Basically it’s a big fucking Ponzi scheme with FIFA at the top controlling and getting a cut of everything and if you don’t do what they say they can fuck you up.
I believe this comes down to player registrations and the ultimate control FIFA holds over these. Within certain parameters (failure to release for competitive international games being one of those) they can declare a registration invalid/not accepted for certain periods of time.
I honestly don’t like the whole blackout thing, studies show that most local team supporters go to watch their local teams anyway, having said that you can’t really force people into supporting a team, in a way the whole thing is anti consumer but also it’s annoying that games have to be moved for TV like David is saying it puts you off going to away games when it’s like a 12 o’clock kick off or later in the day, especially if you got work or a family. Home games are fine even if they are in the evening when you’re a local which I think most of the ST holders are but even then it can be an inconvenience for out of town fans.
But as that thread explained, it’s not about the actual regular supporters. The smaller clubs make most of their money from casual fans who just think “I’ll go watch so and so today” and just walk up to the turnstiles on match day.
I completely agree man, I’ve always understood why it’s done but I’ve always preferred to have the right to pick and choose what I do with my time. It sounds like the football pyramid is completely oversaturated and if most clubs can’t survive then they simply won’t. It’s the same in all aspects of life. Perhaps it comes across as selfish but it’s just the nature in any business.
Forcing people to do something that’s their 2nd or 3rd choice for the day is manipulative and far from a sustainable model. It might keep the lights on for a while but it won’t last forever.
. It’s manipulative as fuck and not to sound arrogant, but if a team can’t get enough supporters in on match day because they would rather watch another team play then they don’t have enough supporters to be financially viable, in which case there isn’t enough demand to warrant their existence as a business. Ridiculous to try and force people into paying for a club they clearly don’t have enough interest in because their options have been forcibly limited.
I think the idea is that they can survive, with a little help, if we avoid making moves that will actively fuck them, which is what ending the blackout would quite likely do.
The lengthy existence of our football pyramid seems to suggest that it does work, which is why we have lower leagues that are worth a fuck, unlike other nations. It might not last forever, but I don’t see that as being a reason to take measures to ensure it won’t survive much longer. Saying something won’t last forever doesn’t seem to me to be a good reason to accelerate its potential demise.
Maybe not you, but people regularly complain that football is just a business and that its lost its soul etc, so I’m kinda glad to see that there are some decisions that aren’t made based solely on ruthless principles of business.
Not being able to watch football at 3pm is a small price to pay for the health of the lower leagues in my opinion. There’s so much bloody football on at all times that it’s hardly a disaster to have a 2 hour window on a Saturday when you can’t get a match on the telly when there’ll be matches either side of it and plenty more on Sunday you can watch. Plus the Friday night fixture and the Monday one.
But hey, maybe that’s because I’m not as fanatical about football as I used to be and I feel a bit like football on television is near a saturation point lol
Come on, nobody is forcing you, that’s dramatic language lol.
Clearly the many casual/floating who go along to lower league matches at 3pm on a Saturday don’t feel coerced into doing so lol. If you don’t wann go, don’t, nobody is forcing you.
You can watch football on television in almost any time slot except 3 to 5 on a Saturday, bit dramatic to describe this as you having your options “forcibly limited”
Football has never been more prevalent on the box, if this is what forcibly limited options looks like then I dunno what to say.
This is completely my line of thinking as well, more power to anyone who wants to save and relish the lower divisions and clubs, and finds a closer respect and alliance to the traditional game. For me I’m all about Arsenal and NI, I choose to not just support those clubs but invest my time and money into them.
If I would rather watch them than go to watch Ballymena United that should be my choice. The same is true in reverse I would never expect anyone to have to forgo their desires to save NI national team/Arsenal for me when they don’t care, if they wanted to that’s great but I would never force it upon them.
All fair points but couldn’t they device a scheme that would subsidise (funded by the larger leagues) these lower teams for a period and if they are still not able to expand after say 5 years then let them fend for them selves.
“Hey you want to watch your favourite team play on a Saturday afternoon, no fuck you, only option is Witheram town, take it or leave it”
Not really bro, a lot of these games get changed for TV, which makes travelling difficult. Obviously I’m exaggerating a little to make a point, but you just don’t see this kind of thing in other business.
12.30 and 5 o’clock can quite reasonably be described as Saturday afternoon. You can still watch your team on Saturdays, and these days they’re just as likely to be playing on a different day anyway.
This is what I mean, the tone and language here sounds like all top flight football had been banned on TV to make you go to the lower leagues lol. When what we are actually talking about is a small two hour window on a Saturday when you can’t watch your team.
Just seems incredibly selfish to be like “there’s top flight football on throughout the entire weekend but I also demand to also be able to watch football between 3 and 5pm and fuck the consequences for anyone else”
It’s just two hours?!
Force is a strong word tbh, I suppose taking away someone’s choice would be less dramatic.
Not really “taking away choice” when you’ve never been able to make that choice in the history of televised football in this country.
And with this post I’ve absolutely crossed a line into becoming Pedantic Boy, so I better put the phone fown and get back to work.
I think the city game last week was a perfect example, people probably getting up at like 5/6 to travel to Manchester, because the game is at 12. If it’s at 5:45 or 7, then what time are these man going to get home? It’s get worse when talking about places like Leeds or Newcastle. I have to disagree I don’t think it’s selfish, inconveniencing thousands of away fans so 500/600 people can watch some non league or lower league team play is more selfish in my opinion.
I see the point your making and respect your opinion bro, but I feel like the clubs, football Association and other bodies should be responsible for helping these lower league teams instead of their decisions ultimately affecting the match going fans.
Even if 3pm games were allowed to be televised, there would still be matches at 12, 5 and on Sundays, so I don’t really get this point? Sky Sports and BT Sport will still want to fill all those slots. So just because Man City could be on TV at 3pm doesn’t mean they would be.
This whole conversation really does seem pretty selfish. It does come across as “only Premier League matters, fuck everyone else, who cares if all the other clubs go out of business?!”
It’s two fucking hours!
I mean if they can’t sustain their business then it’s not really anyone else’s duty to bail them out. Personally I don’t think this model is viable, and eventually we will see it go. You can’t force demand for something that isn’t there, and you don’t see this kind of thing in any other business, like ultimately calling fans selfish because they want to have the option of watching a game they actually want to see at 3 o’clock (casual fans or not) is ridiculous, the selfish and entitled people are the ones demanding they be funded and helped even though clearly people don’t want to watch their games. I respect yours and JBs opinion I see where you guys are coming from but I can’t agree, regardless of wether it’s 2 hours or 2 minutes. Each to their own I guess.
I find this impossible to get my head around. To me the selfish people are clearly the ones whinging about having a two hour period when there isn’t televised football, not the people who want to try and aid the continued existence of 72 other clubs (not that I’m saying all 72 would cease to exist overnight or anything that dramatic, to be clear). I don’t even really watch the Championship or lower leagues, save a couple days out a year to Southend/AFC Wimbledon, so it doesn’t seem that selfish of me to advocate protecting something I’m not personally very invested in.
The fact that I find it so hard to get my head around the part quoted seems like a really good sign that I need to agree to disagree with you here haha.
Thank you for being so reasonable in your responses, I do also respect yours and Castiel’s opinion and obviously on a level would also like to have the option of 3pm games, so I get where you’re coming from, I just don’t think its worth the potential cost so will settle for being able to watch football at almost any other slot from Friday night through to Sunday morning.
I don’t see a 3pm blackout as being a massive manipulation of the market that props up a load of clubs nobody gives a shit about, I just see it as being a reasonable measure that tries to offer them an element of protection.
If I didn’t feel that way this way about the blackout I’d probably also be cool with joining a European Super League and fucking over the other 14 PL teams, cos why bother propping them up if the sensible business decision is to take the ESL money and run? If we leave and they’re unable to attract the same money to the Prem that they used to then fuck em, who cares, let them go the way of the dodo too, or at least become absolute shadows of their former selves.
And apologies, because I’ve accidentally started making arguments again after saying agree to disagree, when I didn’t mean to 
That’s why I love discussions with you bro 
It’s not even just the other 72 clubs. It’s teams further down than that as well who don’t really have much of a strong regular fanbase. I know from watching my local team for example that they bloody love international weekend because that’s when they make the most money. They also get more fans on the Saturdays when Spurs are away from home or playing at 3pm. So it’s not just hyperbole to suggest that if PL games were at 3pm they would lose money. These casual Spurs fans wouldn’t turn up if they could watch Spurs on the telly.
But hey. Maybe Bizzy is right. How selfish of me to want to protect all these community clubs. What a shitty person I am.
Woah nobody called you selfish or a shitty person bro 
where did you get that from?
I was saying that the clubs who demand this are selfish, I mean even now with the blackout they struggle to garner enough interest to be able to properly operate, which to me says there isn’t really enough of a demand for these clubs. At the end of the day if they can’t sustain themselves, through the product that they are selling or the service they are providing (sports entertainment in this case) because there isn’t enough demand for it then, then it really isn’t down to other people to bail them out. A club with a strong following, wether small or large should be able to make enough to operate at a reasonable level with out having the market skewed in their favour. Not sure what there is to protect, Outside of small margin of local fans, these lower tier non league clubs just aren’t appealing to sports fans, so not sure what all the fuss is about. You can’t force people to be entertained or interested in something that they are not.
Again, if you enjoy your local club and want to support them, more power to you. Hope they continue to do well and be successful, but not at the expense of games that are more appealing to the majority of fans.