Leicester City and the lesson learned

This time last year Leicester City Football Club was scrambling to avoid being relegated from the top-flight English Premier League to the lower Championship tier. Now they’re the Premier League champions – for the first time in the club’s history – and with two games to spare at that. In a realm where miracles are more often yearned for than made, this is authentic sporting magic. 

 And yet, to say Leicester City’s victory has anything to do with “fairytales” is utterly inaccurate, as well as being an insult to the coaches and players. Despite much talk of the players being “blessed” by a Thai monk and wearing lucky amulets, this was neither a miracle nor a fairytale. It was sheer talent, hard work and brilliant team spirit that produced consistently good results. 

The Foxes, as they're known, surged to the title after 10 straight wins in away games, a rare achievement that scrubbed any jeers about their league triumph being a fluke. Nor did they clinch the title with a last-gasp goal, as Manchester City did at the end of the 2013-14 season. Manchester City, one of the wealthiest clubs, were favoured to win again this time, but the Foxes crushed them on their own turf. Before that they vanquished titleholders Chelsea on their pitch.

When the Foxes gate-crashed the Premier League’s top four, the pundits scoffed at their lack of experience and doubted they could hold their nerve in the final stretch. But the team, owned by a Thai business group, proved there was still room for romance in a “beautiful game” long diminished by big money. They prevailed with surprising determination, demonstrating that the overflowing war chests and players paid astronomical salaries were inconsequential when ability and guts were in abundance. The victory of a squad of modest budget and a relative inexpensive line-up of talent has been rightfully hailed as the biggest event in the game in decades.

Leicester City players cost 54.5 million pounds (Bt2.8 billion) this season, far less than the earnings of others competing for the title – eight times less than Manchester City pays its men and three times less than Tottenham Hotspurs. Given the inequitable shares of wealth, the Foxes looked like sure losers. Meanwhile their coach, Claudio Ranieri, was written off as a has-been, his roster appeared haphazard and there seemed to be no one on the bench worth summoning if the starting 11 faltered. 

When the season began, odds-makers said there was a 5,000-1 chance of Elvis Presley being found alive this year – and of Leicester City winning the Premier League. “Elvis is yet to turn up,” Britain’s Telegraph newspaper wryly noted. 

What is a safe bet, now, is that Leicester City’s triumph will never be surpassed. The temptation at the moment is to believe it will somehow cure football of its chief ailments. A Cinderella story like this one is sure to have that effect, and yet the sport could indeed be at a turning point. Football has become too much of a business in which fiscal dealings are to be tolerated rather than a game to be enjoyed untethered from thoughts of big money. The grand competition now is in bidding highest for the superstar players, and fans abet the situation by demanding that their teams spend more to bring in the goal-makers. The needed money gushes from shirt sales, broadcast rights and ticket fees.

Big spending has, for the most part, been the proven means to achieving success, the corollary being that lack of cash translates into low rankings. Leicester City, with their relatively small stadium and inexpensive players, have now upended the cart with an unprecedented victory that had fans everywhere back on their feet cheering. Suddenly everyone remembered that the heart of football is in the way 11 players on the pitch perform as a single entity, and the size of the paycheques and the stadiums was, for a moment, forgotten. 

It’s to be hoped that the re-balancing remains in place and fosters a revival for the sport. Having witnessed with our own eyes that vast amounts of money are not essential to success, perhaps we can enjoy the true essence of a game at least a little longer.