Fans warn of disaster
By Mike Sinclair, PA Sport

05/12/02

FOOTBALL'S fat cats have been accused of threatening the futures of smaller clubs through greed by the head of England's leading supporters' organisation.

Fans across the country have been urged to stand up, make their views known and call for changes in the financial set-up of the game to ensure that 92 professional league clubs continue to exist.

The call came from Ian Todd, chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, today as he responded passionately to the views of Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon, who believes there is not room for more than 40 full-time professional clubs in England and that the game should be drastically re-structured.

"It's a disaster for football. It's greed again," claimed Todd.

"They say there isn't enough money in the game to support 92 clubs, but there is if it was distributed more evenly.

"The problem is the big clubs want more and they just won't share it out fairly.

"It's the 'look after ourselves and the rest can take a running jump' attitude. We would be very much against it."

Kenyon's views came ahead of a BBC Radio Sport on Five Special looking into the financial crisis threatening football.

But Todd retaliated by calling on fans to state their case by joining the programme's phone-in and responding to its request for e-mails.

He said: "We are encouraging all our members to get involved in the programme and put forward their points of view - and the main point is that the money in the game is badly managed."

Todd accepts some clubs could well go out of business, but believes they are largely the architects of their own misfortune.

And he reckons if some do go to the wall, that does not mean the size of the professional game should necessarily be reduced.

"The fact that there are some clubs in financial trouble doesn't mean there are too many clubs in the league," he said.

"Some of the Nationwide Conference clubs are very viable because they are properly run. They know what their income is going to be and tailor their needs accordingly.

"If a few more clubs - and I include some in the Premiership among those - had the same attitude then the game wouldn't be in the state it is."

He added: "There is a lot of money in the game and some of it should be spread more fairly to ensure the future of clubs further down the divisions."