It seems the UK government is eagerly looking around for successful industries to meddle with, the latest of which is the Football Association. Full story here.
"Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe has defended the government's demand for reform of the Football Association.
Sutcliffe wants the FA to introduce two independent, non-executive directors to its board and improve the development of the game for women and ethnic minorities."
Will the socialists never leave us alone?!
Asked what was wrong with the women's game, Sutcliffe added: "The fact that we haven't got an elite league, it's been delayed until 2011, and this on the back of women's football being the fastest growing game in the country.
If woman's football was so great then there would be a huge profit opportunity for someone to start a league today. Unfortuantely, barely anyone watches woman's football...there's simply no money (or if there is, very small profits to be made) in it. By forcefully promoting it - at either the taxpayers or the Football Association's expense - they're doing nothing more than transferring wealth to female football players and their support staff. Ugh.
The NBA has been running a women's league for several seasons, and this may be it's last. In the booms, women's professional sports is a marginal industry at best, during the bust, they are simply unsustainable.
I am baffled by the idea of "ethnic minorities": have these persons ever had a look whence the best paid footballers come? Brazil, Nigeria, Cameroon... Have they ever bothered looking at the names of making up the rosters of the best English teams? Many European teams have set up football "academies" in Africa and employ legions of observers to keep a watchful eye over South American youths. Need I say more?
Women's football is one of the many, many sports that has no true money in it and would probably be confined to a handful of enthusiasts if it weren't for government's largess. Remember that sports are another form of propaganda, but you know that already.
Finally: sports leagues are not innocent victims. The stadiums are built using taxpayers' money, athletes donning national colors are paid using looted money and chances are your money is being handed to a sport league you've never heard about while you are reading this message. And I'll stop there...
That, and some stadiums are built on stolen land, and I'm not talking about the silly controversies over names like the Redskins, Braves or Chiefs.
I'd be opposed to this on principle, much as I would oppose salary caps for people in finance who benefit from FRB. It's the whole Martin Niemoller factor. Today, they'll be cracking down on sports leagues and bankers salaries, tomorrow, all model trains will have to follow modern health and safety regulations in their design and we'll have central wage control committees.
Sounds like criminals in action to me. What is wrong with these people?
LOL @ the "ethnic minorities" mumbo jumbo. Soccer is quite popular among 98% of all ethnicities, many stars are black or mixed.
I've also noticed a lot of teams are sponsored by quasi-government organisations too...In Australia, the Brumbies (Super 14 Rugby Union team) - conveniently located in Canberra where there's nothing but politicians, the state-funded ANU, state-run 'institutes' (sport, military etc) and businesses set up to support them - are sponsored by the state and federal governments and 'private organisations' that do work almost exclusively for the government.
Not only that, but they receive an annual payment of $1,000,000 from the state and earlier this year got a bail-out from the government in the tune of a one-off 'grant' for $720,000. This, of course, was before they found the cash to sign a $150,000-a-year player - luring him away from New South Wales with a big cash offer.
If there was ever a sporting team funded solely with revenue collected from non-users, they are it. But the politicians need sport too!