Have Manchester United taken a small nip from the hand that feeds it? Setanta wanted to move United’s home fixture against Everton to eight o’clock on Christmas Eve in order to make use of a prime viewing slot. By refusing to ‘play ball’ United have struck a minor blow for the ground-visiting supporter. For all we know Everton may have chosen to refuse also but, by all accounts, Sir Alex gave Setanta such short shrift that it never even came down to them to make a choice. But it is only a minor blow and don’t think for one moment that RTG is suggesting that clubs are going to start fighting back against TV companies in the interests of their fans.
There are, of course, problems for supporters associated with trying to travel on Christmas Eve. There are problems, too, for the police faced with rival Merseyside and Manchester supporters enjoying a spot of pre-Christmas bingeing on what is already a busy night for them. And, credit where credit is due - players come in for a fair amount of stick for the amount they earn these days but shouldn’t they at least have Christmas Eve free in what is a hectic period in the Premiership schedule?
It pains RTG to think that TV companies have so little respect now for supporters that they were even prepared to contemplate this. It has already been discussed here in previous posts how TV revenue is gradually growing in importance over gate receipts as a proportion of a club’s turnover. And, as it continues to take on greater and greater significance, we might even expect to see Christmas Day fixtures let alone Christmas Eve.
The Premiership as a ‘product’ continues to grow in popularity the world over. The need to look after the wishes of the supporters in the stadium, therefore, diminishes. We have already seen Manchester United and Arsenal happily play their recent fixture at the Emirates at 12:45pm on a Saturday while Vietnamese beer commercials flashed up all around the pitch. It was predicted (RTG doesn’t know whether rightly or wrongly) that one billion people would watch that game on TV. Given those kinds of numbers, an attendance of 60,000 inside the stadium starts to seem fairly insignificant.
Furthermore, as the needs of worldwide TV viewing figures begin to take centre stage, so competitive sport will begin to be compromised. How long will it be before a team winning fairly comfortably brings on a Chinese, Indian or Korean player, for the last 10 minutes, purely to boost TV revenues? Player decisions will increasingly be made for commercial reasons. Impossible? Well, just look at the case of Brazilian player, Giovanni, who, was not only a surprise pick for the 1998 World Cup squad, but he also played in the first game against Scotland to satisfy a commercial commitment with Nike. He was substituted at half-time and was never seen again for the rest of the tournament. Ronaldo was evidently not fit to play in the final that year, for whatever reason, and yet the idea of him not taking the field was unacceptable to the sponsors. And, you might question why England took an unfit David Beckham to Japan in 2002. Shirt sales, perhaps, ahead of the construction of the New Wembley? Trust RTG on this one. You ain’t seen nothing yet!
If fixture times can be moved to accommodate TV, is it not also feasible that we may soon see, for example, Liverpool versus Manchester United played in Beijing or New York? That may seem ridiculous to football supporters now but so did the idea of changing kick off times to Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons and Friday nights once upon a time. In fact, the idea of only one match in the top division being played at 3pm on a Saturday would have seemed like nonsense.
In its recent study of the globalisation of sport, The Observer pointed to research that showed that the armchair TV fan is more open to the idea of switching allegiances from team to team. Anyone who has watched a game in a bar in the Far East can clearly see this process in action. The truth is it suits the franchising model for exactly that to happen. Supporters who get uppity at clubs who threaten the tradition and makeup of the team they have followed since they were a kid are not what the modern club owner wants to see going forward. Fickle TV viewers who are prepared to come on board when their favourite star player moves to their club. Now that makes far more financial sense!
Reclaim the Game - The Weekend's Events
- An interesting development taking place at Arsenal where three of the club's season ticket holders are suing their own club for racist chanting at the Emirates stadium. Arsenal fans have long held out that the word 'Yid' is just a nickname for Spurs fans who use the term themselves. The supporters - a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian, beg to differ. A far cry indeed from the days when nicking over the fence was the only way you could get back at your club financially! Supporters these days are clearly too educated and too well-heeled to stop at that.
- A football fan was shot by a policeman in Italy at the weekend during a fight between Lazio and Juve fans. The match was subsequently postponed. Other games in Serie A kicked off ten minutes late as a mark of respect while games between Roma and Catania and Atalanta and Milan were abandoned due to rioting. Far be it from English fans to start getting sniffy about this. Anyone who goes to watch football here knows that hooliganism still goes on but tends not to get reported. But, Italy has ignored or chosen not to confront this problem for too long. Three Middlesbrough fans were stabbed during a UEFA Cup quarter final and dozens of Manchester United fans were injured during their Champions League match with Roma while the police chose to look on or baton charge those fans actually being attacked. Instead of condemning this, the Italian authorities chose to get really defensive about it instead. Italy has contributed too much to the game to allow this to go on and someone in authority needs to start taking action rather than burying their heads in the sand any longer. Playing games behind closed doors and over zealous rules and regulations rules are not what we want to see in European matches. Supporters should be able to enjoy the experience of travelling abroad to games without being in fear of their lives.
- Are the pressures of anchoring mid-week games starting to show on Jeff Stelling? Not only does he not excel at this role (being only marginally better than the infuriatingly bad Richard Keys) but his performance on Gillette Soccer Saturday was less than exemplorary this weekend. Apparently Ware is now in Herefordshire not Hertfordshire and Dagenham and Richmond....sorry....Hampton and Redbridge....sorry...what? Well you get the point. Come on Jeff, you are the guiding light in the tawdry world of Sky Sports. Don't get complacent now!
Hat's Off - Take a Bow (or not)!
Player of the Week - Gabriel Agbonlahor. Who says one player can't change a match? Cleared off the line in the 'Second City' (as it now seems to be called) derby while the score was 1-1. Went almost immediately up the other end and scored the winner for Villa. And as the media love to remind us, "he's English you know".
Hero of the Week - Torquay United. The only non-league team to defeat a league team (and one two divisons above them to boot). Not only that, they did it in style with a 4-1 thrashing. Oh the magic of the FA Cup!
Villain of the Week - Joey Barton. Fairly obvious why when you look at his high tackle on Sunderland's Dickson Etuhu and perhaps, worringly, the fact that were stories of racism banded around when he left City. Our Joey just doesn't seem to want to put his chequered past behind him and move on. He has as much trouble shaking off controversy as his brother does his ball and chain.
Shock of the Week - Liverpool 8 Besiktas 0. Time was when all English teams used to get a bit 'brown underpants' about the idea of playing Turkish teams in Europe. Now it seems a below par Liverpool can see them off at a canter.
Cliche of the Week - 'Israel Do Have A Lot To Play For' and other similar statements of mindless optimism churned out by the press who are struggling to come to terms with the idea that they may have to spend summer with their families rather than on the lash in Austria and Switzerland.
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