Selling Out

Saturday 6th October 2007 was both a remarkable and historic date in the history of English football. The date will not be remembered for any particularly astonishing results or incidents, but for the fact that only one game kicked off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Of course the big wigs at the Premier League protested that games had to be re-arranged because of the involvement of English teams in the UEFA Cup, and there is a certain degree of truth in that argument. However, there can be no escaping the fact that Television schedules are dictating kick-off times: football has become a product, and perhaps more disconcertingly, supporters have become customers.

"This is a matter of great concern," said Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation. He added that: “It's symbolic of the way things are going but the views of the match-going fan seem to be bottom of the list of priorities.”

When the Premier League was launched it was supposed to serve multiple purposes: to improve the performance of the English national team, to attract a new audience to the game, to glamorize the sport and generally give English football the kind of makeover that it desperately needed. The game in this country had its reputation badly tarnished by hooligan problems and an obsession with the long ball tactic. The Premier League was promoted as the antidote to all of footballs ills.

And to an extent it has been the antidote; problems with racism and hooliganism have decreased, there has been an influx of the best foreign talent and the perception of the English game on the continent has certainly improved. However televisions belated realisation that football could be a serious money maker has forever changed the sport, and the FA Premier League, or the “greed is good league” as it has been known, is leading the way.

Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe acknowledges that the commercialisation of the game is coming at the cost of your average match going supporter. He said that football authorities should be more willing to listen to views of the fans: “The Saturday three o'clock kick-off is a great tradition of English football and one that supporters, myself included, would like to see continue.”

Sutcliffe added that a better balance needs to be found between maximising profit and rewarding the loyalty of supporters. “While TV rights have contributed to the success of the Premier League- money from which is now filtering down to lower league and community football- fans concerns’ need to be listened to when fixtures are drawn up,” he said.

This commercialisation has manifested itself in a number of different ways, unfortunately none of which appear to serve the best interests of the supporters or the traditions of the game.

The advent of the Premier League coincided with flotation of a number of top-flight sides on the stock market: proof, if any were needed, that football is officially a business. Consequently an enormous financial chasm has developed between teams at the top of the pyramid and the teams at the bottom. Fixtures have become uncompetitive and the outcomes are often predictable.

The grim reality of the situation is that the game of football has sold itself out.

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