Out of the total 380 top-flight games 154 will be moved for TV (116 of them for Sky and 38 for BT). That’s four out of every 10 games. As the season grinds on pundits will talk about the shuffling of games but it’s almost always seen through the prism of managerial moans and player preparation. It’s especially entertaining when a manager approaches the problem as though it’s some quirk of the cosmos, as unfathomable as string theory, black holes and Gerry Francis’ hair. He probably won’t mention that his club was entirely complicit in handing over football’s control of the fixture list to TV executives who (surprise, surprise) put their audience ahead of match-going fans, managers and players. Of course, clubs don’t have to put out for TV. The Premier League negotiates media rights but it’s effectively a trade body for clubs. If clubs reject TV’s overtures games can kick-off at more manager friendly times. The quid pro quo is that, in return, media deals disappear, revenues shrink, managers’ wages fall and transfer budgets disappear. Still up for it, boss? Thought not. So the only people who really suffer from TV’s faffing about with fixtures are fans. Especially those who rely on the rail network and sympathetic bosses for time off work. Clubs bank the cash and look the other way while keeping their fingers crossed that fans and managers will blame BT, Sky or the cosmos...
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 15:19:33 +0000
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