But maybe this would have as a result that more people will get interested again in the Champions League. It would raise the interest of people from those country’s that’s for sure. And maybe we don’t realise it anymore but the fact that edition number 6, or something like that, between Chelsea and MU, and certainly when it is as bad game and lacks any attractive football like in the last final between them, people turn off their TV and look at something else. In fact this was the reaction from many people in Belgium and Holland during that dreadful and boring final. I think it has more to do with the quality of the game than with the teams involved. I think a final where you can see attractive football will always have an audience.
I can imagine that the interest in England for an all English final is very big but is this the same in the rest of Europe ? And as ratings are very important for sponsors I think it would be worthwhile to look at the ratings of Holland, a country that is a bit football crazy (just look at the next weeks as Holland is and will be orange-coloured), produces some of the best players in the world, loves attacking and attractive football and see what we can learn from those numbers.
Last year’s final between Barcelona and MU finished in the 18th place in the top 100 from that year and had some 2.539.000 viewers.
In 2008 the final between MU and Chelsea finished in place 57 and just got 2.213.000 viewers.
In 2007 the final finished in place 35 and got only 2.090.000 viewers. And an interesting thing is that in that year the best watched CL game in Holland was Arsenal – PSV in the knockout stages.
And in 2006 the final that got the biggest crowd ever for a CL final in Holland was Arsenal – Barcelona. It finished in place 24 and some 3.216.000 people looked at it.
But if you think that is the best watched CL game in Holland I must say no. The most watched game was PSV – Milan which ended in 5th place in that year and got 3.810.000 viewers.
Well we can come to the conclusion that the people in Holland like the CL but they like it most when there is a Dutch team involved. In second place come the games with at least one attractive playing team like Arsenal or Barcelona. But from the moment there is no Dutch team or attractive playing team in it, they lose interest and watch something else. I could add the last final between Bayern and Inter and the possibility of Mourinho boring them with another cup win did not attract the Dutch people at all. Only 2.136.000 people watched it and then to think that it had rather a few Dutch players on the field and a Dutch coach. It means that the number of people watching can go down with some 40 % at times.
I think it would be wise to remember that most people watch football in the hope to see a good and attractive game. If they think it will be boring a lot of the people just don’t watch it live. The fans of the teams or players involved will look at it but most other people just want to see good football. So to answer my question : the interest in other countries for a CL finale between MU and Chelsea is not that big.
And people also like upsets in football. Football has always been a sport that has been attractive to a lot of people for the fact that it was unpredictable. This has gone now mostly and this could be a very bad thing for football in the long run. Seeing always the same names in the semi finals or the finals is not what most people want. We would love it if Arsenal would play the final each year but I think even we can understand that this would be in the long run a bad thing for football in general. And Arsenal in the final would be not that bad for football as we play in an attractive way but seeing a Mourinho team each year in the final would be killing the Champions League.
The CL only exists thanks to the money given by sponsors and advertising. If they would notice after some time that people are not attracted anymore because of the football on show they could reconsider their spending of the money. And without the money from the CL it would spell even bigger disaster for the top clubs. Making the Champions league more attractive for teams from smaller countries could renew the interest from people in those countries. This is clearly shown by the statistics in Holland and I think this will be the same in most other “smaller” football countries. But I’m not really sure on this but if someone has the numbers please let me know.
I know the market is much bigger in the UK than it is in Holland. But I also think that Uefa is looking further than just the UK market. And maybe one of the hidden reasons behind the new rules is to make the CL more than just a English-Spanish-Italian mini league competition. If you look at how many people you can reach we notice that those 3 countries have some 160M inhabitants. But there are some 731M people living in Europe and this means that those 3 countries only represent some 21% of the total population. Some of those other 571M people will still have interest in the CL whoever plays but it could be they lose their interest after a while.
So maybe the new financial rulings could have another side affect. It could mean the end of the big 4 in the Champions league and bring in other teams from other countries. And maybe help France to another cup win is maybe a secret wish from Platini. As most of you are living in the UK, a country that is one of the big 4 you may not realise it but I noticed a lot of disinterest from football fans in my country for the Champions League, and you can see this also in the statistics in Holland which is another country. And from the moment sponsors realise this, the money could stop coming in or sponsors only willing to pay less money, and we all know what this would mean: Big trouble in football land.
It will be interesting to see how the CL will develop under the new financial rules and if teams from other countries will be able to break down the top as we know it now.
A few of my main conclusions on all this is:
The new rules could change the face of the Champions League in a few years time and I think that Uefa could have the guts to refuse the entrance of the big teams. They would have to do so if they stick to their own rules. Uefa may just have a different view on the potential market and maybe, given as an example, a Russian team in the CL final would be a big new market to explore and much appreciated by the sponsors.
Attractive football seems to be vital if you want to attract viewers from countries that are not directly involved.
As Arsenal is the only big team in the EPL that seems to be completely ready for the new financial rules and plays attractive football it could well be that Arsenal will save the Champions League.
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A final note from your temporary editor: As Tony has come back safely from his short holiday in France he will be taking over very shortly again. If you have any article that you want to see published you can use the old email address . Walter Broeckx
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