the beautiful game is become harder to love and enjoy, particularly at the highest level. The last 5 years or so has seen a remarkable transformation. There has been widespread corruption at the top in FIFA, that encompassed a wide range of continental governing bodies including then FIFA and UEFA Presidents Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the former being banned for 6 years.
Owners have become restless over results and it is turning into a business venture rather than a sport. The latest victim is Claudio Ranieri, who was sacked after Leicester City lost 2-1 to Sevilla.
The beautiful game
Many fans and pundits have shown their disgust at the way Leicester City owners have treated the man who took a team of average footballers and turned them into 5000/1 title winners. Whilst some will argue that with risk of relegation, perhaps it was the correct decision. But they are forgetting that this is the position they are meant to be in. He is victim of his own incredible success.
Last season Leicester surprised many with Mahrez and Vardy firing on both cylinders, and with Ranieri’s fun and beloved press conferences caused much joy throughout the footballing world. Form, luck, and an open schedule along with limited injuries propelled Leicester to the very peak of the Premier League.
A year before Nigel Pearson guided them to safety against all the odds.
English football in crisis?
The sacking of Ranieri further emphasise the issues at the highest level of the beautiful game. With owners giving little regard to managers and players seemingly having all the power, managers like Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, the latter retiring in 2013, will be relics of an era that was perhaps the greatest for English football.
There are serious reforms required in England if the sport as we know it can be salvaged from an impending wreck.
The FA faced and lost a vote of no confidence in parliament. Whilst FIFA is still reeling from the corruption with current president, Gianni Infantino, slowly rebuilding its reputation, where he has won plaudits over his consultation of former players about improvements to the sport and appointment of Senegal's Fatma Samoura, the first female and non-European to hold the post of secretary general.
Claudio Ranieri’s situation underline the short-term view that most owners now have of the sport, who give little time to managers to implement their ideas and grow a club. More needs to be done to regulate those who buy clubs, Portsmouth’s demise should have been the turning point but the FA almost ignored the shambles and discounted it as one-off. But Leeds United are another who were once European cup finalists, but now struggle as a mid-table Championship team at best.
Reformation is essential
Serious reforms are required at the highest level and more needs to be done to protect managers. With reports suggesting that the players met with the Leicester City owners to force the sacking of Ranieri, the beautiful game turned ugly.
Player power and owners who want more involvement in the day-to-day running of the team have seen a manager’s job become disposable, is it any wonder why there are so little British managers at the highest level? Who would want to live with such uncertainty in job and sport they love to the core?
