Financial muscle is not the only indicator for success and the sport must avoid the mistakes made by football’s biggest clubs
The surest way to mess up in professional sport, as football has been finding, is to be guided solely by the money. Simply concentrate on the bottom line and you miss what really counts: the opinions of the people who serve up the product and those who consume it. Cut out those essential organs and even the smartest financial wheezes will struggle to prosper.
It is a lesson with which the leading English football club shareholders have just been reacquainted and one that everyone in rugby should heed. Just as bigger is not necessarily better on the field, so financial muscle is not the only prerequisite for oval-shaped success. If a sport aspires to global respect, a sense of integrity is equally essential.
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