Capitalism rears its ugly head in BPL

My favourite team since my childhood, Man United, lost to its City neighbours in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi final afew days ago. Man Utd would normally treat a Carling Cup tie, even one that will reward the winner with a Wembley visit, with less priority than a league match. But in this occasion, because the opponent is a resurgent neighbour, the manager fielded his best team.

Therefore the lost was a huge disappointment. I must say the referee had a big say in both goals that Tevez scored. The first was through a highly suspect penalty (since the foul was committed outside the penalty area) and the second from a corner which should not have been awarded (since the ball did not touch a United player before going out). The only consolation is there is another 90 minutes to play for in Old Trafford next week.

But what I want to point out is not the performance of my team but how the BPL is facing a financial crisis arising out of mounting debts taken by owners of the clubs. While there have been rich owners who have put in a great deal of their own money into clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, there have equally been owners (mostly Americans) who have leveraged their clubs towards bankruptcy. These clubs include my beloved United and Liverpool.

It cannot be imagined that after selling its star player, Ronaldo, for a world record fee, it is not able to buy players at a time when it had injuries to its whole backline forcing the team to play with 3 midfielders in defence in one game. Initially, I thought it was because the manager felt he has enough good players in the squad waiting to make a come back but now I believe the real reason is they need to show a decent profit to attract new funds to keep the owners afloat. They are now asking the players to buy the new bonds that will be issued.

Sheez, these Americans. After destroying the world economy through its junk bonds and sub prime loans now they trying to destroy the English football clubs.