Games around the world?
Sheer madness.
I’m listening to David Gold, chair of Birmingham, say on Radio 5 Live, that he leads the vanguard in reducing ticket prices. Well I’ve now got stew coloured curtains at utter hypocrisy of the man who charges £45 for an away ticket at St Andrews.
He’s on the radio talking about his support for the notion that the Premier League teams will play an extra game in January of any given season, but in a far flung land, effectively to the highest bidder.
Well I’ve listened to the arguments for and the arguments against and have to say its bollocks. Complete bollocks.
And here’s why:
1. Most managers accept the 38 games a season is already too much. Players are knackered, there’s no winter break, injuries are more common and the national team suffers from player exhaustion if not the club come the end of the season.
But no, now its ok to add in a possible 12 hour flight, a game in extreme heat conditions and the jet lag there and back, before playing the rest of the season.
2. Lets be honest here, there are several clubs who have worldwide brands, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea for instance. Possibly Everton, possibly er nope, that’s it. So who on Earth wants to see at their local ground, Wigan v Reading. Or next year, Watford v West Brom? Seriously? Each city is supposed to get one ‘big’ team, who draw out another ‘lesser’ team (top 5 don’t play eachother) and then the next day, two others play. No-one will give a shite about the other game.
3. Who are the top five, lets say for instance that Liverpool are 6th come January, or Man Utd, or Chelsea and so on, Bolton were top of the league a few years ago and certainly in the top five most of the autumn, are they going to be the seeded teams?
4. Who is going to pay a higher sum to watch Liverpool play live, when you can watch all of their games in a sports bar anyway?
5. Imagine your team gets drawn against Man Utd, thus playing them 3 times in a season, they win, you get relegated, whilst your relegation rivals play a lower team and get a draw and suddenly they stay up. How you going to feel?
6. all of the above.
Once again, the fan is being left out, the teams wishes are being ignored, and the £ sign has ‘chinged’ in greedy money grabbing eyes. Its a shite idea. never mind OOT’s we’ll soon be all OOC’s. Out Of Continents..