For all those complaining that the Premier League’s plan for world domination means the game has sold its soul, I say, wake up and smell the prawn sandwiches.
Where have you been for the last 15 years? Certainly not travelling to a top flight game on the bus with your dad, grabbing a cup of Bovril and a Wagon Wheel then rushing home to read the Saturday pink and wonder who will be on Match of the Day.
The Premier League has no soul to sell. Didn’t you realize that when clubs started being bought and sold by mysterious Americans and Asian venture capitalists?
Premier League clubs do not care what the fans think, only about how much they can spend.
Outrageous prices for tickets, shirts, programmes, drinks, mouse mats and baby bibs, all happily paid by supporters who are repaid by ridiculous kick-off times and heavy-handed stewards who threaten ejection if you dare voice an opinion.
This latest move is merely the logical extension of the “lucrative summer tours” and the tie-ins with clubs in America and the Far East as clubs seek to “extend their fan base”.
When players of the calibre of Wes Brown can tell Manchester United that he is not signing a new contract unless he gets 60,000 pounds a week, do you think their owners are going to take any decision based on anything other than maximising income?
Football still has soul, lots of it, but you have to look outside the Premier League to find it. Beyond the League of Greed you can still turn up on the day, sit or even stand with a group of friends and enjoy the base pleasure of watching a game.
It might not be being beamed live from Lapland to Hong Kong and all points between but there is a strong chance that if you visit a ground near you you’ll find it, and maybe even at 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon.
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10 comments so far
Very much agree. This latest move is just plain wrong but so has anything associated with the so-called “globalisation” of English football since the old first division went Premier.
Surely there’s got to be a tipping point where fans start getting turned off by all this blatant greed? No?
- Posted by Padraic HalpinThere may be a tipping point among some fans, but there will be millions more who will continue to pay the high prices for tickets, TV and merchandising.
- Posted by Kevin FylanIn any case, it’s doubtful whether the biggest clubs even want their traditional fans any more. Fans like that don’t spend money in the club shop.
I agree, the perfect fan for a Premier League club is one who comes a couple of times a season, spends a fortune in the Megastore, subscribes to the TV text and email service and has club credit card, then moves out of the way for the next mug.
- Posted by warrenWho wants to watch Premier League anyway? The Blue Square Premier is where it’s at. Most teams are full-time now, with the likes of Stevenage, now managed by Peter Taylor, and Aldershot showing fading former league teams Torquay and Oxford how proper football should be played. And all for at least a quarter of the price you would pay to be ripped off at Arsenal or Chelsea.
- Posted by Barry Hayles is the messiahWhat I can´t believe is that “prawn sandwich brigade” Roy Keane is in favour of this move.
- Posted by Simon Basketthttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football /eng_prem/7234304.stm
[...] raging about ‘franchises’ and the ’selling of the soul’ of the English game (see the post by Mitch Phillips below as a response to [...]
- Posted by What’s English about it anyway? - Reuters Soccer BlogTime for some fan power. Since it is won’t work without television, if it goes ahead everyone should boycott the coverage. No audience for Sky equals nobody to advertise to. So come the second year advertising income will dry up and Sky will have wasted millions buying the coverage. I am sure it would be possible, after all, it is only for one game.
- Posted by gerry[...] about ‘franchises’ and the ’selling of the soul’ of the English game (see the post by Mitch Phillips below as a response to [...]
- Posted by OT… NEWS FROM ANOTHER BLOG - NEWS from another blog - The Offside - Toronto FC MLS Soccer BlogPlease don’t shut the doors and spare a thought for the millions of foreign supporters, a good majority of which are as hardcore as local English supporters. If the EPL isn’t globalised, where am I going to get my fix of quality football matches to watch on the telly??
I’m very happy on where the EPL has come to currently and do not look back fondly on the past when I had to listen to BBC radio for the latest news on Liverpool.
Yes, the above-mentioned negative points are true and relevant but do consider that there are more positives which outweigh those negatives and spare a thought for your poorer cousins-in-support who as pathetic as it sounds, can only dream of watching an EPL match live in a stadium.
- Posted by Five TimesThe best idea is that the charity shield or FA cup semis are played abroad. They are competitive but dont add to the fixture list and would have been played on neutral english grounds anyway ( the fa cup final would be a step too far though..)
- Posted by Mark MeadowsOf course the Premier League would never agree to that plan because only the big sides get to the charity shield and the cup semis so the other clubs would miss out on revenue they think they’ll get from a 39th game each.