Problem
The football community does not talk about deep rooted issues such as equality, financial fair play and safety.
Insight
Statistics lead the conversations in football. However, these statistics are mostly about performance.
Concept
Use statistics about deep rooted issues to create new conversations in the football community.
Idea
Create football’s first website where these issues become visible through statistics.
Scroll down to see a working prototype of the platform and all the statistics I was able to find so far. You can also read a more in depth analysis at the bottom of the page.
The world of statistics.
Technology allowed analytics and the fans to make more sense of the game. Everything is analysed through statistics. Which team has the most average possession? Who creates the most successful dribbles? Which player has the highest successful passing rate? Who scores the most goals outside of the box? Today it is possible to know a lot about football without even watching the games. All you need to know are the statistics. If you find yourself arguing over who is the better player, just throw in the statistics that work in your favor and voila you’re participating I the conversation. It is safe to say that in football, statistics leads the dialogue and many online platforms provide the fans with such information. Example: Whoscored.Com - Football Statistics | Football Live Scores, www.whoscored.com/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023. But what if I could make the first platform that provides the fans with “The Other Statistics”? The statistics we as a community should be talking about with as much passion as we do with the traditional statistics.
In depth analysis of the problems
The problems in football can be divided into three overarching topics.
Safety
Violence in football is nothing new. Hooliganism has been part of the modern game since the 1880’s. According to the UK government a total number of 4318 people have been banned from stadiums across England. In 2023 the number of footballs banning orders issued by UK courts has risen by 230 per cent, while online hate allegations within the sport are up 53 per cent, say police. The most common football-related arrest offence types were public disorder (34%), violent disorder (21%), alcohol offences (9%) and the possession of class A drugs (9%) According to KickItOut. Racism in football is also an increasing problem. Once the types of discrimination during the 2022/2023 season are categorized it becomes clear that the most incidents are racially motivated (49.3%). The other statistics are: Sexual orientation (15,5%) Faith (8,6%) Sex (7,9%) Disability (6,1%) Age (1,0%) Other %10,5%). Noticeably, In the professional game 55,4% of this abuse is targeted towards the players and on grassroots levels 79,8%. Somehow, the information become less in depth once you dig deeper in racially motivated hate in football. The numbers are given but the actual incidents are yet to be found. The government seems to be much more comfortable with sharing in depth information about violence, drug related incidents and public disorder compared to racism.
Equality
If you look at a game of football (the surface) equality and diversity don’t seem to be a problem. Basically, on all levels in Europe, teams are stacked with players from different nationalities, backgrounds etcetera. But once you dig deeper this quickly ends. In the Premier League only a handful of trainers have been of color in its entire history (Several competitions throughout Europe are no different). There has never been a female manager of a Premier League men’s team and there are currently no players who publicly game out as gay. Shocking statistics. Even the trainer staff is a heavily white male dominated space. Just a simple scan on the websites of clubs you can see they are heavily favoured in their hiring process. On the 5th of July 2023 Alumna Hannah Dingley named first female manager of men's professional football team. Alumna Hannah Dingley has made history by being named the new Caretaker Head Coach of Forest Green Rovers, becoming the first woman to manage a professional men's football team in England. Men’s highest net worths and salaries are miles ahead in comparison to that of women. On the demand side, it is likely that the MRP of female players is less than for male for one main reason, the revenue per game is likely to be much less for women's matches. This is the result of fewer spectators and lower ticket prices.
Finance
In recent history, money has spilled into football. Regular ticket prices and season ticket prices seem to increase with each passing season and powerhouses such as Manchester city, Chelsea, PSG are allowed to spend as much money as they like during each transfer window. More clubs are digging themselves into staggering amounts of debt, and financial fair play seems to be ignored. Everton was deducted 10 points this season for breaking one financial breach while Manchester City hasn’t been punished while being accused of 115 financial breaches. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is using sport to promote their country and offering European players mind-blowing contracts with Cristiano Ronaldo earning a whopping 173 Million British pounds per year.
Football has become a business and the fans have become its victims. In 2021, 12 of the world’s biggest football clubs unveiled a plan to launch what they called the Super League, a closed competition in which they would compete against each other while claiming billions of dollars in revenue for themselves. Each founding member stands to gain around $400 million merely to establish “a secure financial foundation,” four times more than Bayern Munich earned for winning the Champions League in 2020. Not only does the Super League go against the history of football, but it also gives unequal treatment to lower level clubs. With most of football’s wealth going to the Super League teams, other clubs will have trouble creating successful franchises of their own. Like many scenarios in everyday life, there is more money for those at the top.
