Plastic in football seems to have become short hand for any form of ownership we don't like, and which has proved successful.
MKD became a new club, in a place well capable of supporting a team. They didn't play to an empty stadium. Their crowds have grown and were they to cement a place in The Championship we might well find the place was capable of supporting that level. Forest Green had a long history prior to Dayle Vince. They now attract a crowd bigger than I would have imagined and are challenging for promotion to Div One. They have an identity and a brand. Would they be plastic if they were exactly the same off-field but had only made it to mid table in National North or South?
There is a lot to admire in the involvement of fans in German football, and no doubt they are celebrating Hoffenheim's dreadful season, but it is a model which has created a competition dominated by a single team for years. Why is Leipzig, owned by Red Bull any more plastic than Chelsea's Abramovich, is it simply because he does not use the club to advertise the names of his many companies?
Salford was a real team before the Neville syndicate. They made it something else. Salford is a City. It had no league team or any prospect of one before that Man-Utd money. Is it a plastic club? All clubs form from somewhere. You start a village team and maybe it is all lads from the village. Then a couple of the lads get mates from outside to sign on and you are top of a league. And you bring in a few more outsiders and suddenly you find you are beating everybody, and players from all across the county are banging on your door to sign. You raise a bit of money, the Parish Council approves, a cheap little stand appears. You're fencing off the ground and charging a small fee for entry ......... every other Saturday the village grinds to a halt from cars parked everywhere, there's the ref and his assistants all in cars, there's all your players, the backroom staff, and there's a paying public and hey look a couple of press men ........... You've been talking over the idea of player contracts. Are you plastic and when did that happen? The moment the village lads brought in a couple of outsiders? Are the villagers turning out to watch, or are all the faces just ground-hoppers keen to get the flavour of this new club on the up? Is this what you always wanted, or has it become something unrecognisable to you?
MKD became a new club, in a place well capable of supporting a team. They didn't play to an empty stadium. Their crowds have grown and were they to cement a place in The Championship we might well find the place was capable of supporting that level. Forest Green had a long history prior to Dayle Vince. They now attract a crowd bigger than I would have imagined and are challenging for promotion to Div One. They have an identity and a brand. Would they be plastic if they were exactly the same off-field but had only made it to mid table in National North or South?
There is a lot to admire in the involvement of fans in German football, and no doubt they are celebrating Hoffenheim's dreadful season, but it is a model which has created a competition dominated by a single team for years. Why is Leipzig, owned by Red Bull any more plastic than Chelsea's Abramovich, is it simply because he does not use the club to advertise the names of his many companies?
Salford was a real team before the Neville syndicate. They made it something else. Salford is a City. It had no league team or any prospect of one before that Man-Utd money. Is it a plastic club? All clubs form from somewhere. You start a village team and maybe it is all lads from the village. Then a couple of the lads get mates from outside to sign on and you are top of a league. And you bring in a few more outsiders and suddenly you find you are beating everybody, and players from all across the county are banging on your door to sign. You raise a bit of money, the Parish Council approves, a cheap little stand appears. You're fencing off the ground and charging a small fee for entry ......... every other Saturday the village grinds to a halt from cars parked everywhere, there's the ref and his assistants all in cars, there's all your players, the backroom staff, and there's a paying public and hey look a couple of press men ........... You've been talking over the idea of player contracts. Are you plastic and when did that happen? The moment the village lads brought in a couple of outsiders? Are the villagers turning out to watch, or are all the faces just ground-hoppers keen to get the flavour of this new club on the up? Is this what you always wanted, or has it become something unrecognisable to you?