Post by bruisedshins on Mar 5, 2013 0:26:38 GMT 1
In a gesture of protest against the influence of Sky in football and the state of modern football in general we had a little papermill display at home to Man City tonight.
The influence of Sky in todays game is huge, TV revenue accounts for over half of the income at Aston Villa. Some arm chair fans will say that we should be greatful for this injection of cash. After all hasn't the cash allowed clubs to improve their standing on the world stage and become more advernturous in the transfer market? Hasn't the role of Sky helped to sell the "brand" of the English Premier League around the world? Herein is where the crux of the problem lies. As football fans we want to support our team. Supporting our team means following them on match day, singing yourself hoarse, making an impact at the game. It doesn't mean picking the best team on TV and explaining to all your mates why you're now a Man City fan instead of an Arsenal fan, or why you now prefer to watch Barcelona rather than Blackburn.
The dawn of the English Premier League has been accompanied by rising ticket prices, all seater stadium, draconian stewarding, an increased surveilance of fans and a crack down by clubs and police that have seen decent fans banned from the game they love. The money injected by Sky and other tv networks hasn't meant a decrease in ticket prices for games, instead the wages of players and pay offs to agents have increased while those fans who have continued to follow their club instead of paying for Sky and watching from the sofa have increasingly been treated like petty criminals in the stands that they once made their own. The match going fan has increasingly been seen as a secondary interest to the money men at Sky. S/he has been treated more as a customer from which to squeeze every penny rather than someone who wants to support a football team. The message is clear, you can come in and watch the team, as long as you sit quietly and drink your coca cola without offending any of the other paying customers. You can always go home and watch it on the telly if you don't like the view.
This idea of the fan as a customer who chooses to watch in the ground rather than at home has been mirrored by a crackdown on football going supporters. You have fans at Sunderland being banned from the ground for standing up and supporting their team, police trying to hit fans with 3 month prision sentences for carrying perfectly harmless smoke devices into grounds, fans being handed indiscriminate and unexplained one game bans by egotistical police officers, kick off times being moved by Sky to 1.30pm on a Sunday or 5.20pm on a Saturday resulting in travel restrictions being placed on away fans. In all of this the fan has been sidelined in the interests of money and a sanitised version of the game that's being pushed by the football authorities and the media men.
The fans of football clubs up and down the country want their game back, football for the fans not for the media moguls and money men, this is our game.
The influence of Sky in todays game is huge, TV revenue accounts for over half of the income at Aston Villa. Some arm chair fans will say that we should be greatful for this injection of cash. After all hasn't the cash allowed clubs to improve their standing on the world stage and become more advernturous in the transfer market? Hasn't the role of Sky helped to sell the "brand" of the English Premier League around the world? Herein is where the crux of the problem lies. As football fans we want to support our team. Supporting our team means following them on match day, singing yourself hoarse, making an impact at the game. It doesn't mean picking the best team on TV and explaining to all your mates why you're now a Man City fan instead of an Arsenal fan, or why you now prefer to watch Barcelona rather than Blackburn.
The dawn of the English Premier League has been accompanied by rising ticket prices, all seater stadium, draconian stewarding, an increased surveilance of fans and a crack down by clubs and police that have seen decent fans banned from the game they love. The money injected by Sky and other tv networks hasn't meant a decrease in ticket prices for games, instead the wages of players and pay offs to agents have increased while those fans who have continued to follow their club instead of paying for Sky and watching from the sofa have increasingly been treated like petty criminals in the stands that they once made their own. The match going fan has increasingly been seen as a secondary interest to the money men at Sky. S/he has been treated more as a customer from which to squeeze every penny rather than someone who wants to support a football team. The message is clear, you can come in and watch the team, as long as you sit quietly and drink your coca cola without offending any of the other paying customers. You can always go home and watch it on the telly if you don't like the view.
This idea of the fan as a customer who chooses to watch in the ground rather than at home has been mirrored by a crackdown on football going supporters. You have fans at Sunderland being banned from the ground for standing up and supporting their team, police trying to hit fans with 3 month prision sentences for carrying perfectly harmless smoke devices into grounds, fans being handed indiscriminate and unexplained one game bans by egotistical police officers, kick off times being moved by Sky to 1.30pm on a Sunday or 5.20pm on a Saturday resulting in travel restrictions being placed on away fans. In all of this the fan has been sidelined in the interests of money and a sanitised version of the game that's being pushed by the football authorities and the media men.
The fans of football clubs up and down the country want their game back, football for the fans not for the media moguls and money men, this is our game.
