Why off-field nonsense is threatening to tarnish the most exciting season since the Premier League was launched
Sunday 17th Nov 2013
'The problem with international breaks is that people start looking beyond the actual football – and start seeing Premier League clubs for what they really are'
Cardiff owner Vincent Tan: No thumbs up from the fans
Stu Forster
The problem with international breaks is that people start looking beyond the actual football – and start seeing Premier League clubs for what they really are.
They start hearing from club owners willing to trample over a century of history, showing contempt for life-long supporters, just on the off-chance that they might make an extra buck in the Asian market.
They hear about the heavy-handed actions of club lawyers – and begin to realise how little these people actually care for grassroots football.
They read about one of England’s brightest young talents abandoning his £100,000 Porsche in a boggy woodland – and wonder why they ought to cough up even more in satellite TV subscriptions.
A shame really because the actual football has been more interesting than usual.
It is shaping up to be the most open title race since the Premier League’s launch – Chelsea and the Manchester clubs struggling under new management, Tottenham foundering post-Bale, Arsenal and Liverpool resurgent, Everton more expansive under Roberto Martinez. And Southampton such a good-news story on so many levels.
Hull and Cardiff have over-achieved too, after promotion – yet that’s where the good news ends.
Cardiff owner Vincent Tan has been widely panned for changing the club’s colours and badge, then axing his director of football in favour of a Kazakhstani work-experience boy.
Tan out: Cardiff fans make their point to chairman Vincent Tan
Stu Forster
Kitting out Cardiff in red will make them more marketable in Malaysia, it is argued.
For while the Malaysians are obviously loaded enough to spend significant sums on replica shirts, they are apparently dopey enough to follow a team simply because of their colours.
And it is not as if they are spoilt for choice if they simply have to follow a Premier League who play in red. Except for England’s three most famous clubs – Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Yet despite his love of wearing clown’s trousers, Tan was not even the most laughable club owner to join the Premier League this summer.
Oh no, Hull’s owner Assem Allam is an absolute beauty.
While Tan can at least plead complete ignorance of British footballing culture, Allam has no such excuse.
He may be Egyptian-born, but he has spent half a century living in East Yorkshire.
Yet Allam wants to change Hull City’s 109-year-old name to Hull City Tigers or, preferably, Hull Tigers.
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