Plenty of the issues that fans are unhappy with today have been happening since the dawn of organised football (unscrupulous owners, corrupt governing bodies, clubs being used as financial black holes), but there are some things that go on today which are unsatisfactory to my tastes, such as the unbelieveable sums paid out on players in transfer fees, wages, signing on fees and agent's fees by clubs the world over, which breeds a feeling of distance and disconnectedness between the supporters and the clubs themselves. As a Dumbarton supporter, I can meet the club's playing staff around the stadium and chat with them freely as equals. How many Chelsea fans feel on a par with Fernando Torres, should they ever be able to actually get close to him? Add in the fact that Horst Dassler's Adidas and the world governing body FIFA have almost single handedly made the sport open to being sold to the highest bidder on a global scale and you have a recipe for discontent amongst football fans.
The example of Cardiff City having their club colours, crest and nickname changed to try and market them to Malaysia for the sole purpose of profiteering is a bitter pill to swallow, as is the recent fad for clubs being bought and renamed by brands such as the Red Bull franchises. I'm also not very fond of renaming stadia to turn a profit (the Braidwood Motor Co Stadium, the Bet Butler Stadium, the American Express Community Stadium et al) although I do appreciate that it is essential for clubs to generate as much commercial revenue as possible to (a) stay afloat and (b) be competitive amongst their peers. For example, how many lifelong Stirling Albion fans would have been ashamed of their club had the mooted renaming to "Stirling Albion Meerkats" gone ahead, even though it would've given them much needed capital? Thankfully the Albion were able to keep the wolves from the door without resorting to such a measure, though they did rename their stadium to generate sponsorship, but that's an example of an occasion when I can agree that it was merited and was a satisfactory compromise between much-needed revenue injection and preserving the tradition of the club.
Football clubs at all levels can be accused of taking the financial and unconditional support of their customer base for granted and that's certainly an element of the modern sport of football that I find distasteful.
On the other side of the coin, you have the Champions League, which whilst it is no longer actually a cup competition reserved solely for champions as its predecessor was, it has traded that exclusivety for higher levels of competitiveness, greater financial reward and a better spectacle for football fans. The glamour and financial rewards of Champions League football have lent themselves to more competitive domestic competitions as clubs strive to reach that level and the benefits that it brings.
The Financial Fair Play regulations will go some way to curing some of the ills which the game suffers from currently, but only if clubs are unable to get around it with loopholes such as being heavily sponsored by companies owned by their sugar daddies etc. otherwise the exercise has been nothing more than posturing on the part of the game's governing bodies.
Another aspect of the modern era that doesn't sit well with me personally is the Sky generation of replica shirted fans buying any piece of club branded memorabilia and turning up to games in jester hats waving plastic flags and paying £60 for a ticket, but that is symptomatic of the greater issues of over-exposure, over spending and over commercialisation. Sunderland recently sent a formal notice to a pub close to the Stadium of Light telling them to take down their Sunderland memorabilia as they are not an official club outlet. That is when the relentless commercialisation of the sport has gone too far and the monetary gain has become more important than the impact of negative press to a club's support. Niall Quinn bemoaned when he was Sunderland chairman that they were unable to sell out the Stadium of Light as there were pubs within the city which showed unlicensed streams of Sunderland's Premier League matches on large screens and that this was keeping prospective supporters from attending their games.
A better question than "why are fans staying in pubs rather than attending matches?" is this; why do Sunderland, a team who have never finished higher than 7th in the Premier League, require a stadium which is the 5th largest in England? If they are unable to fill the ground, the answer surely lies closer to home? But then, when you gain enough financial income from television contracts and sponsorship to be concerned about whether a local public house may be displaying your club logos without your permission, then who needs to look at the real issues?
Sooner or later, the footballing financial bubble bursts as many clubs have found over the years and, for better or worse, those clubs who did not form bonds with their communities or allowed themselves to become more concerned with profitability than with meeting the needs of their own customers will find themselves cast into a financial struggle which they are ill prepared to bounce back from.
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A lot of salient points. I would say two things, firstly Fernando Torres lives in a very insular bubble and we only get to know him through reductive sports journalism. I'm friendly with a Major League Baseball player of some repute. He recently offered to buy me a pint when I'm next in the US. The footballers we speak to - even at Ross County - aren't really in that same bubble. The other point about fans staying in is the prohibitive cost. I learned today that tickets for ICT vs Celtic are £30, and Hearts vs Hibs tickets are £35. For the quality on offer? No thanks. It's not like music, where I recall paying less than twenty quid a pop for a ticket to see Radiohead back in the day. Same ticket now would cost double at least. With music you can guarantee a quality product. In the SPL you can't.
ReplyDeleteNiall Quinn misses the point, though not maliciously so. Fans aren't going to the pub to watch games instead of going to the stadium. They're staying away because the price is prohibitive. Those fans are lost to the game, unless prices come down. You could close all the pubs down and attendances wouldn't go up. That's a false dichotomy.
As for the stadiums, I'd rather watch a game in the new GES than the old Jail End, it's a far better view and far more enjoyable experience. 6,000's more than enough. We can sell it out and on most days get a big enough crowd to not make it look stupid. It's the lower end English sides who have wasted their cash on super arenas with no concept of how to fill them.
Well said, thanks A.
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