An article on the digital version of one of the regions more popular newspapers has caused quite a hubbub over the past few days plus no little debate with the writer’s assertion that he would rather see Norwich City relegated and plying their trade in the Championship than competing with and against some of the best players and teams in the world as we currently do in the Premier League.
The assertion is that, with Premier League survival now as much a financial necessity as a footballing one, much of the joy and fun that there was to be felt in supporting the Canaries has been lost. This sense would have been heighted in the minds of more than the reader when, just a few days before the article appeared, Canaries Chairman Alan Bowkett outlined just how much a place in the Europa League would be worth for the club with one clear, succinct phrase.
“Zero.”
Chief Executive David McNally added fuel to the fire that had, in one instant, been left to burn away our dreams of a run in Europe to equal, maybe surpass that which we all enjoyed and treasured so much two decades ago when the name of Norwich City made shockwaves across Europe’s footballing landscape.
“It (Europa League qualification) costs you money. If you get to the later stages you might make some money but it would perhaps be a merit award (about £1.2 million) or one and a bit if you get to the final.”
So there you have it. Finish bottom of the Premier League at the end of the 2013/14 season and collect at least £50 million in ‘prize’ money for a campaign of failure. Reach the final of the Europa League however, a long and challenging journey which could take a club as many as fifteen games to achieve and you might just make a million and a half quid for your efforts. In sharp, almost embarrassing contrast to that, Bayern Munich received well in excess of thirty times that amount last season for winning the Champions League.
It’s not difficult to see why the powers that be at Norwich City are not interested in participating in the Europa League when it’s even more evident that UEFA obviously do not give even the faintest damn about what is their own competition. In fact, you could go as far as to say – and I will – that they have managed to strangle it so effectively that the competition will cease to exist in the next few years. For UEFA, I suspect, it will be a monkey that they are only too glad to remove from their already bloated backs.
It thus becomes academic as to whether or not Norwich City should look to progress, on the field at least, for a league position else domestic cup success that would guarantee them a place in the competition as, by the time we are ready and able to do so – it will no longer exist. That would only leave Champions League qualification as the incentive for all Premier League clubs to strive for at the beginning of every domestic season but, as we all know, the chances of that ever happening are, for us and around fourteen of our peers about the same as Alan Bowkett’s perceived financial worth of qualifying for next season’s Europa League.
Zero.
But it’s not only the Europa League that has become devalued in recent years.
The League Cup, a competition that is shamelessly tossed around between myriad sponsors so much that it has become the footballing equivalent of a pandemic, is not only scorned by all of the Premier League but, so much has its stock fallen in recent years that clubs in the Championship and even League One now see it as a thorn in the side of their league campaigns, fielding weakened sides at the first available opportunity so that they can get knocked out as soon as possible.
Look at our recent game at Watford for example. Much was made of the eight changes that Chris Hughton made to his starting XI for the game – the same as those made by Hornets boss Gianfranco Zola. Clearly for Zola, the priority is promotion to the Premier League, an objective that comes above all else at Vicarage Road. No doubt as and when that objective is reached he’ll be doing the same to ensure that they have the best possible chance of staying there.
So what chance does the League Cup have when even managers of clubs in the Championship treat it with such disdain and as such a low priority?
As for the FA Cup, well, that appears to have become the embarrassing elderly relative of the footballing family, the one that everyone professes to love but who all, secretly, hope that someone else will have for Christmas this year.
Its demise in the game is well known. From its lofty position as the last game of the domestic season, one played in glorious isolation for the viewing edification of millions around the world and enjoyed domestically here with an all-day televised orgy of football that started at 9:30am, it is now bounced around the schedule as an afterthought, fitted in as something extra rather than something extraordinary.
As far as the Premier Leagues elite are concerned, it has become a priority to be found a little above remembering to order extra milk and just below ensuring the clubs sponsor’s logo gets prominence during a live game – in other words, it’s just another box to be ticked. Despite that however, it is now a competition that is dominated beyond compare by those clubs. Sixteen of the last twenty FA Cup Finals have been won by just one of four clubs – Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool.
But does this speak volumes of their desire to win the trophy and the importance they each place on the competition?
Not at all.
It reflects their ability to top load their squads with the sort of strength in depth, player wise, which means that, whenever an unwanted FA Cup match comes along they can still field a starting XI more than good enough to beat an as good as normal starting XI from any other side.
Such is the reward of continued Premier League prominence and success this has become a knock on effect that most clubs didn’t even realise would happen.
This then is the state of English domestic football in 2013. A Premier League that only, at best, six clubs can ever hope to have a chance of winning. A European competition that acts as an incentive for the ‘have nots’ that costs clubs money to participate in whilst we have two domestic trophies that seem hardly worth bothering about, such is their relative importance to Premier League survival.
Even if a club outside of the elite manages to buck the trend of the top heavy giants and manage to win one of the things – such as Birmingham City with the League Cup in 2011 or Wigan in the FA Cup last season, stretching those meagre playing and financial resources enough to ensure a day in the limelight can often be too much to bear – as both those sides found, celebrating cup success with the dark pall of relegation from the Premier League at the end of each of those seasons.
Taking all of that into consideration – and it is a pallet that is laden with so much doom and despair, you almost expect the four footballing horsemen of the apocalypse to thunder across the skies as a result – it’s easy to relate to the musings of that afore mentioned Pink Un writer who suggested that what all of this means for Norwich, as far as he is concerned, is that we might just find ourselves enjoying our football and our team more, if we were playing in the Championship.
Compelling evidence is provided.
An opportunity to be competitive every season. A very real chance of winning every game that we play in, no matter who the opposition are or where we are playing. Why, in fact, travel to Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in dread when we could make our way to Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Wolves and think that we have a fair to good chance of winning. Away from the maelstrom that is the Premier League we could, perhaps, redefine ourselves as a football club and that the football, rather than the finances, might come first.
Sounds like a sporting Utopia. Everything that membership of the Premier League isn’t. So am I for it, do I agree with his thoughts at all?
No. No, no, no, no and no. A thousand times no.
Because as much as the Premier League is an unforgiving place, a competitive and overtly commercial behemoth of an organisation that puts greed above good and serves only itself and its member clubs, it remains, for now, the only place where I want to see my club play, week in and week out.
Our chances, admittedly, of making anything other than a fleeting impact upon the league are, at best, minimal. Will we, for example, ever come close to repeating that glorious third place finish of that inaugural Premier League season of 1992/93? Probably not.
But that doesn’t mean we should stop believing that we can, we could or that it is an impossible dream. Far from it. What greater challenge can there be, for any professional sportsperson or organisation than to repeatedly look to not only prove itself but improve itself, despite the fact that every conceivable piece of sporting and financial logic is stacked against it ever succeeding. And that’s ever as in forever. Because we could play our football in the Premier League for the next hundred years and never come even remotely close to winning the damned thing. But that shouldn’t mean that we don’t all, from fan to Chairman and all points inbetween, strive to achieve that goal one day.
The argument that there is no fun in striving just to finish seventeenth or above every season – and little else apart from that – is, for me an invalid one. Indeed, I would counter with the argument that it is that perpetual struggle to survive, to turn survival into consolidation and to follow that with progress which should be seen as fun, as enjoyable, and as something to look forward to, not to write off and run away for a perceived easy life of the Championship.
Because football is not about logic. It is not about reason, common sense and any perceived idea of what might be “for the best” because it is sensible and built on solid foundations. Not at all.
Football is anything but that.
Football belongs to the heart. And it is in our hearts where our mutual love and support for Norwich City lies. Not in our heads. And that means, for me that, as much as the Premier League is mad, bad and dangerous to know; a competition bad to the bone with clubs whose shadows will always fall upon us and players whose egos are probably bigger than our stadium, it’s where I want us to be.
Indeed, ask me one hundred times and then ask me again after we’ve been smeared all over the pitch at somewhere like Old Trafford if I ‘d rather swap a 5-0 defeat there for a gritty 1-0 win at Burnley or Sheffield Wednesday, and you’ll get the same answer every time.
No thankyou. It’s the Premier League for me every time. Bring it on.
Despite everything.
The problem with losing far more games than you win is that it affects a true supporters emotions dreadfully. My mood for most of last season was very down as not only were we losing but we were playing dreadful football even when we did pick up points. I can see the argument both ways and clearly it is difficult to address. Of all the past 4 seasons I would rate the championship season as the one I most enjoyed followed by the first in the premier league then league one and last season a long way back in last place. I guess the answer is to play good attacking football and win or lose at least the fans believe we have a chance. Last seasons football made me seriously consider giving up my season ticket. As for you saying you would rather see your team lose 5-0 than win 1-0 at a lessor club, you need to question you level of support as no true supporter would say that, you make yourself sound like one of the thousand of tourists that flock to old Trafford every other week. True fans don’t go to admire the stadium they are there to support the team not to sight see.
Good observation Tuliptouch but its just my way of saying the level of football I like to see us playing and the teams I’d rather see us play. I hate to see us lose in any game. I was even upset when we lost in some football based gameshow on ITV years ago! I got some stick a while back from a group of friends who were asking the question-“Ebgland win next World Cup or your team wins FA Cup next season?” -I said, given the choice, I’d take three points for Norwich on the Saturday over England winning the World Cup.
Losing IS depressing. We all hate it and we had to get used to it again after a couple of years when it was a rarity. But I’d still rather try to beat the odds every week in games where we aren’t reckoned to have much of a chance-it makes winning all the more sweet. And I’m sure of one thing-we get a lot more pleasure and pride out of a win in the PL than many of the fans of the “big” clubs will from yet another, for them, routine victory.
But agree about League 1. Would never want to go back but it was enjoyable-probably made all the more so by always winning, mind!
It’s conker time – this argument is an old, scabby chestnut and it’s c(b)onkers. It crops up every time we hit a poor run of form (i.e. start of 2013) and unbelievably has been trotted out after 7..yes 7 games of the season!
The EDP24/Pink Un article did its job of bringing in feedback but is misguided to the point of Partridge-esque parody. I’d advise Mr. Downes (and anyone who agrees with the jist of his article) to canvas the fans of those teams in the Championship to see what fraction would be happy to stay where they are for the next 20 years or more.
Personally, I find the PL relegation scrap the most exciting thing about the division. I’d rather we weren’t involved in it but we have to be realistic in our expectations. The top has become a tedious and repetitive dirge. Genuinely, who wants to see Man Utd play Liverpool or Chelsea again apart from the respective fans of those clubs?
As Swansea struggle in the PL (they have the same points as us!) and Wigan in the C’ship, I wonder if their fans really think the EL is worth it?
The point it seems to me is how you go about achieving 12th with Lambert or 11th with Hughton. Even Hughtons supporters (of which I am one, although I recognise the complaints against him) must accept too often our game lacks flair and excitement.
I desperately hope that he can put some life into it, and after the Chelsea game I hope he might have.
So in the end a thousand times the premier league for me, but played with passion, flair and attacking instinct and I’ll enjoy nearly every moment of finishing 12th
OTBC
Well written article with which I wholeheartedly agree, The Premier League is the only place to be and I would never want us to be relegated under any circumstance. Would I swap places with Wigan and have that FA Cup in the trophy cabinet? Would I heck as like, they can keep it. Once relegated it can be a very long road back just ask the fans of Leeds, Forest and the Sheffield clubs. Look at Portsmouth the’re lucky to still have a club although most of what has gone on there is of the’re own doing admittedly. If that guy wants to watch lower league football, no-ones stopping him defecting to the dark side and driving up the A140 to watch the Binmen. We are Norwich City, we are Premier League and we dine at the top table.
OTBC CTID
……..and don’t forget Wolves, Coventry and dare I say it, 1p5wich 🙂
I suggest the naysayers of the Premier League campaigns join the Glasgow Rangers fanclub and see how much fun that is when you are playing at the wrong level.
if all you want to do is win, then hang the Championship, go for League 2 and keep winning that ( or cleverly just avoiding promotion) until all your good players ( developed at the Academy or acquired)have moved on and we stop winning even down there. Non League footie is fun so there are still even lower levels of skill, enterprise and performance to aspire to
Well reasoned excellent article. Thank you
OTBC
There is another point too. Nothing ever stays the same, and whereas the Premier League is very unequal now, things will change, and it is better to be part of the fight to change things than now. Look at this season and how Spurs and Arsenal, and even possibly Liverpool, are challenging for top honours in ways they weren’t expected to. Yes, they may not last, but still, it is the most competitive start to the season for a long time (I wrote egalitarian first, but it remains a long way from that).
Also in Spain, I saw that the other La Liga clubs were threatening to go on strike if some redistribution of TV income by the top two was not agreed. That league’s inequality problems dwarf ours completely, and I certainly wish the other clubs luck in redressing the balance – and I believe in time the top two will be forced to make concessions, since they cannot exist in a two club league.
Nothing changes without dreams, and so I’d like to continue ours. And, whatever the final result was, I enjoyed watching the Chelsea game a great deal; if we can keep playing like that, then a mid table position in the PL is a much better place to be than scrapping for the play offs in the Championship. Long may our ‘cooperative’ structure continue to thrive!
But, Michael D: we would not want to “scrap for a playoff place” lest we won through and ended up back in the wretched EPL.
We would have to be sure to play poorly enough not to endure promotion
In the (slightly adapted) words of President LB Johnson; “It’s better to be inside the tent p****ing out, than outside the tent p****ing in.”
The system (i.e. the PL) may be broke but to have any say in changing it, you have to be part of it. Otherwise take up tiddlywinks.
As said by others, what wouldn’t a Leeds or a Coventry fan give to be ‘suffering’ like we are!
A very interesting and extremely depressing read.
Just confirming what most of us have known for a long time, football as a spectator sport is dead.
Follow, Follow, Follow.
As usual, Ed nails it right on the button. Lots of people seem to have become NCFC supporters on the back of 3 exceptional seasons and very short memories.
After ’95 we had to endure the dross of Roeder and Grant etc. There is no guarantee that relegation would lead to auto promotion the following year. As for Tuliptouch, who is seriously considering giving up his season ticket after one not so good season, well, I wonder how he would have coped with the decade of mediocrity we had to endure from 61-71?
I guess we aren’t all cut out to be long term NCFC supporters.
Hi Add, I have to disagree. Football as a spectator sport is as strong as ever; year on year attendance figures prove this. We all like to complain about how expensive it is, but yet we still have to watch our beloved canaries. In relation to the article, anyone who believes it would be better if the team gets relegated can’t class themselves as a supporter. Fan yes, but not supporter.
Just remember my fellow canaries, the future’s bright…the future’s yellow!!
We are all entitled to an opinion, but you would hope it is based on fact. If we were relegated and won lots of games we would be promoted back to the top league, does Steve want us to become a perpetual yo-yo club? Surely we need to be at the top table to get our hands on the obscene amounts of money so we can continue to build our squad until we can qualify for Europe by league position or by winning a cup without being relegated!
I can only assume that the original article was written with tongue firmly in cheek, or as a means of raising discussion, an aim it cerainly appears to have achieved. It is madness to aspire to relegation, if for no other reason than that nothing in football stays the same, and today’s toast is tomorrow’s ghost, which is exactly what we would be…toast. We would soon loose our best players, and the whole edifice would rapidly topple till we found ourselves back where we started, League 1 or worse. So please, get real, smell the coffee, and maybe actually enjoy the taste!