Soccer is often referred to as a beautiful game. People argue that one reason it is so universally popular is that anyone can play. You do not need special expensive equipment like helmets, body armor, rackets, or fancy sports club membership to give it a go.
Brazil might be the most successful men’s soccer team in terms of the FIFA World Cup, having been five times champions, but their players’ road to glory did not start in a private schoolyard or elite soccer clubs. So many Brazilian team players began playing in poor neighborhoods, on a dirt lot, or barefoot in the sand.
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Dream Ticket
Probably every young boy in the country dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, and across the world, it is seen as one of the most alluring routes from rags to riches. However, just being a professional player does not guarantee wealth and status. Which division your team plays in is what determines that.
Looking at the UK, The English Premier League is the world’s richest league. Of the highest-earning clubs in Europe, fourteen were from that one League. Twenty clubs compete for the title; since its inception in 1992, seven clubs have lifted the cup.
The biggest names are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea, who pull crowds worldwide. Games are beamed to over 212 countries, and it is the world’s most-watched football league.
While average match attendance is 36,000 fans, and clubs earn very healthy revenues from ticket sales, it is the TV and sponsorship money that is where the mega-cash lies.
No club wants to slip out of the Premier League and lose out on broadcast revenues. To date, only Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur have avoided relegation.
What does relegation mean?
You might be wondering what does relegation in soccer mean? It means that the clubs who finish up at the bottom of the league go down to a lower league, and those at the top of the lower league rise up.
The difference in income from TV and sponsorship to merchandise and ticket sales can be astronomical. Back in the day, people backed their local soccer club; these days, that is not the case. Most players do not even play for their local club.
A wealthy club in the world’s richest league can pay their players, managers, and coaches large sums of money. Many clubs are accused of hoarding players, buying them, and leaving them sitting on the bench, with some not even getting out of the dressing room.
That means that other clubs cannot get their hands on the players, and they are effectively taken out of the game or loaned out for a profit.
While many soccer clubs have academies to nurture talent and bring on promising young players, they often find themselves sold off just as they are hitting form.
Soccer is a business, and players might be brilliant, but if they do not fit into the team, it may make more sense for the club to sell them on – particularly if they have not paid anything for them in terms of transfer fees in the first place.
Start of a slippery slope
A big problem is that relegated clubs want to get themselves back into the Premier League, so while their income drops, their costs remain very high.
The good news for English Championship Clubs is that, according to a recent Deloitte report, their revenue exceeded wage costs for the first time since the 2106/17 season. However, that is an aggregate figure resulting from Premier League ‘parachute payments’ which target clubs to help them climb back up.
Critics have called the system a closed loop, with the same clubs rising and falling between the top-tier leagues.
Exiting at the wrong end of the Championship league means the relegated club will be exposed to instability and financial stresses. Clubs have to sell off any decent players they may have had, and raising the table becomes increasingly tricky.
Therefore, the English Football Regulator has got clubs to focus on financial planning and funding security to help improve financial stability.
However, the football business is a pyramid of promotion and relegation. The bottom line is that not all clubs can be successful. Once out of the top flight, it is much easier to slip down than climb back up.
Promotion is possible, however, and it has sparked so much interest in Wrexham AFC. Despite Wrexham being in Wales, the club plays in the English Football League.
They have stolen hearts with back-to-back promotions that have seen them rise through the tables and into League One.
Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are trying to defy the odds and are backing the club to work its way up the pyramid with promotion.
As they rise, they compete in higher levels of competition, win more prize money, attract more attention, and afford better players. In the English Championship (the second division after the lucrative Premier League), clubs that finish in the top two positions are automatically promoted. Those who finish in positions three to six are playoff for promotion.
Can Wrexham AFC do it?
It certainly looks as though there are no relegation threats for Wrexham AFC. They are now just two leagues away from competing in the Premier League. Any chances of that are still a little way off, however.
First, the aptly named Red Dragons must make it out of League One and into The Championship. From there, they can secure promotion into the ‘Holy Grail’ of England’s Premier League.
Nothing is impossible in soccer. Some of us are old enough to remember Chelsea bouncing between the bottom of Division One and the top of Division Two in the days before the Premier and Champions Leagues.
However, they were never in the position that Wrexham are currently in. With great financial backing, great players, and good coaching, anything is possible.
After all, in 1998, Manchester City was in Division Three – the equivalent of where Wrexham found itself today. Who knows when we will see these teams playing against each other in the Premier League?
