Barnets ordförande kritisk mot storklubbarna
Tony Kleanthous riktar kritik mot klubbarna i Premier League vilka han inte tycker tar sitt ansvar för utvecklingen i England.
Barnets ordförande sitter med i FA:s huvudstyrelse (8 deltagare) och får ofta stå upp för de mindre klubbarnas rättigheter. Undertecknad tycker ofta att det är vettiga åsikter från Mr Kleanthous som har fötterna på jorden och ser en skrämmande framtid. I en intervju med Sports Direct berättar han:
"Everything that Premier League clubs do is geared towards their own commercial benefit. It is a very commercial league and the clubs that are in it behave very commercially. I don’t think that everything they do is in the best interests of the smaller clubs. But it is their choice.
If they have got an opportunity to go abroad and make a lot of money then I can understand why they choose to do that, rather than help out the other smaller clubs in the UK.
Commercial interests have really over-ridden over a hundred years of history. The fact is what we have in this country, up until now, has been really sustainable and stable.
From my perspective the Premier League and the Premier League clubs have benefitted from over 100 hundred years of history – sustainability, growth – I will be interested to see where we are in 20 years’ time.
If there isn’t a radical change in thinking going forward I don’t think football will be what it is today, I think we will be on the cusp of a decline.
At the end of the day it is the breadth of football in the UK that makes it special. Once you lose the base of the pyramid the top will fall down eventually, and it’s the base of the pyramid that is being so steadily eroded now.”
