Firstly, I want to address the many of you out there who have used the term "Reclaim the Game". I promise you, myself and others who contribute to this blog, came up with that name completely independently but we think it appropriate to the current situation in the game of football. And we think it scams well. So I hope if your views are the same as ours, you will contact us with your comments and not see us as any sort of competition.
I should start by saying I know nothing about blogging. I've never written one before but myself and a fellow football lover who shall be known as Zed for the purposes of this blog (for he will be contributing much himself) feel that this will be a key season for the game of football. Our slant is chiefly from an England perspective but many of our observations and comments apply all over the world. If football and the powers that run the game fail to address some important issues that face the game today, we believe it will die as a sport. So, at the start of a brand new season I have started this blog which will help me focus my observations on a sport that I love, and have loved for nearly 40 years. It may contain humour and it may contain serious stuff but, most of all, it will focus on the game of football from the standpoint of the ordinary supporter and the way in which the game we helped to build is kicking us in the teeth. We intend to to do more than just writing about it through a number of initiatives that will be talked about in the coming months. But in the meantime, I want to spell out below why I think we are being led down a road that will definitely help make a few people rich, will not meet the needs of the ordinary supporter and that will lead to the death of the game.
So what's our beef?
Look at how much we are being asked to pay to watch the game both at the grounds and on TV. This is to satisfy enormous wage demands by players and to pay the numerous unnecessary middlemen and agents that are lining their pockets at our expense. The media have bigged this season up more than ever and yet I don't know why they think we should be so excited. We now have to subscribe to yet another TV channel, Setanta, to watch all the live games in addition to Sky. This has been sold to us in the name of competition. But this is not competition. This is holding fans to ransom. What's more, those of us who choose to pay the ludicrous price of tickets to watch matches live are being asked to travel at ever more ridiculous times; battling with replacement bus services and Sunday engineering works just to satisfy the kick off times imposed by TV companies. In case you hadn't realised, this is for their benefit not ours. I don't have any children to take to matches. God help you and your bank balance if you do.
Is there any reason why your club cannot show your game on a Saturday afternoon on TV on a pay-per-view basis? We don’t think so but it needs to be debated. There's no reason why the revenue shouldn't still be shared out among all the clubs. But if you think about it, that benefits us the supporters and not the viewing figures of a couple of TV companies.
The latest TV deal has meant there has never been so much money in the game; especially in England. The vast sums of money from TV that are flooding into the FA do not seem to be making their way into grass roots football to help lower league clubs or develop players. Players and their agents make ever increasing demands on clubs to pay ever increasing wage bills that we the fans must meet. Meanwhile, they become ever more removed from those fans and don't realise that we don't take them half as seriously as they seem to do.
Fewer English players are making the grade than ever. Why? Because too much is being pocketed by too few and money is not helping to develop the game in this country. Year after year, tournament after tournament, we have to put up with an under-achieving England team while the FA exhibits complete incompetence in their ability to spend this money properly. Meanwhile, more and more foreign players are flooding into the game for the huge wages on offer here. There's a good argument to say that if a home player is good enough, they'll come through. But without a positive action to develop more of those players and make that happen, it simply won't. The FA haven't even been able to start an academy successfully for young English players. And, as English players become considered a premium, so their wage demands outway the talent they contribute and their worth to the club.
Foreign billionaires are picking off clubs like vultures. Just because they manage to wear a scarf around their necks for the first game after they have bought your club, does not mean they have supporters’ or clubs’ interests at heart. They are big businessmen who see clubs as undervalued and a chance to make significant money. At whose expense? Well, you know the answer to that. Look at a club with the tradition and passion of Liverpool. Supporters appeared delighted to welcome in foreign owners who referred to the club as a "franchise" because they saw it as a chance to spend big and maybe compete with the Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas. Yes, Liverpool FC embracing American owners like they were long lost uncles. Manchester City have welcomed a man who is likely to be under arrest in his native Thailand for fraud very soon; for exactly the same reason. This big spending bonanza is not good for us no matter how much our club spends. Because come the day when the new owner has made his money and they choose to get out of football they will. And what will happen when it comes to the point where the money and stakes are so high that to lose a game means the loss of huge amounts of money? Cheating; Bribery; Drugs; Banning relegation or promotion? Who knows? This is the road we are being forced down and I for one believe it is the beginning of the end for football both at Premiership and lower league levels.
I could go on and on. You probably think I have already but I don't want my first post to be just a rant. But be sure, we are being exploited for our loyalty. When you become a football fan, you're in it for the long haul and the powers that run the game know it. Whether it is Fifa's ludicrous ticket allocation to England fans in the World Cup or clubs increasing prices year after year, they know that they can continue to push us to the limit.
I'm saying we should Reclaim the Game for our own. For it is our own. I believe we can do it too and I would welcome your views for or against. In due course I shall be working on ideas that I have to do exactly that.
My further observations on football in 2007 will continue here.
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