After an uninspiring Champions League draw, an event which illustrates that sport doesn’t need billions to be fun

School games lesson

By Peter Sharkey

Published:

Traffic congestion aside, Bath remains one of England’s most handsome cities, its Georgian terraces and leafy residential squares a delight through which to meander, ideally when the multitude of visitors has departed.

As thousands of tourists descended on the Roman baths and the city’s abbey on Sunday, I was intent on taking in some sport, the best of which was to be found a mile east of the city centre.

If a sporting event’s organisers are enthusiastic about what they are planning, reporters sense their eagerness and will want to attend. So it was with the UK School Games.

After examining their commercial side last week, I felt compelled to see them first hand and, having eventually escaped Bath’s slow-moving, motorised mayhem, what pleasure it was to watch such a well-funded, well-organised event.

The sports facilities at Bath University may not rival those of American counterparts, but are as good as anything you’ll find in the UK. Moreover, as a venue for the UKSG, it was ideal – a beautiful campus setting where more than 1,500 youngsters could compete, relax and, with families and friends, support their team-mates.

I joined Paul Moore, communications director of Aberdeen-based First Group, one of the event’s official partners. On entering the sports hall where the volleyball matches were played, we were handed inflatable clapsticks. As both male and female competitions reached their finales, the noise inside was incredible and the atmosphere electric.

Scotland East faced England North in the girls’ under-16 tournament in what developed into an absolutely compelling duel. Against a backdrop of trumpets, bells and enthusiastic, noisy support, the girls contested the volleyball tournament’s longest match while the stands in which we sat literally reverberated each time a point was secured.

This was sport at its very best. No cheating, no diving, no back-chat, no spitting, just a marvellous game, after which the sides shook hands. For the record, England North won 31-29.

The most impressive individual performance came from Rhion Samuel in the boys’ under-17 200m final. Astonishingly, five finalists recorded finishing times under 23 seconds, Samuel winning in 22.15. With a more explosive start, this young man could yet knock a couple of seconds off that time.

As 5pm arrived and the action subsided, I sloped off to catch the second half of Aston Villa’s eagerly-anticipated match against Liverpool. After 20 minutes, I wondered whether this too constituted a sporting contest. It was debatable as 22 cosseted millionaires failed to raise a spark in what developed into one of the dullest, most predictable games I’ve ever seen.

Is this what the new soccer season holds in store?

Many people felt the same when last week’s yawningly familiar Champions League draw was made. This most contrived arrangement, which virtually guarantees Europe’s biggest football clubs passage into the competition’s even more lucrative knockout stages, does not deserve to be called a draw. It is more akin to providing diplomatic immunity.

In conjunction with Uefa, the continent’s most powerful clubs have created an increasingly uninspiring gravy train.

Matches against European opposition used to have a certain cachet. There was something special about facing Real Madrid, Inter Milan or Bayern Munich. Now it happens every season and many football supporters are becoming sick of it, ostensibly because neither our own, nor other nations’ representatives change.

Europe’s domestic football leagues have become mere feeders into the main event, although unless the Champions League undergoes a dramatic overhaul soon, broadcasters might find that the competition’s television audiences start falling.

If that happens, advertisers and sponsors will be less inclined to spend the sort of astronomical sums they routinely do at present.

This could be disastrous, particularly for clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool who carry enormous debt on their balance sheets.

Manchester United’s latest accounts reveal the extent to which its owners have burdened the club. In the year to June 30, 2007, United’s total indebtedness had risen to £764million, which included £56million they owed in transfer fee instalments. The total interest payable on these borrowings was £81million, although only £42million was actually paid. The balance is allowed to roll up until the whole amount has to be repaid in eight years, or until the Glazer family can refinance it.

According to the club’s accounts, a total of £152million is owed to hedge funds who levy an annual interest charge of 14.25%, or almost £22million. The Glazers endeavoured to refinance their loans last year but were unable to do so, since when the credit crunch has made football clubs a riskier proposition.

Yet following last week’s Champions League draw, David Gill, Manchester United’s chief executive, was wholesome in his praise of the EPL. “The strength of English teams is there to see,” he said. “Four in the top eight seeds demonstrates sustained excellent performance over many years.”

It demonstrates nothing of the sort.

Granted, Liverpool and Manchester United can claim to have well-established European pedigree, but neither Chelsea nor Arsenal come anywhere close. Significantly, excepting Chelsea, who operate on a basket-case economics basis, the other three have aggregate debts in excess of £1billion. Any downturn in the Champions League’s appeal and subsequent expenditure by the competition’s advertisers and sponsors could have a major impact on these three clubs.

Following an extraordinary final day of the transfer window, it would appear Manchester City are to become another outfit operating according to their owner’s whim, while match-day ticket prices will almost invariably rise. As the country’s property boom has evaporated, retail expenditure fallen and belts have become decidedly tighter, one wonders whether the debt-fuelled football boom is sustainable as economic conditions take a turn for the worst.

At its highest level, British and European football has become far too predictable and, increasingly, supporters will no doubt react to this with their feet.

Should television audiences begin turning away too, then alarm bells should start ringing in our most exalted clubs’ boardrooms.

There are alternatives. Ignore the big boys and watch your local side, or, if you’re searching for genuine excitement, encourage more youngsters to participate in sport. As the UKSG in Bath proved, sport doesn’t need to generate billions for it to be fun – which is surely the whole point.