Burnham: English football too commercial 01/07/2010 |
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Former culture secretary Andy Burnham believes “rampant commercialism” is ruining English football.
The national team suffered its worst-ever World Cup defeat last weekend, losing 4-1 to Germany in the last 16.
And Burnham, whose ministerial remit included sport until May, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I think money has poisoned our national game.
"Our game has rampant commercialism. We have put money before the sport and we are reaping the dividends of that.
"The governing body is a hung parliament and it isn't able to take a view as the interests of the Premier League, sadly, predominate at the FA.
"Since the Premier League was created, we've had commercial forces running riot across our game.
"We have seen fans priced out of going to football, we have seen money going out of the top of the game and not benefiting the grassroots or the lower divisions and I think it's got to change."
Burnham was with the FA delegation that handed over the England 2018 World Cup bid book to Fifa in Zurich in May – but he insists English football must change if the country is to have any chance of winning the right to host the tournament.
"They dislike the arrogance of English football and they think we have failed to tame commercialism in our own sport," he added.
"And it's not just that it has a damaging effect on English football, it affects football everywhere, particularly in Europe because it has an inflationary effect on wages across Europe but also our clubs are bringing in that talent from a very young age from countries all around the world.
"So they see the effect of the English game on the stability of football elsewhere and they don't like it and I don't blame them for not liking it."
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