Crystal Palace's troubles strike a blow to everyone in the English game

Posted Saturday, January 30, 2010 by theguardian.com

Crystal Palace's troubles strike a blow to everyone in the English game
Neil Warnock saw team selection taken out of his control this week after Crystal Palace went into administration.

Never mind the Glazers, what about the Glaziers? This was Crystal Palace's nickname until 1974, when Malcolm Allison decreed that in future they would be known as the Eagles. A spot of double glazing would not go amiss at Selhurst Park right now with the Championship club suffering such a severe financial draught that they have just gone into administration.

So what's new? Football clubs are on the brink of going bust at an ever-increasing rate. Palace have joined the list of those under pressure from HM Revenue and Customs over unpaid tax and their players have not been alone in getting their wages late. Even reports that the administrators were called in by a company registered in the Cayman Islands was hardly a shock. Caymans, British Virgin Islands, the East India Company, the Bank of Titipu ... English football's business finds its way into all sorts of nooks and crannies, with the obvious Spoonerism best avoided.

It is just that Palace represent the solid middle footballing class that not so long ago formed the backbone of the English leagues. They were never going to be as big as Manchester United but in a good season could live comfortably with Aston Villa. Clubs like Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and Charlton fell into the same category, providing the strength in depth of the top two divisions. In football terms Palace have not been doing badly, nibbling at the fringe of the play-off places with the promise of something better if they could start turning draws into wins. But now they have suffered the statutory 10-point deduction for going into administration and are in a relegation struggle instead.

Administration changes the conventions, including the one that presumes the manager picks the team. When Palace played at Newcastle on Wednesday their best player, Victor Moses, did not appear because it had been decided that he was too valuable an asset to be risked. The manager, Neil Warnock, was able to name only three substitutes. In the depressing circumstances Palace produced a surprisingly spirited performance before losing 2-0.

It is difficult to apply the logic of the balance sheet to a business in which success or failure does not depend on the number of widgets produced in a financial year but on the ability of one set of assorted human beings putting a ball into a net more often than another set while an independent arbiter intervenes from time to time if someone breaks the rules. Weakening a team in order to avoid the possibility of harm coming to a player who is likely to be sold, even though he might just have got them something from the game, is surely pragmatism gone mad.

The decision to deduct points when a club goes into administration followed the case of Leicester City, who did so in October 2002, keeping their creditors at bay, but, after being taken over by a consortium led by Gary Lineker, still won promotion the following spring. Leicester finished ahead of third-placed Sheffield United, who lost the play-off final to Wolves.

The United manager at the time was understandably miffed that his side had been denied automatic promotion by a club that had gone under and been allowed to re-emerge relatively unscathed. Surely Warnock must be happier with the way things are now ... mustn't he?

Yet it is an unhappy state of affairs and not just for Palace and their supporters. Clubs like this used to provide a regular supply of talent for the English game and, in many cases, the England team. Johnny Byrne, Kenny Sansom and Ian Wright spent their formative football years at Selhurst. In addition Palace can boast some distinguished names among their managers: Arthur Rowe, previously the architect of Tottenham's push-and-run team, Terry Venables, with his emphasis on good passing and movement, and Steve Coppell, perhaps the most inspiring influence of all. And Allison, who introduced Palace to the fedora and Fiona Richmond.

Palace are the latest victims of the crazy economics of modern football that dictate that clubs must pay players (and agents) more than they can afford or risk being left behind. In a sane world salaries – or rather the gross sums available for salaries – would be capped while the people representing players would just take a percentage of their clients' incomes, which is what agents are supposed to do. Instead of which the free-for-all has become a freedom to fall, as poor old Palace are findng out. These Eagles are being driven from dare to despair.