By Paul Nicholson
May 31 – Sir Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways and investment company Sports Investment Partners, reckons that leaving all the match decisions to the chance of human error is not satisfactory, or necessary. Especially so when the prize for the winning team could be £120 million – as was the case last weekend in England’s premier League play-off.
Talking ahead of the FT/IFA summit, June 17 at the Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, where he will lead a panel titled ‘Freestyle!’, the former Liverpool chairman said that “the time has come to think much more radically about how to use the technology available. It will help ensure a fair result, but it will also encourage respect for referees”.
Certainly this kind of talk is freestyle thinking for football and contrary to the position of football’s governing body FIFA, which has only this year managed to limp over the line in bringing in goal line technology for its competitions. But then this is the sort of ‘thought’ challenge you would expect from one of Britain’s leading industrialists.
For Broughton the issues are straightforward. If a team was allowed two or three opportunities a game to call for the review of a decision, he is pretty sure it would be a positive addition to the game. It could, for example, cut out a lot of cheating. Would a player want a decision reviewed if he knew he had deliberately dived in the box?
Perhaps more importantly, Broughton believes it would take out much of the abuse shown to referees and encourage respect – from players and fans. “Abuse of refs denigrates the product,” he says “We don’t want an atmosphere of hostility.” And if this contributes to a better product then it should, logically, contribute to increased revenue.
But what about the fear that it would slow the game down and start to break up the speed and character of football? Broughton believes the example of other sports like tennis, cricket and rugby is that the technology has only enhanced the game.
“There is no evidence to suggest this would be a serious issue,” he says. “Certain players would have to be convinced before they exercised one of their challenges.”
So is this radical thinking or a commonsense appraisal of how to use the tools that are available to improve the sport? Certainly one area you would not expect the chairman of one Britain’s blue-chip companies to be a radical risk taker is in finance.
Broughton’s track record in football may be shorter than his career at the head of one of Britain’s largest public companies. But it is nevertheless still a substantial one. A Chelsea fan, and proudly so, he was parachuted in to Liverpool to see through the sale of the club following an uncomfortable period of ownership by Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The outcome was a sale to another American group, John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group. Is foreign ownership of clubs really a good thing?
“There is the recognition that football is a global game, and the Premier League has global interest. Football clubs used to be backed by the local businessman. Dave Whelan at Wigan is a classic example of that. It was always the local chap who wants to put something back and he often ended up waiting for the next local chap to take over. Strong financial backers have always bought success.
“The Premier League has more international players, it is followed all around the world and so investment has come into it from all over the world. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that… We have players and managers from many countries (in England). There is no less interest from fans in clubs with foreign players. Actually the numbers have just got larger.”
And what about private versus public ownership? “There used to be a number of clubs quoted on the market,” said Broughton. “Now there is just Manchester United (in the Premier League). Frankly I am surprised there are not more.”
Despite this, Broughton is not looking to invest in club franchises through the investment vehicle he chairs, Sports Investment Partners. Nor is he looking for investments that just require cash.
“We are looking for investments where we can add value through our own expertise and our contacts. For us the perfect investment would be a technology that is technically brilliant but where the owners do not perhaps understand or know the sports market. That’s where we feel we can make a real difference with our know-how and investment,” he said.
Sir Martin Broughton will be speaking at the FT/IFA Business of Football Summit, June 17 at the Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro. IFA conferences are by invitation. To register interest and for more information go to www.ft-live.com/football. Insideworldfootball is a media partner of IFA.
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