Sounder At Heart: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: Defend That, Digger! The Overrated/underrated edition

Democracy in Sports - What does it mean?

The young movement in America has at its strongest example the light of Barcelona and Real Madrid. A regular fan (ok, not so regular they are always rich businessmen really) can be elected as the President. They can urge the manager to sign certain players (Henry) and free up funds in order to transfer said players onto the club.

But these aren't the only example. Notts County's experiment failed when the voters chose to sell-out to an unknown group for funding. They've lost their star player and may even lose their Director of Football Operations.

Today, at the BBC one of their bloggers goes deep into the issues of Supporters Trusts and Democracy in Sports. His suggested way to have an "English Barca" is for an EPL club to fail ala Lehman Brothers.

I would love to see an English Barca emerge - and I wish the trusts at Manchester United and Newcastle and the Liverpool fans' groups ShareLiverpoolFC and Spirit of Shankly all the best - but the finances of our biggest teams are now so complicated, so massive, a fans' buy-out is almost impossible to imagine. When Liverpool host United on Sunday their joint debt will be over £1bn - that's a lot of pledges on a website.

The only scenario that is going to bring about a Premier League Barca anytime soon is for a club to fail. And I mean really fail. Not just the company that owns it. A Lehman Brothers, a sacrificial lamb. That would wake up fans, the media and the governing bodies to the perils of short-termism, unregulated speculation and warped competition. Any volunteers?

In the meantime, the supporters' trust movement should just comfort itself with the knowledge that it is very probably right about most things, it's just that most people aren't ready to listen yet.

So as this first season of Sounders FC ends, and the term of the first 10 elected to the Alliance Council ends. I ask you, what rights and responsibilities should the Council have, what about the broader Alliance itself? How would this benefit the Sounders millionaire and billionaire owners? Drew Carey inspired many of us with a change in American sports, but what are the next steps for us on the Alliance Council and how do we get to become an American Barca?

0 recs  |  Comment 3 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

More from Sounder At Heart

Open Source MLS

Dec 2009 by Sounder At Heart - 3 comments

Pregame gathering

Oct 2009 by Sounder At Heart - 7 comments

Comments

Display:

The discussion of what it means in Italy gets a mention today as well.

by Dave Clark on Oct 24, 2009 1:26 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Oh yeah—and also Sounders won an amazing match last night with an exciting late game-winner by our beloved international Brad Evans. And you bring this up? Debbie Downer

by kritter on Oct 25, 2009 12:30 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Kritter,

This was posted well before last night’s match, and is merely asking questions. I am talking about a discovery process. One that we (the Council and the team) all have. It is not meant to be a downer, but an exploration of what the concept means.

Please read my recap of LAST NIGHT.

by Dave Clark on Oct 25, 2009 12:54 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Sounder at Heart is a blog about the Seattle Sounders FC, with occasional forays into Democracy in Sports, Roster Management, Soccer Statistics and Life in Puget Sound.
Start posting on Sounder At Heart »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Img_0349_small
Diving into Sounders attendance figures (and barely coming up for air!)

Recent FanPosts

Small
If MLS wants another Seattle, look at Austin
Sounder_4_small
Notes from the team
Small
How big of an issue is our FieldTurf?
Small
Why the venom?
Img_0349_small
An open letter to the Sounders FC front office, Alliance Council, and Supporter Groups.
Small
A home for the Champions League
Small
Kasey Keller and Sigi, both not happy with Freddie.
Small
Give us something to chew on!
Sounder_4_small
Tell me what you want

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

Sounder_4_small Sounder At Heart

Authors

Small CarlosT

Hms_surprise_small Graham