Britain’s essential utilities, airports, much of the rail network and even steel manufacturing have all slipped almost unnoticed into foreign ownership.
But when overseas investors start snapping up Premiership football clubs all hell breaks out.
The Sun likened the new American owners of Liverpool to the two wrinklies in The Muppets while Radio Five Live’s Nicky Campbell orchestrated a studio piss-take because one of them used the word franchise instead of club to describe their acquisition.
Gosh wow. We did Tomayto/ Tomarto a long time ago - Get over it. These people have money and expertise in running successful sports teams. It’s only when either one of them (or in the case of our very own British Mark Goldberg, both) is missing that we have a problem.
The Premier League is the most international in the world and most of the time the English are proud of that. So what’s the problem with foreign owners, so long as they tick the boxes of commitment and probity.
The Americans who now own English teams all have significant track records and self-interest in building the value of their investment.
If we can allow the French to own the railways and water supply, the Germans to dish out electricity and the Spanish to control UK airports, letting a highly qualified American lose on Aston Villa should be the last of anybody’s worries. What happened to perspective?
