A Far, Foreign Land
As someone whose Liverpool journey began in the 2004/2005 season, I’ve always had a special affection for Steven Gerrard. My last year of middle school was marked by his instrumental role in our miraculous comeback in Istanbul. Conversely, my last year of college was marked by his famous slip being punished by Demba Ba. My first year of law school ended with him leaving the club. Having traveled such a distance with Gerrard, who for much of his playing career was seen as everything good and pure about modern soccer, I often find myself wishing him well even as he slips further into the land of darkness.
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Familiar Man In A Strange Land
As an unhesitating partisan of Celtic, to the point of considering them a second team, it was heartbreaking to see Gerrard move from Liverpool’s youth academy to the wrong side of the Old Firm. Seeing him land back in the Premier League at the helm of Aston Villa, albeit brief, was a letdown. Gerrard’s move to Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League sadly shattered the mythos around him. Going from hometown hero who soldiered on with his boyhood club against the lure of big money to one of the best-paid icons of Saudi sportswashing is a hell of a fall from grace.
Al-Ettifaq’s choice of Gerrard was, by all appearances, a branding decision rather than a sporting one. Gerrard was chosen less on record but more as a marketable face to raise the prestige of the Pro League. It is perhaps not surprising then that in the face of increasingly disappointing results and intense fan discontent, Gerrard’s firing seems to be completely off the table for now. Al-Ettifaq’s run of poor form, drawing a single point from seven games at the time of writing, has led to grumblings from supporters searching for answers. Some have gone so far as to say that lingering affection for his old club is to blame. Reports have surfaced of Gerrard neglecting training in favor of watching Liverpool games on television.
In Two Places At Once
Gerrard has admitted to scheduling training around Liverpool games. But it’s almost certainly not true that he’s doing it at the expense of his job performance. But the rumor speaks to the level of anger at a manager perceived to be underperforming his massive contract. A winless seven games and a disgraceful exit from a major cup tournament at the hands of a second-tier side is the kind of thing that would put a manager’s job in danger. Indeed, John Barnes, another Liverpool alum, was summarily sacked by Celtic under very similar circumstances. However, an inside source has asserted that Gerrard’s job is safe…for now. Why? Because the league does not want a high-profile firing to coincide with a Saudi Pro League propaganda film coming out later this month.
On some level, the mercenary logic that controls Gerrard’s fate is entirely predictable. When you live by the dollar, you die by the dollar. Massively lucrative contracts serve merely as chips in the long gamble. The Saudi Kingdom is hoping to launder its international reputation through sport. The unconscionable level of money pumped into Gerrard’s signing is ultimately rooted in one simple fact. Neither the league nor the state-owned club he works for see him as anything more than a ticket to buy their way into legitimacy.
The nearly $20 million contract represents little more than Gerrard’s brand value. He will continue to serve that purpose until his brand is deemed to be no longer worth the investment. It’s a far cry from the culture that birthed Gerrard. He stoked a culture that banded together to resist and overthrow the attempts of rapacious billionaires Gillett and Hicks to turn the football club into a country club.
Not One To Talk
It has been suggested that Liverpool supporters have no room to decry this reality of modern soccer. As one of the richest clubs/global brands in the world, we have no business pretending to any higher principle. Moreover, it is said that our prejudice around Gulf states being involved in global soccer is because we fear disruption. The injection of oil money into new contenders will shatter our sense of dominance. There is perhaps something to be said of that notion. The modern economic environment, particularly concerning global soccer, means that everyone competing at the highest levels is to some extent guilty of sportswashing.
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Even so, the hypercapitalist environment of the Saudi Pro League shows the commercial logic of modern soccer on overdrive. It is a stern warning of what will inevitably happen if it is allowed to accelerate elsewhere unchecked. Acknowledging that the current environment is inherently exploitative does not mean we should turn a blind eye to how the Saudi government is using its vast sums of money to leverage that exploitative character for anti-humanitarian purposes.
The lesson to be taken from this is hopefully not rank whataboutism. Instead, Liverpool supporters should, as they historically have been, not be hesitant to vehemently oppose the money behind even their own club it if clashes with our values. As Saudi buyers eye both the club and our greatest players, watching a Liverpool legend get chewed up and spit out by the money machine that is the Pro League should be all the indication of what is at stake if we choose not to do so.
