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Barton’s tweeting may have given him power but not many footballers can follow his example

It is not often that you read an article by a football player that makes you sit up and say, now this is something that is new, maybe I need to change my long settled opinion. But this morning, having read Joey Barton in the Times, I must confess I did a double take.

Like most of the world, I have, until this moment, taken the view that Joey Barton is one of those bad boys of football almost beyond redemption. I did meet him once at the paddock in Ascot where he came over as very knowledgeable about racing, but beyond that my knowledge about him is what I have learnt from the media.

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Insideworldfootball.biz

Michel Platini’s Financial Fair Play may finally deal with the financial doping the UEFA President feels is ruining the game. But there is an equally serious crisis confronting the game which Platini and other football administrators refuse to address.

This is the failure by football’s bosses to deal with the events on the pitch where almost every game is blighted by incidents the referees do not spot. These then become the subject of calls for disciplinary inquiries by frustrated managers, and often lead to heavy penalties for the players concerned. But these are imposed long after the match is history and the whole thing is making a mockery of the game.

Take the two incidents that have marred two otherwise very good football matches in recent weeks. The first was the match last Sunday week, when Manchester City beat Tottenham 3-2, probably ending the north London’s club hopes of winning the League for the first time since 1961, a time which must seem like prehistory to most football fans.

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Football needs to reform to become a real business

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The Harry Rednapp case, whatever the final verdict, has illustrated what we all knew: for all the talk of football being a business, it is still essentially a cottage industry. It has not moved on from the early twentieth century world when it first came into prominence.

That football is big business can hardly be doubted. Look at the financial figures that UEFA has released about the profits and losses made by the clubs and the huge debts they have. In 2010, total revenues for top-flight clubs reached a record €12.8bn, but the increase in revenues was accompanied by record aggregate net losses of €1,641,000,000.

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Lack of video technology is making a mockery of the game

We can debate forever whether Manchester City deserved to win or Tottenham lose. Tottenham, after what happened at the Ethiad, may now feel the gods are against them. Their previous defeat against Stoke was also attended by a referee making decisions which did not stand up to scrutiny.

Yet the really interesting question is why does football continue to shoot itself in the foot?

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Insideworldfootball.biz

The amount of muck poured on this competition reminds me of the words Kelvin MacKenzie said to John Major after he had taken Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). As MacKenzie recounted to the Leveson inquiry on the press, as the hapless Prime Minister rang to ask the then Sun editor how he would treat the news, he replied, “Prime Minister, I have a bucket of shit by my desk and I am about to pour it on you.”

Some English managers, like Harry Redknapp, seem to have a similar view about the UEFA Europa League (UEL).

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