Stark warning over the future of club football
Football
Gibraltar might have raised in the FIFA rankings and UEFA Club Co-efficient rankings in 2018 but club football has sent out a stark warning that without clubs also benefitting there will be no national team to pick from in the future.
This was the clear warning issued by Lynx Football club president Albert Parody.
As one of local football’s only practicing head coach in the first division Mr Parody has lived through the transition from amateur football into the commercialised world of football Gibraltar is beginning to live since entering UEFA and FIFA. The transition as he highlighted had not been a smooth one. Having founded his club eleven years ago Mr Parody admitted that he was now contemplating selling his club, not because he wanted to but because he was being forced to look at the possibility due to the financial problems he faced in keeping up. Speaking about his experience in club football, especially since entering UEFA Mr Parody commented.
“Many things have changed, some things are good but there are things which aren’t that good, especially on the question of football,” he started to explain.
“Teams like mine are finding it very difficult to keep up because we don’t receive much money. The reality is we get £10,000 from Gibtelecom sponsorship to the league, and it’s very difficult. There are teams who just aren’t paying any more and who have spent months without paying.” “And imagine us, I’m alone. It’s only thanks to my business I can provide some money and because I have a good wife who supports me or else, she would have sent me very far away by now.”
We started to discuss about the fact that his clubhouse had accommodation for players and why this was the case.
“Of course since I can’t pay them a salary I pay for their food and accommodation. I have places rented in Spain and I have them under my name and have to pay it myself through the bank. I have to pay for the electricity and bills and it’s a lot of work.”
“I am twenty-four hours at this I have had to stop training the premier team because I didn’t have any time for myself. I was super stressed looking for money, here there and everywhere. Having to deal with pitch allocations in Spain and paying for it.” “It costs an arm and a leg to train in Spain. We are the only league where clubs cannot train in their own country.”
“We train once a week on a pitch which is good only for nine aside football. We cannot do tactics or anything and we can only train once a week so how do we progress.”
“The national team they say. But the national team only comes about when players train. And when clubs train in Spain local players don’t want to train there because they work and don’t want to make the journey there. And since they work, they don’t want to commit themselves.” When asked about whether there was any direct benefit to him of the “importance being placed on the national team” as he suggested was being placed, Parody responded, “I don’t make anything from the national team. I am Gibraltarian, and I want the national team to be at the highest possible level. It’s a reality but there is another reality I see and that is that the GFA is only concerned about the national team.”
“When the national team plays there are scoreboards, everything is very nice. You have ambulances and all the ties which are not interested in the slightest in football turn up, and when we play premier, we don’t have any ambulances or scoreboards or anything. We have nothing.”
“If we are not here the national team is not worth anything because we wouldn’t be in UEFA. And the reality is the GFA have work because of the teams participating in the league.”
“I am in agreement that the GFA must go up. When we entered the three-home grown player rule I was one of the one who voted for it. But now they want to increase it I won’t be voting for it. Since, because, the Gibraltarians in the majority don’t come to train, are working and they are asking for ridiculous amounts of money.” The Lynx owner has seen his fair share of Gibraltarians players come and go, some of whom played for the national team. Asked on what was the solution in his view to change things Albert Parody said, “Well quite easily, the Gibraltarian players who already work should have a cap on wages. That way you have no problem, if you are working and you play football part-time your maximum would be limited. If you have a son and he doesn’t work and lived from football and wants to earn £4000 per month, well fine, let him he has the same rights as any professional like Ronaldo to earn whatever he wants. A Gibraltarian player has the same rights as any professional player to earn what he can.”
Mr Parody also expressed his dissatisfaction at the unfulfilled promises. “We were promised a lot by the GFA but the only thing we have been given is £2,000 for the training pitches. It’s embarrassing. £2,000 is just two months.”
So, what was the cost and investment he had to make to keep the club going we asked. To which Mr Parody revealed how he was now changing his mind about selling the club.
“The truth is when we started in UEFA, I had a very good offer to buy my club and I think I was the only stupid one to say no at the time. Because football is my passion. I like to teach, to coach, to get people from the streets and bring them in. But then nobody appreciates what you are doing. I don’t do it to get any medals, but I am very stressed, and I have to be looking for money from everywhere I go.”
This was the clear warning issued by Lynx Football club president Albert Parody.
As one of local football’s only practicing head coach in the first division Mr Parody has lived through the transition from amateur football into the commercialised world of football Gibraltar is beginning to live since entering UEFA and FIFA. The transition as he highlighted had not been a smooth one. Having founded his club eleven years ago Mr Parody admitted that he was now contemplating selling his club, not because he wanted to but because he was being forced to look at the possibility due to the financial problems he faced in keeping up. Speaking about his experience in club football, especially since entering UEFA Mr Parody commented.
“Many things have changed, some things are good but there are things which aren’t that good, especially on the question of football,” he started to explain.
“Teams like mine are finding it very difficult to keep up because we don’t receive much money. The reality is we get £10,000 from Gibtelecom sponsorship to the league, and it’s very difficult. There are teams who just aren’t paying any more and who have spent months without paying.” “And imagine us, I’m alone. It’s only thanks to my business I can provide some money and because I have a good wife who supports me or else, she would have sent me very far away by now.”
We started to discuss about the fact that his clubhouse had accommodation for players and why this was the case.
“Of course since I can’t pay them a salary I pay for their food and accommodation. I have places rented in Spain and I have them under my name and have to pay it myself through the bank. I have to pay for the electricity and bills and it’s a lot of work.”
“I am twenty-four hours at this I have had to stop training the premier team because I didn’t have any time for myself. I was super stressed looking for money, here there and everywhere. Having to deal with pitch allocations in Spain and paying for it.” “It costs an arm and a leg to train in Spain. We are the only league where clubs cannot train in their own country.”
“We train once a week on a pitch which is good only for nine aside football. We cannot do tactics or anything and we can only train once a week so how do we progress.”
“The national team they say. But the national team only comes about when players train. And when clubs train in Spain local players don’t want to train there because they work and don’t want to make the journey there. And since they work, they don’t want to commit themselves.” When asked about whether there was any direct benefit to him of the “importance being placed on the national team” as he suggested was being placed, Parody responded, “I don’t make anything from the national team. I am Gibraltarian, and I want the national team to be at the highest possible level. It’s a reality but there is another reality I see and that is that the GFA is only concerned about the national team.”
“When the national team plays there are scoreboards, everything is very nice. You have ambulances and all the ties which are not interested in the slightest in football turn up, and when we play premier, we don’t have any ambulances or scoreboards or anything. We have nothing.”
“If we are not here the national team is not worth anything because we wouldn’t be in UEFA. And the reality is the GFA have work because of the teams participating in the league.”
“I am in agreement that the GFA must go up. When we entered the three-home grown player rule I was one of the one who voted for it. But now they want to increase it I won’t be voting for it. Since, because, the Gibraltarians in the majority don’t come to train, are working and they are asking for ridiculous amounts of money.” The Lynx owner has seen his fair share of Gibraltarians players come and go, some of whom played for the national team. Asked on what was the solution in his view to change things Albert Parody said, “Well quite easily, the Gibraltarian players who already work should have a cap on wages. That way you have no problem, if you are working and you play football part-time your maximum would be limited. If you have a son and he doesn’t work and lived from football and wants to earn £4000 per month, well fine, let him he has the same rights as any professional like Ronaldo to earn whatever he wants. A Gibraltarian player has the same rights as any professional player to earn what he can.”
Mr Parody also expressed his dissatisfaction at the unfulfilled promises. “We were promised a lot by the GFA but the only thing we have been given is £2,000 for the training pitches. It’s embarrassing. £2,000 is just two months.”
So, what was the cost and investment he had to make to keep the club going we asked. To which Mr Parody revealed how he was now changing his mind about selling the club.
“The truth is when we started in UEFA, I had a very good offer to buy my club and I think I was the only stupid one to say no at the time. Because football is my passion. I like to teach, to coach, to get people from the streets and bring them in. But then nobody appreciates what you are doing. I don’t do it to get any medals, but I am very stressed, and I have to be looking for money from everywhere I go.”
Mr Parody went on to explain how some things had changed in the eleven years he had been in football, especially during the transition under UEFA membership. Since clubs had become fully responsible for players and were obliged to meet all costs with little return. This including the registration of players some of whom did not even turn up to train.
The conversation led us into how the club were expected to make money when there were few revenue making opportunities, including a lack of advertising facilities or even a scoreboard at the stadium. “If we had tv rights, streaming, we could get a little money which would be a great help for all the clubs. This is not necessarily the GFA’s fault.
We have been having, during the past three years, meetings and we don’t come to an agreement between ourselves. Maybe this is where the GFA can step in and make a final decision because otherwise it’s just a dog fight between us. And we won’t reach an agreement. It’s been three years. One says yes, the other no, and there are those who say they won’t sign because they want the prize money shared. But one thing is one thing, and the other is another matter altogether. We have to respect other’s opinions.
We want to sign this because of this. The differences are huge you win the league and you get 700,000 Euros and if you get in UEFA you get 280,000 but we get £10,000. So, the differences are huge.”
Mr Parody highlighted how you could already see the differences in the quality of players between clubs who had reached European competitions and those who hadn’t.
“I think, and it’s sad to say that the owners of clubs from here to a few years from now will be foreigners, because we can’t sustain it.”
“I have been offered some very good money and I haven’t wanted it but now I am looking desperately because I can’t continue this way. I would rather continue for as many years as I can. I like this, but you just can’t continue like this.”
Mr Parody believed that the influx of foreign owners would, however, not be enough to make a difference as already those who had come in had failed in many cases to attract new talents, especially among the locals.
Returning the conversation back to the facilities at the stadium Mr Parody expressed the belief that club football was “forgotten” with little interest being shown towards its progress in comparison to the interest shown for the national side.
He, however, did not solely blame the GFA who he claimed he understood had many burdens to fulfil with the demands made by UEFA and situations such as the betting problems which had been imported into Gibraltar. “We have to give the GFA respect for the work they are doing on this. I have a lot of respect for the work they are doing but at the same time I can’t keep silent on some things I see are wrong.”
“A simple thing you mentioned is there is no bar. Before you had the stadiums filling up for matches. You paid 50p. Now you have Spaniards who come in just to shout abuse and disrupt. There is no security, there is nothing.”
“You should put an entrance fee of a pound. So, what if you make only £500 at the end of the month. At least it’s a pot for all the clubs. And small things like. But nobody has bothered with this. Why doesn’t anyone bother on helping on these things. If we can’t reach an agreement n tv rights why don’t they step forward and make the final decision. Nobody has bothered. For the national team they will but not for anything else. But what they don’t realise is that one day it will all explode, and football will stop.”
“For me it won’t be a problem because I love football. I will continue even if its amateur. Just like I started my club. But what I don’t like is the injustice I see like is happening to Glacis, Lions, Bocas and we who are suffering and against a wall. We have no TV rights and we are the worst league in the world because we have no premier, no TV rights, no entrance fees, no advertising and we have no help at all. But when the GFA play we have everything and that is the reality. People only see when the GFA play.”
The conversation led us into how the club were expected to make money when there were few revenue making opportunities, including a lack of advertising facilities or even a scoreboard at the stadium. “If we had tv rights, streaming, we could get a little money which would be a great help for all the clubs. This is not necessarily the GFA’s fault.
We have been having, during the past three years, meetings and we don’t come to an agreement between ourselves. Maybe this is where the GFA can step in and make a final decision because otherwise it’s just a dog fight between us. And we won’t reach an agreement. It’s been three years. One says yes, the other no, and there are those who say they won’t sign because they want the prize money shared. But one thing is one thing, and the other is another matter altogether. We have to respect other’s opinions.
We want to sign this because of this. The differences are huge you win the league and you get 700,000 Euros and if you get in UEFA you get 280,000 but we get £10,000. So, the differences are huge.”
Mr Parody highlighted how you could already see the differences in the quality of players between clubs who had reached European competitions and those who hadn’t.
“I think, and it’s sad to say that the owners of clubs from here to a few years from now will be foreigners, because we can’t sustain it.”
“I have been offered some very good money and I haven’t wanted it but now I am looking desperately because I can’t continue this way. I would rather continue for as many years as I can. I like this, but you just can’t continue like this.”
Mr Parody believed that the influx of foreign owners would, however, not be enough to make a difference as already those who had come in had failed in many cases to attract new talents, especially among the locals.
Returning the conversation back to the facilities at the stadium Mr Parody expressed the belief that club football was “forgotten” with little interest being shown towards its progress in comparison to the interest shown for the national side.
He, however, did not solely blame the GFA who he claimed he understood had many burdens to fulfil with the demands made by UEFA and situations such as the betting problems which had been imported into Gibraltar. “We have to give the GFA respect for the work they are doing on this. I have a lot of respect for the work they are doing but at the same time I can’t keep silent on some things I see are wrong.”
“A simple thing you mentioned is there is no bar. Before you had the stadiums filling up for matches. You paid 50p. Now you have Spaniards who come in just to shout abuse and disrupt. There is no security, there is nothing.”
“You should put an entrance fee of a pound. So, what if you make only £500 at the end of the month. At least it’s a pot for all the clubs. And small things like. But nobody has bothered with this. Why doesn’t anyone bother on helping on these things. If we can’t reach an agreement n tv rights why don’t they step forward and make the final decision. Nobody has bothered. For the national team they will but not for anything else. But what they don’t realise is that one day it will all explode, and football will stop.”
“For me it won’t be a problem because I love football. I will continue even if its amateur. Just like I started my club. But what I don’t like is the injustice I see like is happening to Glacis, Lions, Bocas and we who are suffering and against a wall. We have no TV rights and we are the worst league in the world because we have no premier, no TV rights, no entrance fees, no advertising and we have no help at all. But when the GFA play we have everything and that is the reality. People only see when the GFA play.”