The Economist UK - 29.02.2020

Lower-league football clubs are stuck on the sidelines of globalisation. They are mostly based in Brexit-supporting towns

*At February 21st 2020. Density and vote of parliamentary constituency containing each team’s home ground

Sources: Deloitte; Transfermarkt; Footstats.co.uk; Footballgroundguide.com; Chris Hanretty; ONS

Population density by league position*

Foreign population and players, %

Foreignplayers

(non-British citizens)

English football clubs, revenue, 2018 prices, £bn

Foreign-born population of

teams’ local constituencies

League Two

Premier League Championship

League One

60

40

20

0

6

4

2

0

1992 95 2000 05 10 1815

Premier League

Result in 2016

EU referendum

Remain

Leave

League Two League One Championship Premier League

Liverpool

Burnley

Man City

Man Utd

Chelsea

Tottenham

Arsenal

Fulham

Millwall

Bury

(expelled)

Leyton

Orient

Stevenage

Grimsby

Rotherham

Utd

West

Brom

Bristol

Rovers

Portsmouth

Birmingham

City

0

5

10

15

People per

km², ’000

510152024 1 5101520 1 5101520 1 51015 1

Doncaster

Rovers

The EconomistFebruary 29th 2020 75

P

opulists oftendecry a “rigged sys-

tem”, where global “elites” break rules

while everyone else falls behind. Their tale

got a recent boost from an unlikely source.

On February 14th uefa, which runs Eu-

rope’s continental football contests, said it

would expel Manchester City from those

events for the next two years. The club,

largely owned by Emirati royalty, won the

English Premier League (epl) last year with

a costly, star-laden squad. On paper, it com-

plied with rules that ban teams from mak-

ing big losses, by paying wages using rev-

enue from Emirati corporate sponsors. But

uefasaid those firms had improperly sub-

sidised the club, by paying above the mar-

ket rate. City says the deals were not inflat-

ed, and has appealed against the decision.

Meanwhile, English teams without ac-

cess to foreign capital or accountants have

fallen on hard times. Just north of Man-

chester is Bury, whose local club, Bury fc,

was set to start this season in League One.

(Confusingly, English football’s second,

third and fourth divisions are known as the

Championship, League One and League

Two.) In August Bury was kicked out of pro-

fessional football after it failed to service

its debts. On February 21st fans entered a

new club into the amateur tenth tier.

The diverging paths of Manchester City

and Bury reflect a widening economic gap

between the top of England’s football pyra-

mid and its base. An investigation by the

Timesfound that 52 of the 72 teams in the

second, third and fourth divisions record-

ed a loss in their most recent accounts. Ac-

cording to Deloitte, a consultancy, in 1992-

2018 the revenues of teams in Leagues One

and Two grew only a quarter as quickly as

those in the Premier League did.

This separation owes in part to differ-

ences in regulation. Whereas uefa’s finan-

cial rules have forced elite teams to be prof-

itable, those for lower-ranked clubs are

weaker. Many small teams have made big,

unwise gambles trying to reach the top di-

vision, driving them into the red.

Immigration law has exacerbated the

divide, because only stars who regularly

represent their national teams can get

work permits. That hinders lower-division

sides in signing non-Europeans, and limits

their appeal to foreign fans. When Grimsby

plays Mansfield, audiences in Colombia,

Nigeria and Japan have few of their own na-

tionals to support.

Growing inequality in football has mir-

rored broader trends in British society. epl

teams sit in parliamentary constituencies

more than twice as densely populated as

those of Leagues One and Two. Economic

output per person is 20% higher around

such areas. The locals are younger and

more likely to be immigrants. Predictably,

these differences align with political pref-

erences. In the epl70% of teams play in

constituencies that voted to remain in the

eu. For League Two, that figure is just 29%.

Fans of struggling teams have noted the

parallel between their hometowns and

football clubs that once served as a pillar of

community. “The system...always lets peo-

ple down at the bottom,” says Zoë Hitchen,

a Bury supporter. “It never lets down the

people at the top...You can’t split this from

what’s happening in the ukat the moment.

You can’t split it away from Brexit.” 7

The divide in England’s national sport

reflects that in the country as a whole

A game of

two halves

Graphic detailFootball and inequality