Tactics and Transfers: Sanctions, the Premier League and Chelsea’s future
2. Premier League
That is something that the Premier League should come to terms with, as well. It’s the best division in the world in no small part due to the fact that it has had such loose rules around investment for so long. It’s the money division, not the moral division. The ceiling is higher, the tension higher and more is at stake. More is bet, won and lost in the Premier League than in any other league. That has taken forgetting morality for many in the hunt for trophies; conscientious compromises were made by many. Everton is tied to another oligarch. Newcastle is owned by Saudi Arabia, who has been waging war on Yemen for years now, and executed 81 people in one day on Sunday. Manchester City is owned by high-ranking members of the United Arab Emirates, a country with a long list of human rights violations.
The Premier League gave up morality ages ago. There are no morals left and that’s the game now. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter anymore, nothing in it that has to do with right and wrong. It is about winning, pure and unfiltered competition. For people to claim anything other than that now shows a minimal understanding of the division in the first place. The division is so ruthlessly competitive because of the people it has allowed to push it forward. They cast aside the moral high ground for financial dominance ages ago. Acting as if Abramovich and the Blues are somehow the outliers here is ridiculous and that’s the problem.
The division sold its soul ages ago—that’s why it’s so good. That’s why it’s so ruthless in ingesting the talent of other divisions from all over the world. The 12th highest-paid team in the Premier League would be the second highest-paid team in France! Aston Villa would come directly behind Paris Saint-Germain and be followed by Monaco, the Clarets would be 7th in Serie A.
The issue is trying to reclaim that moral high ground and soul somehow by hurting those innocent people who aren’t involved at the highest level makes little-to-no sense. Chelsea has over 2,000 employees, none of whom are Abramovich, and yet all of them are going to feel the attempts to punish him more than he. In fact, I would argue that’s the only way to somehow make this whole situation more of a morally decrepit mire of horrors. Pretending you’re doing something only to hurt innocent people? Yeah, that’s bad too. Sanctions are dumb. They don’t work. They’re just political posturing and nothing more by people who don’t actually want to do anything, but want to appear that they are. Steve Hanke, a professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, says as much, “the record of those actions is that they fail.”
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In fact, sanctions usually have the opposite effect. They allow dictators to consolidate power. Once the people of the country have no economic means to help themselves, they become entirely reliant on the state. Fidel Castro operated for over 50 years while sanctioned, Kim Jung-Il and Gaddafi were also sanctioned and maintained power. Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela has only grown more powerful while sanctioned. The United States sanctioned Iran for years and nothing happened there either, except a radicalization of the state. Vladimir Putin was still sanctioned when Russia blew up that maternity hospital last week. It’s disgusting.
Oddly, we finally saw the first benefit of cryptocurrencies. When banks closed down because they were so shocked by Russia’s actions in the Ukraine, ordinary people were forced to do something themselves and they were able to send aid outside the financial system. People help people, politicians rarely ever do. Sanctions are nothing more than a tool for public manipulation that politicians use to suggest they are doing something in order to placate their voters while they actually do nothing.
Abramovich is fine right now. He’s in his home in Israel comfortable and warm. Chelsea is not. Isn’t Abramovich the person the government is trying to hurt? Why is it the historic British institution that ties millions around the world to the nation is the one being hurt? Is that justice? No.
Something needs to be done, but punishing the people of Britain—west London in particular—for the crimes of a mad politician thousands of miles away doesn’t seem like it’s par for the course. The pathetic attempt to grab headlines, political clout, virtue signal and jockey for positions in whatever the next hierarchy is in the sport after Abramovich leaves is sickening. I don’t blame people who don’t know better but what bothers me is how many of them always have and were too weak to do anything.