The People’s Game: How to save football
By Gary Neville,
London: Hachette, 2023
293pp
Responding to news of a European Super League (ESL) breakaway that included English Premier League (EPL) clubs Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, football comentator and former Manchester United player Gary Neville said “We don’t like it, and we hope it doesn’t happen”.
Neville's 2023 book The People’s Game: How to save Football argues that beneath the glamourous sheen of the EPL, the game is rotten, and the growing influence of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival.
The ESL breakaway attempt led to outrage by fans. Eight thousand Arsenal fans staged a protest outside the club's Emirates Stadium on April 23, 2021 and Manchester United fans staged a pitch invasion on May 2, 2021, leading to the postponement of their fixture against Liverpool.
It was partly due to these protests that the 6 EPL clubs withdrew from the ESL, killing off the proposal.
Even though he had played more than 400 games for Manchester United, Nevile was "absolutely disgusted" with the move. "They pretend ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, the people’s club, the fans' club. Manchester United, one hundred years, born out of workers out here. And they’re breaking away to form a league without competition? That they can’t be relegated from.”
Neville's concerns about the state of the game stem from his family’s involvement in county club Bury FC — from the club winning the Football Association (FA) cup in 1900 and 1903 through to it being placed into administration in 2020 after being expelled from the English Football League.
Neville also tackles sexism, racism and ownership in The People’s Game, recounting how in the early 1920s, the Dickie Kerr Ladies football team drew crowds of more than 50,000 to matches, and how on December 5, 1921 the FA council banned woman’s football clubs from using the grounds of FA affiliated clubs. The ban wasn’t lifted until 1971.
A June 2022 fan survey found that after learning about the Dickie Kerr Ladies team, 71% of fans agreed that men’s professional football had an obligation to build the women’s game through means such as financial assistance.
Following the murder of George Floyd in the United States in 2020 by racist police and the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists in Bristol removed the statue of former slave trader Edward Colston. At the time, many black football players began to speak about the racism they had experienced.
In response, Neville admitted that despite being a representative for the Players Union, he did not do enough to speak out against racism.
Neville is also critical of owners such as the Glazer family at Manchester United and state-owned companies such as the City Football Limited Group and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which have the backing of regimes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and are used to shield them from criticism over human rights abuses.
At Manchester United, fans are angry that the Glazer family became majority owners in 2005 by taking out £525 million in loans against the club, which left MU £495m in debt by the end of 2021. Since then, the Glazers have paid themselves more than £1bn in interest, costs, fees and dividends from club funds.
Neville regrets not being more critical of the Glazer ownership during his playing days at MU. Since late 2023 the Glazer family have retained majority ownership at Old Trafford with the INEOS group — headed by local industrialist Jim Ratcliffe — having a minority stake.
Neville outlines a seven-point plan in the People’s Game to reform the game, including appointing an independent regulator, fairer financial redistribution of resources, a new licensing system for owners, greater financial stability to prevent leveraged buyouts and a fans' charter.
Whether these reforms help make football more equitable is yet to be seen. Moreover, Neville's criticisms are undermined by his ownership of Salford City FC and his belief in the system responsible for the game's problems.
“I’m not a socialist, I’m a capitalist. I believe in entrepreneurialism. I believe in companies making profit. I believe in lower taxes. And I also believe that distribution of profit should be spread amongst us.”
Despite previously supporting Jeremy Corbyn, Neville joined the Labour party in 2022 and supports Blairite Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The same year, Neville was a commentator for the media group beIN SPORTS during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, despite the country’s regime being criticised for denying rights to migrant workers, women and LGBTI people.
Despite Neville’s belief in the possibility of a “nicer capitalism”, it is going to take radical reform and movements from below such as the protests which helped defeat the ESL proposal in 2021 to take back power for the fans. Despite the People’s Game’s shortcomings, its willingness to reflect fans' anger makes it worth reading.