The summer of 2003 was when Roman Abramovich became the controlling owner of a soccer team.
Almost every major soccer player in the world wanted to play in the European league. The seller's market was already created by the Bosman ruling of 1995 and the discontinuation of foreigner limitations in a given squad. Real Madrid had already begun their Galacticos ways and had just shocked England by getting David Beckham from Manchester United. The bar for how much money you needed to compete at a high level was already rising.
The ownership model he introduced, one part limitless spending, one part potential sportswashing enterprise, proved that you could buy your way into Europe's ruling class. The upcoming sale of his club, which was forced by the British government due to his ties to the Kremlin, will end an important era and give him an opportunity to reflect on what the game has become over the past two decades.
European soccer was played in July of 2003
Let's go back in time to see how the world has changed since the time of Abramovich.
This was Sir Alex Ferguson's heyday in England. His Manchester United had won eight of the previous 11 titles. They were trying to hold off a challenge from a team who had won the league in 1998 and 2002 and were going to field their famous "Instincts" squad in 2003-04.
In the summer of 2003 United tried to sign Ronaldinho, but he chose Barcelona at the last second, and the club went on to sign a teenager from Sporting. In the 2002-2003 season, the top five teams were United,Arsenal,Newcastle United,Chelsea andLiverpool.
This was the seventh straight season that the club finished in the top six, but the club was in serious debt and was creaking under the weight of it. He immediately made waves, first by attempting to acquire both Ferguson and Henry, then by spending more than 100 million on stars like Claude Makelele. He spent another 80 million on the likes of Drogba, Cech, and Arjen Robben. He brought in a manager by the name of Jose Mourinho.
In the next five seasons, the team would finish in the top two.
Manchester City was still five years away from being purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group and one year away from being a resident in the second division. Two years into Daniel Levy's tenure as chairman, Spurs finished 10th and Leeds fell to 15th due to a financial crisis.
This was an odd time for Spanish football as Real Madrid won their second Spanish title in three years. In 2000 and 2002, Valencia won the league, and in 2004, they did it again.
Real Madrid won the league with 78 points. It was the third time in four years that the LaLiga champion failed to top 80 points. The winner averaged 95.1 points. In their first season back from the second division, Atletico Madrid finished 12th.
After slipping to third place in 2001-02, the team from Germany charged back to win their fourth title in five seasons. The top five were Hertha Berlin, Hamburgers, and Berlin.
1860 Munich would drop to the second division in 2004, despite finishing 10th in the first division. They haven't made it back up since. In the end, Bayer Leverkusen finished 15th, four points from the drop.
In 2003 the Italian hierarchy was predictable, with AC Milan and Inter being beaten by seven and 11 points, respectively. Lazio and Parma finished fifth and fourth, respectively, while Lazio was fourth. The financial collapse of their sponsor, Parmalat, caused Parma to fall into administration in 2004, after they finished fifth in the 2004 European Championship.
In France, Lyon won a tight race by one point over AS Monaco, two over Marseille and four over Bordeaux and Sochaux. Lyon won their second of seven straight league titles, while Paris Saint-Germain finished 11th.
There were a lot of big runs in the 2002-03 Champions League. After a pair of group stages, the quarterfinals were Real Madrid and Manchester United. The first group stage was bombed out byBayern Munich.
AC Milan rode to the title with a run of amazing results: They beat Inter on the road in the semis and then beat Ajax in the quarterfinals with a goal in the last minute.
The historic powers are playing for the title. Two huge English clubs are leading the way in the rankings, along with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. This feels pretty familiar, doesn't it? Aside from a few obvious exceptions, this feels familiar.
While acknowledging that the sport was already moving toward oligarchy before the arrival of Abramovich and a couple of nation-states, it is clear to see a few changes that were at least sped up by the addition of Abu Dhabi.
Here is the current top 15. The average ratings from 1979 to 2003 are in parentheses, and each team's ranking on that list is in parentheses.
1. The second place team isLiverpool.
2. The first one.
3. Manchester City is in the middle of the pack.
4. The club has a 39th place ranking.
5. Real Madrid is fourth.
6T. Barcelona is in the sixth position.
6T. Inter Milan is on the 11th.
There are 8. It was the 28th.
There are 9. It's the fifth place.
10. The Paris Saint-Germain team won the 56th game of the season.
11. The seventh-ranked team is the Arsenal.
There are 12. The 24th is for Atlante Madrid.
13 AC Milan is in the ninth place.
14T. Manchester United is third.
14T. Porto is in the eighth place.
Although some of the clubs on this list have battled ups and downs through the years, 10 of the current top 15 were also among the top 15 clubs in Europe beforeAbramovich arrived on the scene. The three other people on the list kept spending until they joined the club. In their histories, Manchester City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain had combined for five top-division titles, but have since won 17 in the past 11 years.
The spending of these teams has helped to change the top of the sport, as the best teams are far more dominant than they used to be.
They have become too big to fail. The storied club has fallen only to third in LaLiga because of a massive debt issue, but they lost Lionel Messi because of it. A down year for the club no longer means finishing third in the league or failing in the group stage, it means simply winning the league and reaching the quarterfinals of the UCL.
Light-heavyweight clubs can still make the playoffs. Lyon and Atalanta made it to the semifinals in 2020, but does this make them more of a cruiserweight? Sevilla won the Europa League in each of the last eight years, and also took down a lot of big names in the last year, as well as making the playoffs in the last year.
There are fewer upsets in league and continental play than there used to be.
You could make the case that the top of the sport will become even more closed if you don't have the support of the Russian billionaires. Only the ones that bought their way in are new to the ruling class. As fun as it is to take a lower-level club and turn it into a European power on Football Manager or FIFA, the world has rarely been conducive to such a thing and certainly not now.
This appears to be a looking-in-the-mirror moment for the sport as a whole. The rise and fall of the European Super League made the cracks in the sport clear. The venture was tone-deaf considering the power the richest clubs in Europe clearly already hold, but it also illustrated different types of financial strain being suffered at different levels of the sport, as elite clubs outside of England struggle with financial losses from the COVID era.
The redesign of Financial Fair Play appears to be more about limiting spending as a percentage of a team's revenue than it is about bite. Some have suggested that the Premier League should revisit the standards for who can or cannot own clubs, but a simple solution seems unrealistic with the recent approval of the purchase of the club. The rise of ownership groups that treat clubs as assets in a portfolio is creating expectations for a team based on profit and commercial success. That can cause a wedge between clubs and fans.
The sport might be looking in the mirror, but it could very well decide that it can not really change anything. We will see some rich clubs fail, and we will see some light clubs make stirring title or tournament runs. Even among the best and richest clubs, players with unique skill sets and personality will continue making the game worth watching. There is no going back to the pre-champions league or pre-Abramovich days.
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