The Price of Football

In shock news, the BBC produced its 4th annual Price of Football survey. And the results really were not that surprising if truth be told.

Apparently, the cost of football has increased ahead that of annual inflation. *makes a surprised face*

Like this really is news. And worse of is, is Arsenal, whose cheapest season ticket is more expensive than the most costly ones at all bar two other Premier League clubs. Apparently, clubs prefer to keep paying footballers more and more rather than treat the people who come through the turnstiles with respect and/or as the lifeblood of the game.

Once again, this is no shock to me.

To add insult the inexplicably popular radio ‘personality’ and former professional footballer said that players have ‘no idea how much fans play to get into games’ and ;why should they?’ That he goes on to say that he loved the rapport of the fans screaming behind him as the team played. These fans who he did not care about.

But then he said something faintly sensible. ‘Players don’t know about the price of milk either’. And, oddly, he is right. I mean Empire magazine asks movie stars the ‘how much is a pint of milk’ question, as this shows how remote from normal life they really are. To be honest, I do the shopping a lot of the time, we need milk, I take a bottle off the shelf, scan it and put it in the trolley. I don’t look at the price. Does this make me out of touch, the international playboy and quality expert that I am, I’m sure you understand how this could happen.

Robert Peston has also written about his ‘addiction’ to following Arsenal. And he used the word addiction. Like he could stop, if he wanted. As a football fan, even I find it hard to accept that most people scrimp and save to follow their team, a team full of millionaires who live in gated mansions driving chromed supercars who hold firework displays in their bathrooms. I could no longer accept this was right, and so in a series of painful and difficult steps, I stopped watching Norwich in person. Made easier by their promotion to the PL and the sheer unavailability of tickets for the casual supporter. Second, I cancelled Sky Sports. Finding that we were paying approaching £70 a month for TV just to watch football, shocked me to the core.

I made a promise to cancel Sky Sports at the end of that season, and have not been tempted. OK, only occasionally, in getting it back. But we took the Sky dish down, meaning it is impossible for us to subscribe. I now listen to football on the radio, and when on the rare occasion footy is on the telly, I lose interest and wander off and do something on the computer instead. I could get BT sports if we switch the internet provider, but that would mean having to deal with Indian call centres. Not that I have anything against India, its just that I have used them before, and trying to explain that, no, the router has not been delivered, and where on earth is it now so we can get connected?

I also have not bought no replica kits from the club in many years. To be honest, skin tight satin look sportswear does not look good on me, and paying fifty quid for it does not seem a good deal for me.

Next year, more football is migrating to behind the paywall, meaning that all European football will now be unavailable unless you want to pay for Malmo v Young Boys Europa League clash. Count me out, actually watching European games means EUFA can get sponsors to pay more for those crappy ads and pitch side ad boards. I won’t miss it, really. Not these days when Arsenal seem to play Barcelona as much as they play Spurs.

Fans can get together, boycott games, not buy merchandise, clubs would soon take notice. We hope.

In the end, football is just 22 men kicking a bag of wind about. And the odd thing is, that if you are a world class footballer you can charge whatever you want for your services, even over £300k a week. If you are a world class hockey player you have to have a real job. Not very fair to me.