Love thy neighbour

As England gears up to present its bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, cities across the country have begun jockeying for position as host venues for games that will be played if the Finals are awarded to England. Thus far, it appears that 18 cities and 25 stadiums have presented themsleves as possible host venues. Amongst them are Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion, in a show of an almost unprecedented nature. Aston Villa's home, Villa Park is being proposed as a game venue while St Andrews (City) and the Hawthorns (Albion) are being proposed as training session and training camp hosts. This collaborative strategy is as rerfreshing as it is surprising, especially as football clubs in other parts of the country are going head-to-head with each other in what some might see as a zero-sum game. Given that Villa, City and Albion are normally fierce adversaries, why is it that they have decided to approach 2018 in this way? Does the collaboration mark a genuine change in the model of relationship formation/management normally evident elsewhere in football? And if clubs can collaborate in such a way, then what potential might there be for them to collaborate in other ways? Could they open regionally branded retail outlets? Could they share training facilities? Could they engage in cross-promotion and selling? Could there be ways in which fans and customers are retained more effectively? And what might be the advantages and disadvantages of operating in this way? Does 2018 therefore provide an opportunity, at least in this case, for the West Midlands to create a family brand, within which there are three other brands, each coordinating with and working for one another? Or is this a rather optimistic view of a functional, possibly even a fractious, relationship?