A long and boring open letter to NESV that they will never read

Dear NESV

The true value of LFC is not the stadium, the players, the TV deals, or even the trophies. It’s the brand and the global recognition and competitive business advantage that goes with it. As the owners of Liverpool FC, I assume you would consider that one of your principal focuses should be to effectively manage brand value. If so, then there are some things you need to understand.

Football is not baseball.

American is not the world.

And Liverpool FC is not Arsenal FC.

This Is Anfield. Fernando Torres. Steven Gerrard. They’re all brands in their own right. And they all contribute to the allure of the overall Liverpool brand. But above else the brand is three little letters – LFC, And that brand was built by the supporters. With the help and leadership of a few good men — men like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, we created the brand that is Liverpool FC and we are a vital part of that brand.

It simply wouldn’t exist without us. The Twelfth Man. The Kop. The Murderers. The Victims Of Hillsborough. More than anything else, in a weird circle-of-life way, the supporters of Liverpool FC are both its core brand and its core customer base. The affinity we feel for the brand is the brand. We are the tradition and unique selling point of Liverpool FC. Do not under-estimate the importance of this truth. Sincerely, we’re the reason people all over the world want to be part of the Liverpool family, to be part of our “brand community”. Because – and you should trust me on this one – we’re not the same as everybody else. We’re the wild-hearted outsiders. We are Anfield.

We can quibble over details, like Cuba and Japan, but essentially baseball is an American game. No-one else much cares. Just like helmetball. You can use all the global media marketing and cross-promotional bullshit that you can bring to bear, it doesn’t matter. The rest of the world doesn’t really care. Those games say nothing to us about our lives. And if rap music hadn’t promoted the baseball cap internationally, no-one would care at all. Baseball isn’t rock’n’roll or Coca Cola.

Here I was tempted to say, by way of contrast, that Liverpool FC is the Beatles. But we aren’t. We’re Bob Dylan. Think about it.

America’s favourite past-time is supported by a population of 300M and the world’s largest consumer economy. The Boston Red Sox brand has a strong tradition and history. But it enjoys a privileged position in a static market that is protected by a long and close mutualist relationship with the media. And the nearest rival for local supporter’s affections is 200 miles away. Do you know how many Premier League football teams can be found within 50 miles of Anfield?

I’m not suggesting that local Liverpool supporters would turn their backs on LFC and begin to support other sides. It simply doesn’t happen like that. However, the loyalty of the long distance supporter has yet to be evaluated and new football supporters – whether they live locally or in Singapore or Bangalore or Shanghai – are not exactly starved of choice. Meanwhile many traditional supporters have already been priced out of the stadium and others are feeling increasingly disenchanted and disenfranchised — a phenomenon that will effect merchandising as much as ticket sales and that will continue to eat at the strength of your brand.

As they tell us repeatedly, the English Premier League is a strong brand, but it’s not the only one. And Liverpool, like Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and others, is a brand that’s capable of transcending petty national boundaries and collective bargaining agreements alike. The LFC brand is that strong.

But the brand is in danger, and not because of a few embarrassingly bad performances on the field. The problems run much deeper.

Accept for a moment, the hypothesis that the supporters are the brand – you can validate it later, maybe ask Joe Januszewski? Well, the relationship between the supporters and the club has been deeply damaged, primarily by the ownership of Hicks & Gillet. You know this, of course. You’ve all done sterling work to begin to address it. But not enough.

In a curious way, the epic swindle that removed Hicks & Gillet also removed the common enemy that was keeping the supporters largely united. Now the bond of unity between supporters has begun to unravel. Things are falling apart. The centre may not hold.

The good news is that as supporters we are prepared to dig deep and remain faithful so long, I believe, as the custodians of the club honour our history and our traditions. The bad news is that in Roy Hodgson, you have a manager who does neither.

There is a story – perhaps a fable – about a very successful football club called Leeds United and a very successful football manager called Brian Clough. Clough was appointed to succeed Don Revie, the manager who built Leeds up to be one of the most powerful in Europe. At his first team meeting, Clough told his new players, Don Revie’s players, to throw all their hard-won medals into the trash because they were won by cheating and ugly football. 44 days later, Clough was fired. Leeds has never been a true football power since.

The point of the story is that Clough had no respect for the history or traditions of his new club.

Brian Clough was a remarkably successful football manager. Following the debacle at Leeds he went on to win two successive European Cups with the far from wealthy or glamorous Nottingham Foreset. If Dan Quayle was no Jack Kennedy, then Roy Hodgson is no Brian Clough. And yet Roy Hodgson is our Brian Clough.

We are the wild-hearted outsiders who need to bond with our manager and our players in a battle against the rest of the world. Hodgson’s addicted to media and peer approval and considers us to be, at best, an audience and, at worst, a nuisance .

We expect to win. He’s scared of losing.

We love talented, attacking footballers. He prefers effective automatons.

We call a spade a fucking shovel. He calls it a metallicized digging implement with an extended handular leverage structure and will talk for 45 minutes about how he invented it 35 years ago in Sweden.

I could go on. And on. And on. But I imagine you are all being inundated with complaints about Hodgson, so I won’t. I shall simply say that:

– You should listen to supporters, not the media. The media has no love of Liverpool FC and conspired at the appointment of Hodgson. They have a corpse in their mouth.

– You should protect the value of your brand – the reputation of the relationship between supporters and club. The foundations took decades to build. The edifice can be toppled in a matter of weeks, And rebuilding it – if possible – will be a lengthy and costly exercise.

Of course, you don’t have to respect our history, our traditions, our supporters and the immense contribution we make to the brand. There are other ways to manage the business that is Liverpool FC. Other ways to succeed. You can rebrand us if you like. But ask yourself, how did that work for Coca Cola in 1985? If you don’t want to own Liverpool Classic, why didn’t you just buy Blackburn, or Portsmouth?

Love and kisses