The reason for the seemingly forced return of football is down to money and “Wealth before health” according to Norwich City’s Sporting Director, Stuart Webber.
Webber was talking to Radio 5 Live as reported here by the Pink ‘Un, and he openly admitted what we’ve all known all along. Stuart Webber is famously an honest, straight talking type of man and it’s refreshing to hear what he had to say.
Some typically honest words from Stuart Webber on why the Premier League is returning.
As far as he is concerned, there is only one reason its return has been pushed so much – money. #ncfc https://t.co/X6LWlxRJ2y
— Connor Southwell (@cjsouthwell1902) June 7, 2020
“Certainly, the wealth has definitely taken over. I’ve heard ‘health before wealth’, it’s definitely not, it’s the other way round,” he said.
“However, that’s the world we live in and that’s the business that we’re in so what we have to do is, if it is the wealth first, then we’ve got to make it as safe as possible around that.
“I think that we, the other clubs and the Premier League have done that. So, I do think it will be safe to return unless a second pandemic kicks off but let’s go on the positive side of things and say that doesn’t happen. I think it will be safe but there’s been a lot of work for that by a lot of people.”
Whilst Norwich City have been determined not to recklessly open the purse strings this season, which has upset many Canary fans, the way that some clubs in the EFL are run was also mentioned by Webber.
“What’s probably happening at the moment, right underneath our nose and I don’ mean in the Premier League but probably the Football League, is it’s coming home to roost that certain clubs and organisations have been run incredibly badly,” he told Five Live.
“As soon as the tap’s turned off in terms of income, they get in trouble really quickly. I’ll be gobsmacked if that affects anyone of us (in the Premier League) to that extreme because we’re incredibly fortunate with the levels of TV revenue we get way overpasses anything that we’d get through supporters.
“For us to not have the supporters in is a big hit financially but nowhere near as big as any sort of large TV rebate – the biggest hit with us not having supporters in is, football without the fans, what’s the point?”
Honesty as always from Mr Webber and to my knowledge he is the first senior figure from Premier League club to admit that it’s “Wealth before health.”
OTBC