It’s no secret what big money has done to English football. International TV deals, billionaire owners, and foreign superstars have made the league the biggest in the world and at the same time, it’s also killed off the talent pool in an otherwise massive footballing country. Much of this is attributed to foreign owners who don’t discriminate between international and local talent. To them there’s no incentive to recruit and train English talent if it’s cheaper or more effective to compete for talent in South America and other parts of Europe. And now, the same thing could be happening in France.
France has traditionally been an exporter of talent. Teams like Lyon, Marseille, and Lille produced superstars over the last few decades like Cantona, Ribery, and Henry, players who have dominated the world with their talent. While these players usually leave to play in better leagues, the local recruitment has meant that the French national team was a World Cup contender almost every cycle (granted, they had their massive flop in 2010). Recently, though, the influx of buyouts from Qatar means that the French national team could be headed in the same direction as England.
It would be unfair to put all the blame on the oil rich owners. France is a first world nation with a huge consumerist economy with clubs packed with history and tradition as well as a large Francophone market in Africa that has yet to be exploited. It’s a business opportunity ripe for the picking for anyone smart enough to see it. That being said, the switch from local, fan owned clubs to big owners has meant that the growth of a select few clubs, mainly PSG and Monaco, has been artificial rather than natural. This means that while Lille, Marseille, and Lyon are recruiting mid-table Premier League talent, these two teams are competing with Real Madrid and Barcelona for big names. The gap is becoming wider and wider, and while other teams are considering their profits, PSG and Monaco are buying under the guise of investments.
The worst part of the entire fiasco? It’s working brilliantly. French football is now on the map in Europe where it traditionally hasn’t been. PSG has been gaining fans internationally and is making progress in the Champions League where other French sides would’ve been destroyed long ago. The market is expanding rapidly, and recognition and praise are being heaped on PSG for their fantastic style of play and scoring ability. One Zlatan Ibrahamovic has also been taking precious minutes on highlight reels with his sniper-like precision.
But if big money and big gaps between clubs means the loss of talent, shouldn’t Spain and Germany also be suffering? In short, no. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund are all supported and owned by their fans. There’s incentive to invest in local talent, since fans will always prefer the lovable local folk hero over the eccentric egotistical foreigner. In the end, clubs owned by the local population will appeal to locals, while clubs geared towards international owners and viewers, like in England, will not differentiate between talent pools. After all, it matters not to an American or a Malaysian Liverpool fan whether it’s the Englishman Daniel Sturridge or the Uruguayan Luis Suarez scoring, they have no national affiliation to either.
This all begs the question how far teams will fall in Ligue 1. Lyon, who won an incredible seven straight titles in the early 2000’s now sit in fifth place. Marseille are two points behind them in sixth, while Lille are the only French club who can put up with the giants, sitting seven points behind Monaco and fifteen behind PSG, a gap that has only opened because Lille has fallen behind late in the season. The economics of the situation tell a grim story. Clubs that have spawned major talent for France are losing revenue and market share to the two giants, and thus the dynamic of the league is gradually changing. Soon players like Marco Verratti might beat out Clement Grenier for starting opportunities, and France could easily fall into the same strife that faces England.
Whether the new investment takes Ligue 1 to another level financially is imminent, after all PSG has proven a success in both the trophy case and the income sheet. France could be heading to a Premier League-esque rise to glory in the years to come, but that could spell doom for an already troubled national team. In the end, it’s players like Ibrahimovic who show us the very limits of human athleticism, but it’s players like Yohan Cabaye who inspire us the most.
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