The convention that football in England is played on a
Saturday afternoon, kicking off at three o'clock, stems from the game's early
days in Victorian times when for players, officials and spectators, the working
week ended at Saturday lunchtime. The
strength of the church, The Lord's Day Observance Society (LDOS) and the tradition that Sunday be a day of rest
precluded organised football on the Sabbath. With the decline in influence of the church
and the LDOS it is probable that if football were in its infancy now, Sunday would more likely be the preferred day
for the majority of games. The advent of
the Premier League and Sky Sports broadcasting of live games in 1992 brought
live Sunday football on TV; then we got live Monday night football, live
Saturday lunchtime football, live Saturday tea-time football and from next
season we are going to get live Friday night football.
The demands of television and the complicity of the football
authorities bring problems for the fans that have been well documented.
Inconvenient kick-off times combined with long journeys for instance. In this
season's FA Cup, Liverpool's tie at Exeter City was switched to Friday night
for the benefit of the broadcasters. Ludicrously, Liverpool fans who wished to
travel by rail found that their last train home left Exeter before the game
had even kicked off! The switch, and the inconvenience to the travelling
Liverpool fans, was justified by broadcasters on the basis that it was " no different to their visits to
Swansea on a Monday night in the Premier League and a Wednesday trip to
Southampton in the League Cup, both of which they have done in the last 12
months." So that's all right then, having been thoroughly inconvenienced
twice, by the third time they ought to be used to it.
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And if it isn't bad enough when sufficient notice is given
when games are rescheduled from the default Saturday afternoon, the
broadcasters frequently demand last minute switches to accommodate their
schedules. Oh sure, there are rules about the amount of notice they have to
give, but at least twice this season these rules have not been complied with.
Middlesbrough's trip to Charlton Athletic in the Championship was moved from
Saturday to Sunday with only seventeen days notice given, and this after many
away fans would have booked train tickets and possibly overnight accommodation
as well as having bought their match tickets. Just another example of the lack
of consideration that is shown to the fans by the leagues and broadcasters.
This is all a far cry from the days when the Football League
ruled TV and radio coverage of the game with an iron fist. Highlights
programmes like Match of The Day
could not be broadcast before a particular time in the evening - I think it was
10 o'clock - because, in the Football League's view, any earlier and there
might be a detrimental effect on attendances at games played during the
afternoon. And BBC radio could only provide commentary on the second-half of
Football League or FA Cup matches to stop fans staying at home and listening to
games instead of attending them. Not allowing games to be shown live on TV at
three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon was the work of then Burnley chairman Bob
Lord, who in the 1960's convinced his fellow Football League club chairmen that
televised games at that time would hit clubs in the pocket because of reduced
attendances.
That blackout remains in place, but is now being challenged by
Virgin Media, who are proud to claim that they are " the only TV provider
to offer all the available live games through one subscription." But, of
380 Premier League games scheduled each season, "only" 154 are shown
live. Given their own way, Virgin Media would have all 380 games shown live.
And here is why they argue this:
Fans are missing games:
Fans are unable to watch their favourite teams live on TV because the Premier
League does not allow games to be broadcast at 3pm on Saturdays. Our survey
shows that 77% want more live Premier League games on TV.
Fans are not "unable to watch their favourite
teams" rather, Virgin Media customers cannot. Fans go to games; customers
sit at home and watch TV. And who are these people who want more live football
and exactly how many are they? Presumably they are 77% of Virgin Media
customers, many of whom may never have been to a live football match in their
lives because it is doubtful that they are 77% of the 13.7 million fans who
went to Premier League games last season. Virgin Media's claim that their
motive for their campaign is that fans are getting a raw deal is disingenuous; they
have looked at the number of games that are broadcast and figure that if it
were all of them rather than 40% of them, they could significantly boost income
by increased numbers of subscribers.
Contradicting Virgin's assertion is the evidence gathered by
Against League 3 [1]
who found that in non-League football, those polled were 100% against televised
games at 3 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and that even among Premier League
fans, only 40% supported the concept. Naturally we should treat all such
statistics, from either side, with some suspicion; both sides in the argument
will have gathered evidence from sources that will most likely support their
view.
The argument against televised football on a Saturday
afternoon is that it will hit attendances at games, and especially at the lower
levels of the game, and it is probably true. Say the choice is going to watch your
local team on a dark, wet, cold and windy December afternoon, when they have
just lost four on the trot and are likely to be trounced by the league leaders
and having to spend money on transport, admission and refreshments, or alternatively
sitting in a nice warm living room, with your feet up to watch a top of the
table Premier League game without paying a penny more than your existing cable
or satellite TV subscription. The given that choice, the "fans" that
Virgin Media are talking about would pick the latter. The real fans -as opposed
to "customers"- will choose the former.
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| You can watch football at The Emirates... |
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| or in the pub... |
There are already plenty of pubs and clubs showing games
live on a Saturday afternoon courtesy of satellite feeds from the Middle East
and you can stream games live on your laptop if you know where to look. And if
these games are already available to view, then attendances are presumably
already taking a hit anyway and legitimising the broadcast of these games may
not have an impact. Except if it is made easier for people to watch a game on
TV rather than go to one at their local club, then that is what they will do.
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| but this is how I like to watch it. |
Personally, I'm in favour of the Saturday afternoon blackout
staying in place, but equally I think that eventually it will be pushed aside.
And when that day comes companies like Virgin Media will hail this as a victory
for the customer. They won't care that the price of their victory may be
another nail in the coffin of grassroots and lower league football.
[1] Against
League 3 can be found at http://www.againstleague3.co.uk/ According to their website, "Against League 3 is a collective of
football supporters formed in May 2014 to fight proposals from The FA to
introduce Premier League B-Teams into the wider competitive football pyramid.
The petition against those measures reached 34,000 signatories with the plans
defeated in 2015.
Since then AL3 has fought against a number of measures
that would severely damage the English lower leagues, including the scrapping
of FA Cup replays and B-Teams in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. We have also
tirelessly researched league structures and cup competitions around the world
and youth develop schemes employed in other nations as well as highlighted the
need for reform and lack of transparency at The FA, notably the FA Council."
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