Who cares about fans, TV cash is king now
England’s footballers will be taken around the country in readiness for next year’s World Cup, a ploy that was used to prepare for the 2016 European Championship. Well, why mess with a winning strategy?
By ROAD, with a good run, Newcastle to Swansea is a 12-hour, 700-mile round trip. Newcastle to Brighton is roughly the same. It is, indeed, insensitive that the demands of television have given Newcastle fans those fixtures as back-to-back away games in September — with 4pm Sunday kick-offs.
At best, toe down, those travelling by motorway will not be home until midnight — in reality, probably much later. There is only so much a supporter should have to do for his club and being up until 2am before a working Monday twice in the same month exceeds the bounds of loyalty.
yet following Newcastle will always carry a logistical burden. Every year their fans do many more miles than those of any other club. This season, they won’t even have the let- off of the odd local derby, with Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the Championship. It leaves Huddersfield and Burnley as their nearest opponents — around 250 miles and a round trip of more than four hours each. So we have to be realistic.
There will never be a good time to move a great many matches but if the game, and the fans, want television revenue at this excessive level there is a price that has to be paid.
yet every year when the TV fixtures are announced we enter a period of denial. This season is no different.
Leading complaints are the Football Supporters’ Federation.
‘Supporters are once again being asked to spend more of their time traipsing across the country to meet broadcasters’ needs at ridiculous times,’ read a statement. ‘There are so many examples which put fans out it’s difficult to know where to begin.’
No, it isn’t, because we can all see it. As well as those Newcastle fixtures, Huddersfield play at West Ham on a Monday night and Manchester City go to Bournemouth for a Saturday lunchtime.
Leicester fans must battle through London’s Friday night rush hour to make the opening fixture of the season at Arsenal. yet what is the real alternative? What times are less ridiculous, but still compatible with TV audiences?
Monday night football dates back to a match between Manchester City and QPR on August 17, 1992; it has been running on and off since then. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are UEFA and the domestic cups’ preserve and few want more Friday games. That leaves the weekend.
Nothing can clash with the Saturday mid-afternoon programme, leaving evening and lunchtime. And Sunday. With Britain’s transport network creaking, unless television only ever shows local derbies, somebody is going to be inconvenienced.
Plus, there are other demands on the calendar. The Monday that Huddersfield travel to West Ham, September 11, follows the Sunday that Newcastle go to Swansea. But the match Sky would have wanted to push back that weekend is undoubtedly Manchester City v Liverpool.
The problem is the Champions League, which starts the following week. The draw hasn’t been made yet, so we don’t know who of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham are going to be involved on Tuesday night.
The Premier League is always accused of being oblivious to the needs of English clubs in Europe, but they have ensured all Champions League entrants play on Saturday that week. Meaning four fixtures are out of the Sunday and Monday broadcast schedules.
Equally, Arsenal and Everton are in the Europa League the following Thursday, so could not be included in any Monday TV commitment. Bournemouth’s match with Brighton is slated for the next Friday, so it
wouldn’t be a great look to have either club on twice in a week. So that’s Arsenal v Bournemouth out, too.
Leaving four games to fill three broadcast slots: Southampton v Watford, Burnley v Crystal Palace, Swansea v Newcastle and West ham v huddersfield. All involve motorway hauls meaning fans will be put out.
Anyone who has braved the latenight roadworks on the M3 recently will know that Southampton to anywhere after 10pm is no picnic. Making Southampton v Watford the Monday fixture instead of West ham and huddersfield relocates misery, rather than removing it. Contrary to popular belief, television companies do not just announce their schedules with maximum relish for human despair. they all need to get home, too. Often they are working within restrictions that few contemplate or understand.
SOconsider Newcastle’s away fixture at Swansea. Whenever it is played, it is always going to take all day to travel from tyneside. even with a 3pm, Saturday kick-off it still involves a 7am departure and a return around midnight.
Is that better than a Sunday 4pm start? Yes, but not greatly. It’s still a geographical pain in the neck. Newcastle supporters are used to that by now. One imagines it is part of the badge of honour of following the club. that’s why the toon Army is regarded more highly than the team.
Last year, fanzine The Mag ran an opinion piece listing the 10 best away atmospheres in Newcastle’s history. What inspired this? the wonderful buzz around a 2-0 win at Cardiff on April 28 — played on a Friday night.
Newcastle took 4,300 to Wales for a trip that, with stoic understatement,
The Mag described as ‘tricky’. And following football is tricky now because fans are not always considered as they should be. But neither is the push and pull of an overcrowded schedule or the fact that for the money invested, tV is entitled to insist on its say.
As powerful as rupert Murdoch may be, he cannot drag Newcastle from the north-east, or stop a genius in the highways Department shutting the M3 completely on a night when Manchester United visit Southampton.
So someone will always end up stiffed, but the money’s good and if you don’t want the aggravation, at least the match is on television down the pub. And that’s far from perfect; but, then again, not much is.