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Football: Big clubs are fighting against football’s nouveau riche with morality on their side

Willi Orban of RB Leipzig looks on prior to the Bundesliga match between RB Leipzig and FC Schalke 04 at Red Bull Arena on December 3, 2016 in Leipzig, Germany

Football is under attack. Traditionalists have always fought against new clubs, interlopers and those who don’t get football, in the way that proper fans get football, or Rafael Da Silva famously got Manchester United. In the future, content providers like YouTube, Amazon and Apple will start to bid for television rights, and the game will become even richer, ever less reliant on the fans of each club to provide revenue. It will diminish their influence even more, and leave clubs mainly as brands to be monetised.

But it isn’t just the prospective owners of rights who we need to worry about. New clubs are being hijacked by monied owners, and distorting the leagues with cash injections. They are destroying the heritage of clubs and flinging teams up the table, teams that didn’t exist 20 years ago, or who were merely in the dark recesses of regional competitions before then. It is a phenomenon which is taking place across the world.

Leipzig vs Bayern Munich

Just like Cake is a made-up drug, so Red Bull Leipzig is a made-up football club. They are, however, taking down an honourable and storied club as they rise towards the top of the table: Bayern Munich. They bought the playing rights from SSV Markranstadt, a club who were shopping around their existence. Other clubs had already turned down Red Bull’s offers of sponsorship as soon as it became apparent that they wanted more influence than any traditional sponsor had ever previously requested. They spent millions of pounds investing in Leipzig, with a new stadium, and a cutting-edge training facility for players at all levels of the team.

They have sullied the competition of German football, though. They spent many millions on transfers even when they were in the second division, breaking records on transfers. It is an unseemly business. They were forced to tone down the obvious branding from Red Bull, making a horrible business of a football club.

Compare, this, though, to the noble efforts of Bayern. Playing at the Allianz Arena, they don’t go in for the naked commercialism. The repeated purchases of players from their nearest rivals, Borussia Dortmund, demonstrates a desire to be the best, not just to heave money around. And while Leipzig are currently receiving criticism for the cynicism of engineering victories by diving, Bayern simply win through the talents of players like Arjen Robben.

Leicester City vs Manchester United

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Another problem with modern football is that investment is coming from all over the world. This problem can be seen best when compares  Leicester City, current Premier League champions, to the soaring Manchester United. Manchester United have a strong, rich tradition. They were bought by the American Glazer family, who were responsible for kickstarting the decade-old practice of Americans investing in English football. As the MLS demonstrates, the Americans have a deep appreciation of just what it means to be interested in football. The dignity and passion of their ultras often leaves the English looking at their feet in shame.

The sheer amount of money that the Americans were inspired to spend to follow their honourable passion is what gave United their famous 2008 Champions League final, and it was around this point that Alex Ferguson picked up many Premier League titles with his final great team.

Enter Leicester City, with their riches coming from the Thai, King Power conglomerate. They ripped apart the club. The British invented crisps, and yet the Walkers brand was cast off Leicester first stadium in favour of the King Power moniker. Would Manchester United sully themselves with such embarrassing, small-time money-grabbing? A look at their activities off the pitch, where they have a noodle partner, appear in trailers for sci fi films, and their free Chevrolet cars, suggests that they only take the money from premier business concerns.

Valencia vs Real Madrid

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This old money versus new money debate has spread to Spain. Valencia, in league with Peter Lim - and Jorge Mendes, if rumours are to be believed - might well be a trial run for him to make a move to an English club. He has had financial interests in Manchester United and Liverpool of different kinds. He even brought Gary and Phil Neville to the club as manager and assistant coach, respectively.

Lim has given the club a clean bill of financial health, but most of the players he has brought in were either part-owned by him, or affiliated to Mendes in some way or another. They have struggled to succeed in the last two seasons, and are in 17th place so far this season.

Real Madrid, clearly, are a different breed. With their business acumen, they did not need a benefactor to bail them out, they simply sold some of their land to the cancel for a fair sum. Their transfers of Cristiano Ronaldo means that they are not in need of any of Mendes’ other clients, merely buying them on merit alone, as Fabio Coentrao’s presence demonstrates.

Juventus vs Inter Milan, Roma and AC Milan

The grubby pursuits from new money is also at play in Italy. Inter Milan, Roma and AC Milan either have new owners, or new shareholders. Some are spending millions to try to catch up with Juventus, who use their incredible tactical acumen to generate cash, cash that allows them to spend £90 million on Gonzalo Higuain. The other clubs might use other people’s money to fling themselves up the league, but you can be sure that Juventus would never need to stoop to achieve success.