The people that run football. RANT ALERT!

[Harry J Allstars]

We all know what this is about but oh where to begin? Who runs football now days, the people with the money, The Football Association, Union of European Football Associations or Fédération Internationale de Football Association?

 

Personally I would say they all do but it's the people that have the money that pull all the strings at the end of the day.

 

First and foremost I don't care about UEFA or FIFA, my team don't play in any of their competitions so I don't care what they do. For some reason they seem to think they can impose rules on clubs even at our level.

 

So then the FA and the reason for this thread starting, ENGLAND INTERNATIONALS!

 

I can't stand the FA, I can't stand the poxy manager of their poxy international team and I can't stand the way that when there’s an England game on it's the biggest thing ever and everyone’s on the same side for a day. Lets gather round our armchairs and television sets and pretend to ourselves that we're "Supporting" the team.

 

A thread on here a while ago suggested that the only way you support your team is by in some way giving something to them. This is correct, the only way you support your team is if you pay something like say an admission fee to go and watch them.

 

I for instance was once under the false pretence that I supported England. I have never paid to see them play (television licence or subscription fee doesn't count), I may have bought the odd shirt and have a large flag but all that money goes to the store I bought it from.

 

So you only support England if you pay for tickets. Harsh isn’t it but very true. So then why do we get people pretending to be England supporters? It’s pathetic if you ask me, which you didn’t but I’m telling you anyway.

 

I also can’t stand the way that Scottish moron Andy Gray talks about it as if he actually cares. You’re from Scotland mate, go and talk about them. You only care because you're good at what you do. You're selling the match to people that are stupid enough to buy it. If it was really worth buying do you think they would need you?

 

Continuing on from my bash at the media the press and newspaper coverage is another thing that irritates me. Whenever there’s an England game on everything else gets pushed to the side, they talk it up as if it’s a soap. One thing I heard this week was that some England players had gone to Sven Boring Eriksson and said how about changing our style of play? You were playing Wales for crying out, not Brazil. Anything less then 5-0 was simply not good enough.

 

And what about good old Sky Sports? Is there anything they can do to sink any lower? I went into the bar yesterday after the game to see the other results and where we were in the league, but no wait. They gave the results from league 1 but that was it. They then went and gave all the international results including the one we were all waiting for Australia 7-0 Solomon Islands and Moldova 2-0 Belarus. Obviously edge of your seat stuff waiting for those to come through.

 

The 15:00 Saturday afternoon kick off has been with Football since the early days, not quite sure exactly when the very first organised game kicked off but the slot is your traditional way. When the TV companies came in they realised that this time would not be beneficial to them as most people would be at games so they would lose their core audience, a solution had to be found.

 

We know all sorts of things have been tried with the earliest one that has affected me being a 10:15 Saturday morning kick off for a game between Chelsea and Man United. Although the one they now seemed to have settled on is the 4:05 kick off with Sky Sports giving it the name “Super Sunday” just to make sure it appeals to the mass’.

 

However when England are playing the fans of the well oiled phrase “The Big Clubs” won’t have any football to watch as they can’t be bothered to root out their local club, so therefore will be waiting around sitting on there hands for the match to start. It took a while for the Television companies to pick up on it but eventually the 15:00 Saturday afternoon slot was sought.

 

Obviously the wheel they spin is that it brings back a sense of tradition, a sense of tradition that the TV companies didn’t seem to care about a week earlier as Charlton had to travel to Middlesbrough for a 13:00 Sunday afternoon kick off, and won’t care about a week after as fans of Arsenal who travel to the same stadium for a 17:15 Saturday evening kick off and more importantly back again at 19:00.

 

For me though nothing beats actually being there. I would swap watching the European Cup Final on my dads huge wide screen TV for a Ryman League division one match. The TV companies realise this and that’s why they largely appeal to people that have never actually been to a football match.

 

If anyone can find them on the internet I would be interested to know what the viewing figures were for yesterdays Wales England match, and if anyone knows of any research that says what sort of an impact the advertising, the press and the media play in “reminding” people to tune in.

 

I have lots more to say about this but a post that’s to long will put people off from reading it and therefore from replying which will quash any chance of getting a debate going. I will post more when a few of you have given me your thoughts.

 

Anyway post insults below. Me and one other bloke in the whole world will get this joke.

[FleetFanatic]

Unpatriotic sod. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Harry J Allstars]

I knew I'd get that. I just find the more they ram it down our throats the more boring it becomes.

[KShep]

I agree on the whole 'glamming-up' of England's fixtures. Every single match, whether it's the mighty Wales or Slovenia, there's so much hype about it. And we're all usually let down by a 1-0, 1-1, or a match where the football is sloppy, 19 England players play and Owen will grab a goal from the six-yard box. However, it goes without saying you follow your national team, yet how many of us have ever paid money to see England play? And to add to Harry's point about the results order, I think there are probably more supporters of Non-League football then there are of the national team. Television has made many ignorant towards lower league football, and reverted them to armchair fans. Why drag yourself along to Stonebridge Road when there's Arsenal vs Chelsea on the box?

 

And I for one would rather a GNFC terrace season ticket, than a ten-year Wembley ticket. I'd rather support my local team than put on my patriotic hat for six matches a year, go to Wembley, and watch another England-esque performance against a European minnow, with Owen scoring in an unconvincing 1-0 win.

[American FLEET FAN No1]

I used to suffer the long journey, the horrible food and smelly toilets(bit like Stonebridge road in that case <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)to watch England at Wembley. Midweek i hasten to add, not on Saturdays!

[Bloodnock]

Well said Harry,as the years have rolled by I have been less and less interested in the England matches,as football has been hijacked by the media and become a bloody soap opera, footballers latest conquests,drunken loutish behaviour and basic appeal to the lowest common denominator.

As you say the majority who watch these are armchair supporters anyway,and they wouldn't have any idea what it's like to really support a team through thick and thin.

I too would rather spend a freezing cold evening on the terraces watching my beloved Fleet than bored S--------s watching an international or Premeirship game on TV.

Murdoch has done to sport what he did to newspapers.

[DarrenGNFC]

Football Fans Are Idiots

 

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

 

(I don't agree with everything in this article, by the way...)