The opening Saturday of the football season was once the most eagerly awaited day of any football supporter’s calendar. At three o’clock precisely on the given Saturday, at 46 different locations around the country, all 92 clubs embarked on their own history-making venture. The paucity of any football news during the summer months, with some broadsheets literally reporting no football news for weeks, only accentuated the drama of a new season. At many clubs, the first sight supporters had of a new summer signing was when he took to the field for the first match. Compare that buzz of anticipation with the modern game where 24 hour, 365 day football coverage has led to such over-exposure that we even know now what the club cat had for its dinner that morning. The mystery and suspense has all but disappeared. Staggered season starts for each league and first games spread over two to three days, to aid TV scheduling, has not lent itself well either to the crescendo of anticipation.
Back then, most home team match programmes would fuel the mindless optimism of both home and away fans. “Every team will be equal at least until 20 to five this afternoon”, they would intone. If the last season had been successful and a trophy (any trophy) had been won, you would bask in its reflected glory for a season or two as a ‘successful’ club. If last season had been woeful, then this one would surely be better, wouldn’t it? For nearly all supporters, there was hope that your team would challenge for honours or promotion, or, at the very least not to be embroiled in another relegation battle.
That was a time when the audacity of hope was reflected in the achievements, and failings, of individual clubs. In the 1960’s and 70’s, eleven different clubs won the English title, two of which were newly promoted, and only one club managed to defend successfully its title. This also included a run of seven different clubs winning the title in seven successive years in the early 1960’s. Contrast this to the four clubs who have won the past 19 top flight titles in England. Northampton Town took five years to gain promotion from the Football League basement to the top level, a similar feat performed, but executed with more success and longevity, by the Wimbledon team of the early 1980’s; culminating in Wimbledon becoming the only team to have won both FA Open and Amateur cup competitions. ‘Smaller clubs’, in particular, were able to foster these hopes, as Derby, Ipswich, QPR and Nottingham Forest’s, among others, proved beyond doubt. Supporters’ dreams therefore were more than just fashioned from pipes.
Nowadays, most supporters are forced to be more realistic about their expectations. After all, they’ve had their team’s prospects raked over and rated for virtually the entire summer by an armada of pundits and writers, not to mention the millions ranting and rambling on the internet (ourselves included). Supporters can see a couple of billionaires spend unlimited amounts of money in attempting to buy honours. A handful of other clubs attempt a futile effort at parity but all are having to deal with the trickle down inflationary effect of these billionaires. More and more clubs are getting into debt in an attempt to maintain their competitiveness. Since the inception of the Premier League, 53 Football League clubs have gone into receivership: 13 of them following relegation from the top level.
Apart from supporters of the two clubs who benefit from their owners’ largesse and maybe a handful of others (for now), most should be worrying about whether their club will still be in existence in a few years time. Gone are the days when supporters could experience that first day of hope beyond hope unless you’re one of those fans that relies on your club finding a billionaire benefactor. No true supporter could surely harbour that dream which is as much a form of cheating as any doped up athlete pounding around a track. The inequities of first the Premier League compared to the Football League, and second, the Champions League compared to the ‘others’ in the Premier League, have created financial chasms that not even the most optimistic of supporters can ever dream of crossing.
And thus we have ended up with a competition where the inevitability of a Chelsea/Manchester City duopoly in the Premier League – not withstanding the sheer bloody mindedness of a certain knighted Scot – will prevail. Add in the possible levels of debt that newly promoted clubs must take on in any vague hope of competing and it’s easy to see why that opening day excitement has vanished, as success and glory have been replaced by more money requirements and more financial insecurities. One season you’re cheering on a cup win, the next you’re battling relegation with points deducted. One season you’re celebrating promotion, two seasons later you’ve had to sell half your team because you can’t afford the inflated wages on lower league revenues. Not much to dream about…..Help us to allow every supporter to dream again. Reclaim the Game.
Back then, most home team match programmes would fuel the mindless optimism of both home and away fans. “Every team will be equal at least until 20 to five this afternoon”, they would intone. If the last season had been successful and a trophy (any trophy) had been won, you would bask in its reflected glory for a season or two as a ‘successful’ club. If last season had been woeful, then this one would surely be better, wouldn’t it? For nearly all supporters, there was hope that your team would challenge for honours or promotion, or, at the very least not to be embroiled in another relegation battle.
That was a time when the audacity of hope was reflected in the achievements, and failings, of individual clubs. In the 1960’s and 70’s, eleven different clubs won the English title, two of which were newly promoted, and only one club managed to defend successfully its title. This also included a run of seven different clubs winning the title in seven successive years in the early 1960’s. Contrast this to the four clubs who have won the past 19 top flight titles in England. Northampton Town took five years to gain promotion from the Football League basement to the top level, a similar feat performed, but executed with more success and longevity, by the Wimbledon team of the early 1980’s; culminating in Wimbledon becoming the only team to have won both FA Open and Amateur cup competitions. ‘Smaller clubs’, in particular, were able to foster these hopes, as Derby, Ipswich, QPR and Nottingham Forest’s, among others, proved beyond doubt. Supporters’ dreams therefore were more than just fashioned from pipes.
Nowadays, most supporters are forced to be more realistic about their expectations. After all, they’ve had their team’s prospects raked over and rated for virtually the entire summer by an armada of pundits and writers, not to mention the millions ranting and rambling on the internet (ourselves included). Supporters can see a couple of billionaires spend unlimited amounts of money in attempting to buy honours. A handful of other clubs attempt a futile effort at parity but all are having to deal with the trickle down inflationary effect of these billionaires. More and more clubs are getting into debt in an attempt to maintain their competitiveness. Since the inception of the Premier League, 53 Football League clubs have gone into receivership: 13 of them following relegation from the top level.
Apart from supporters of the two clubs who benefit from their owners’ largesse and maybe a handful of others (for now), most should be worrying about whether their club will still be in existence in a few years time. Gone are the days when supporters could experience that first day of hope beyond hope unless you’re one of those fans that relies on your club finding a billionaire benefactor. No true supporter could surely harbour that dream which is as much a form of cheating as any doped up athlete pounding around a track. The inequities of first the Premier League compared to the Football League, and second, the Champions League compared to the ‘others’ in the Premier League, have created financial chasms that not even the most optimistic of supporters can ever dream of crossing.
And thus we have ended up with a competition where the inevitability of a Chelsea/Manchester City duopoly in the Premier League – not withstanding the sheer bloody mindedness of a certain knighted Scot – will prevail. Add in the possible levels of debt that newly promoted clubs must take on in any vague hope of competing and it’s easy to see why that opening day excitement has vanished, as success and glory have been replaced by more money requirements and more financial insecurities. One season you’re cheering on a cup win, the next you’re battling relegation with points deducted. One season you’re celebrating promotion, two seasons later you’ve had to sell half your team because you can’t afford the inflated wages on lower league revenues. Not much to dream about…..Help us to allow every supporter to dream again. Reclaim the Game.
