While football might not actually be a matter more important than life or death, despite Bill Shankly’s immortal words, those who have little interest in Bradford City’s storming cup run might give pause and consider that 22 men chasing a ball around a rectangle of grass could have more wide-ranging impact than they at first believe.

Scenes of jubilant football fans cheering their hearts out after Bradford’s win over Aston Villa in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup are good for the soul, of course.

It’s nice when Bradford is in the news for something positive. The fabled and elusive feelgood factor descends upon the city, at least for a while.

But what if footballing success could have genuine, concrete and long-lasting positive effects for the Bradford district?

Perhaps surprisingly, a lot of thought has been devoted over the years to deciding that this is, in fact, the case.

In 2010, the body Supporters Direct commissioned a report entitled The Social and Community Value of Football. This report looked at good practice at football clubs across the country and tried to work out whether the presence of clubs in towns and cities was a positive influence on the community.

The report said: “Clubs are social institutions as well as financial and sporting ones, something that dates back to their origins as one of the principal agents through which collective social identities were created and reinforced.”

Following England’s hosting of the Euro 96 championships, three years later in 1999 a report on the economic impact of football on the Merseyside economy was published. Granted, Merseyside has long been host to two top-flight clubs, Liverpool and Everton, but even then the figures were startling:

  • In the region of 3,000 full-time jobs in the Merseyside economy dependent on the football industry
  • 1,400 part-time jobs of those working for the clubs on match days
  • For every 100 jobs in the retail sector around the two grounds, five are dependent on match days
  • For every 100 jobs in the clubs' suppliers, nine are dependent on the trade the firm has with the clubs
  • For every £1 spent by the two clubs combined, 31 pence remains within the local Liverpool economy Similarly, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) in 2011 also produced its own report into the social, economic and community impact of the presence of football clubs in Scottish towns and cities.

The report said: “As a nation passionate about football, our elite clubs also make an important contribution to the local and national economy. By trading with local businesses, stimulating local area spend on match day and through the building and development of new facilities, SPL clubs make a tangible impact.”

David Glen, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and author of the annual financial review of Scottish Football added: “SPL clubs have a significant impact on the economy, ranging from their direct spend and creation of employment opportunities to the considerable indirect impact from their supporters’ matchday expenditure within the community.”

So football clubs can be a major boon to the economy and the community... but a note of caution has been sounded about when football clubs get too big.

Also in 2011, Stephen Temple, a Chartered Accountant who had been working with the Watford Supporters’ Trust when Watford FC skirted the edges of administration in 2009, was asked to report to Parliament by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the governance of clubs.

The triggers for the enquiry he was participating in were outcries surrounding Premiership clubs Liverpool and Manchester, and the ownership of them that left fans disgruntled. When clubs are so successful that they become valuable resources to be traded on the international financial stage, what of the fans and the wider community?

Temple told Parliament: “The recent history of the game contains numerous examples of club owners taking excessive financial risks and creating emotional and financial burden on local businesses, communities and the fanbase.

“These incidents have led to the establishment of a number of supporters’ organisations which recognise that local communities and fans of football clubs have been and will be around for longer than the owners of the clubs themselves.”

So if Bradford City wins the Capital One Cup next month and builds on their success by climbing back up the leagues, then who knows what benefits could accrue for all of us.