Why do people want to own a Barclays Premier League football club? For dodgy plutocrats like Abramovich, it must simply be another expression of their stadium-sized ego – to go with the super-yacht.
For companies though, there are other agendas at play.
Take Venky’s (India) Limited, the new owners of Blackburn Rovers, one of the founding clubs of the football league. From the off, the chicken producers made it clear that Rovers was part of their plan to build its brand across the Indian sub-continent.
How? Well, apparently, by turning a football club that has won the Premiership title once (back in 1995) into Champions League material. Out went manager ‘Big Sam’ Allardyce – now doing very nicely thank you at West Ham – in comes the ruddy-faced Steve Kean.
Result? Rovers are currently propping up the Premier League and Kean probably has more points on his driving licence than the club he supposedly manages.
Adding insult to injury is the Venky’s TV commercial. Not seen it? Of course not. So here you go:
The commercial makes no attempt at realism. It kicks off with the players standing in a circle, crossing themselves over plates of Venky’s chicken products.
There are a few shots of dressing room messing about as the footballers who could afford to eat in Michelin-starred restaurants every day, tuck into the owner’s lurid poultry products.
"GOOD FOR YOU" is the Venky’s strapline. Oh, the irony. Certainly the ad has divided opinion among the fans. Letters to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph find the Ewood Park faithful either hanging their heads in shame or shrugging their shoulders at "a bit of fun".
For most, their concerns are closer to the turf, with an upcoming demo demanding the Indian family behind Venky’s sack Kean.
As for the ad itself? Who knows how it will go down in India? Maybe they find Christian symbolism, non-acting and low-budget films quaint. I can only guess.
Every football club has its problems. Who’d have thought that rubbish food commercials would ever be one of them?