Darlington - My Part In Their Downfall

The widely anticipated winding up of Darlington FC is now well underway, the players and staff have all been laid off, and there appears to be no salvation. For some reason that is linked to my mate Dave, we have always referred to them as The Mighty Darlington, which is odd for a town I have only visited once, but the fact it is them, with all due respect to their players and fans, doesn’t really matter. It is just another nail in the growing coffin of football in England.

There can be no surprise anywhere that another club has failed. Did the owners make some wrong decisions; it seems so, but like in all business if the decision works out you are a genius, if it fails it was a bad one, so I don’t hold them responsible for this. While social networking is alive with demands for Premier League players to bail them out, and for “someone” to do “something” it is easy to empathise with this view, and the fact that Carlos Tevez has been paid about £5million since he was last even at Manchester City I am sure does rile people more on days like this.

But who is to blame, these days we have to have a scapegoat, we have to be able to point the finger at someone else so we can get closure and move on.

In a surprising move I blame myself.

Yes, me. Not me alone, most people reading this will have played their little part, but we created this, and it is nowhere near over. Last week there was a report that only 4 clubs in the Premier League were actually viable businesses that could sustain themselves without direct funding from their owners or other sources, and as you drop down the league I guess that figure disappears to almost none. If 16 of the top clubs in England (and Wales) can’t fund themselves, how are the smaller clubs supposed to be able to do it?

Back on track though, how am I responsible for the downfall of Darlington FC, a town I have only visited once, and that was for work?

Many years ago I and many others used to go to local non-league football when Spurs were away, or finances were against us. Aylesbury United used to get crowds of over 1000 in the league below the conference. In the season we gained promotion to the then hallowed level of the Conference and the season there before instant relegation I think I went to pretty much every game, home and away, ignoring Spurs for a bit.

Aylesbury United now have a desolate deserted ground, which once played host to England (we lost 7-0) and on a good day 100 people will pay to see them. Many factors have caused this, but it is the usual suspects of Sky and the Premier League that are the catalysts here. Live football on TV, banned at 3PM on Saturday to protect other attendances has obviously changed a lot. Instead of having to go to your local club to see football, it is on every day. Saturday lunchtime in December, do you want to go to a park and watch local or even lower division football or sit at home and watch Man Utd v Liverpool on Sky? On a rainy Tuesday night the more enticing prospect has to be Barcelona v Spurs in the Champions League doesn’t it?

There has been an even bigger shift in the last couple of years that makes the rules about no 3PM Saturday transmissions farcical. Everyone knows the local pubs with the magic Greek or Arabic boxes that show all the games live on Saturday, many pubs I know show multiple games live at the same time to cater for more people. Internet streaming is now so widespread that there are even sites that charge to watch the illegal footage, and guarantee the stream will stay up. So on a Saturday afternoon while up and down the country the lower and non-league games kick off, more and more of us are sat in front of our laptops or new interweb enabled TVs and watching Premier League Football instead.

So we are all to blame in this, we let it happen, and it isn’t going to change back now. The money at the top of the pyramid will never filter down, and why should Rooney or Ballotelli or Tevez “save” Darlington? Does everyone who thinks that also want to give a weeks wages to the club?

Much as it pains me to say it, there is only one solution to getting people going to football on a Saturday again and seeing local clubs play, and that is to shift all the Premier League games to Sunday. That won’t solve all the problems, indeed at many clubs in the lower leagues attendances are increasing, but at least it will mean that the choice on a Saturday is to go to a game, not sit on our sofas and moan about referee decisions on twitter while clubs like Darlington look at their empty terraces. The failing of many clubs now is down to the spiral of increasing wages at all levels, which a billionaire Arab or Russian can pay, but not a local club with an attendance of 5,000 and no TV money.

We will all continue to wring our hands and wonder what can be done, but all still want that signing to complete our team, clamouring for “realistic” wages of £100,000 a week to keep players because that is what we are now fed all the time from the non stop media circus that is the Premier League. As even the FA Cup fades into insignificance, can we really pretend to be surprised as clubs fold and disappear?

A generation has now been bred where there is no need to go to a game, where football is always available, and armchair fans are as valuable as those in the ground,  after all, they are the ones watching all the adverts on Sky, and that is where the money comes from now.

Drawing...

Is there a better use of the internet than someone you have never met drawing a picture of you in goal?

I doubt it..

Nice one @furiouspigeon for the picture and @avfc_lee for suggesting it.

Tears of joy at a defeat?

It is a funny old game as the cliche goes when talking about football, never more so than during the myriad of cup competitions that fill up the schedules and TV channels it seems on a daily basis. Spurs last night won the match, but went out of the Europa League Trophy competition, a fact that for many was a cause for celebration, not least the manager who has never made it a secret that he never wanted to be in this competition.

What has become of the "National Game" where clubs and many fans just dismiss some competitions as not worthy of them, and a stated aim for many is to be 4th best? Spurs for many years, since Sky invented football, had the dubious record of never finishing in the top six or bottom six of the league. During those times a good cup run, and a couple of trophies, were welcomed by one and all as far as I remember. Winning the Carling Cup only a few years ago was seen as a great achievement, and then making it to 4th spot and the lure of the Champions League seemed to show we were a club on the up. For me though that season will be remembered as throwing away what seemed to be a quite simple FA Cup semi final.

Fast forward through a quite amazing adventure in the Champions League where the group stage suddenly became interesting, and we enter the current season. Losing to Stoke in the Carling Cup, no one seemed that bothered that the trophy we once wanted to win was over before it began, and the entry into the Europa League games, that even at a heavily discounted entry rate could not fill the grounds over Europe and finding channels on TV like ITV4 became standard. We are now out of that, so 50% of the possible trophies we are no longer competing for. The FA Cup kicks off in a couple of weeks, and already I see people who want to get knocked out of that to concentrate on finishing 3rd in the league, maybe even second...

As I often reference when Spurs won the UEFA Cup in 84, it cost £6 to get in, cash on the turnstile, and that night will probably be my all time top sporting memory. 

So what happened?

Money and the Champions League.

Football is a multi-billion pound business, and those at the top of their game, clubs and players, are making the most of it, but the damage being done to the rest of the game is destroying what I think it means to support a club. Where the aim for many people is simply to be in a competition with Barcelona, not to win it, just to be in it, I lose touch with what I am handing over my ticket money for. UEFA are to blame as well for creating games and competitions that are purely for TV audiences and money, not for the fans at all. We are all well used to looking at the fixtures for the season and then having to work out which games will actually be on Sundays, and trying to guess if the trains will actually be running that day before buying a ticket for the game.

Yes, times have changed, but record books haven't. We all enjoy mocking Arsenal for not having won a trophy for over six years, but they have been "in" the Champions League every year, and the way that Spurs are now not worried about the so called lesser competitions makes it look like that is our aim as well. Not for this football fan.

Give me 10th in the league and the FA Cup this year and I will be a lot happier than being 3rd and not winning the Champions League the following season. Controversial? It is for many, I am called naive and foolish for saying such heresy, but do you want memories of single games against Europes top clubs, or days out at Wembley and open top bus parades. Clearly I would rather win the league and cup double, and then win the Champions League the following year, but that doesn't appear to be the aim of the club or many fans.

Funny old game.

A Handshake Should Cover It...

On a day when I was going to write about fans obsessions with balance sheets in football, the train ride to my hotel for the evening suddenly changed my mind. What could possibly have happened I hear you cry?

Well, serial idiot Sepp Blatter - head of FIFA - man who said ladies football would benefit from shorter shorts and other gems, decided to throw some wise words into the racism in football debate. His quoted words, "I would deny it. There is no racism. There is maybe one of the players towards another, he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one. But also the one who is affected by that, he should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination"

So much like also serial quote machine Tim Lovejoy (This sort of chanting is quite frankly unacceptable, but most importantly out of date) Blatter shows his absolute lack of ability to use the correct words, or actually shows a slightly more sinister underside. Are Blatter or Lovejoy racist? I have no way of knowing. Have they made statements that are so far past acceptable that I am surprised the articles are still on line, yes.

'Most importantly out of date', so it was OK at sometime then was it Tim? 'Shake hands' - what next Blatter, have a naked hug to prove there are no gay footballers, as apparently there aren't.

It is attitudes and comments like this that continue to make racism acceptable. There are so many recent examples of the 'not out of date Chelsea fans' chanting away with witty ditties aimed at Anton Ferdinand that anyone who says there is no racism in UK football is blind, deaf and a liar. There is, and it needs to be dealt with. And like many things in life, that means that some people have to make some serious life choices. Most, if not all, football grounds have stewards and police who will act (if somewhat randomly) to eject those shouting racist abuse, but there is one group of people who seem especially quiet, and they are the footballers themselves.

The other big event of the day was the English FA charging Liverpool player Luis Suarez with racially abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United on 15th October this year. I have no idea if this is true or not, and there appears not to be video evidence of it. This however again highlighted the elephant in the room, that John Terry is still playing for his club and country despite being one of the most high profile alleged racist incidents in recent years. Oddly, the game that he is alleged to have racially abused a player was 8 days after the Suarez incident, so clearly the cases are not dealt with in date order.

Without being a lawyer I have no idea if there are reasons for this, but the fact that John Terry has said he didn't racially abuse Anton Ferdinand, but Anton Ferdinand has said nothing in public would surely raise an eyebrow amongst all but those with £50k + a week contracts to worry about. Having seen the video multiple times I can't be sure what or why John Terry is shouting and swearing, but he is at someone. Oddly, this is not the first race row at a football match that John Terry has been involved in.

A simple google search using the names of John Terry and Ledley King will give a huge amount of links, some football related, but most about an alleged incident at a Tottenham game a few years ago. John Terry sent off, mild mannered Ledley King and a few other players seem full of rage, some people report what they heard. All innocuous enough and again denied by John Terry.

Oddly, and with a similar vein as currently, the player on the receiving end of the alleged abuse has never commented on this.

If there is, and there is so let's remove the if. There is racism in football, and it is the responsibility of the players on the receiving end to instantly inform the ref of it at the time and ensure it is logged and reported correctly. Silence, platitudes and ex-players on phone in shows achieves nothing. Players subject to abuse from other players, and fans, need to act. Walk off the pitch if the ref or stewards don't act. Void games and points.

Whatever it takes, the racists must be outed. 

Disclaimer: This was all correct when I typed it on Wed 16/11 in the evening. I have been able to find no record of Ledley King commenting on the incident, or Anton Ferdinand apart from the official statement from him and QPR. Blatter as I type is in PR redaction mode about being mis-understood, so for clarity if not racist or stupid he is corrupt. I doubt Tim Lovejoy even knows he writes a column in the Sun.

Be careful what you wish for...

Like many people I watch a lot of football on "illegal" streams and also in pubs on the boxes they have that offer a choice of games on a Saturday, many pubs my way offer 2 or 3 games at 3 o'clock on a Saturday. Also like many people I pay Sky for some content on my TV at home, one of the main reasons for this is I don't actually have a TV aerial so can't get just normal Freeview. So that puts some context hopefully and should put off any shouts of hypocrisy.

Anyone who has read any of my writings on football should be in no doubt that I think the "modern" game as invented by Sky two decades ago is a mixed blessing at best. Yes the football is in the main a higher standard and we have all the world stars playing in England week in and week out, but this has come at many costs, financially, socially, schedule wise and the whole day for many people is different to what it used to be. So while in some ways I am pleased that there is more football to watch, I do begrudge that it is Murdoch and Sky that have made this happen, and make billions on the back of it.

The news this morning that the Portsmouth pub landlady had won the latest round in her long legal battle to show live football using a Greek decoder was greeted by many with cheers and smiley emoticons as in theory it means we can all buy cheaper boxes and subscriptions and pubs can save hundreds of pounds a month in Sky subscriptions and we can all watch more football.

Only it isn't as simple as that.

I will leave the legal arguments to those who know better, but the point is that the Premier League is intertwined with Sky money so much now that it would not be able to survive if Sky just walked away and stopped bidding for the rights for games. After all there is no point in Sky paying billions of pounds if we are all going to watch it on Greek boxes for free is there? How many Premier League clubs rely on the tens of millions from Sky each year just to survive, probably more than anyone would actually like to admit? Would Sky ever actually walk away - very unlikely, unless the UK has pissed Murdoch off enough that he really does just throw his toys out of the pram and walk off into the sunset with the ball under his arm. What is far more likely is that if he can charge less for the rights in this country, he will simply stop providing the footage for the other countries or increase the costs to them, and thus back onto the pubs.

Yes, you see that is the point. Almost every game, except the few on ESPN, are filmed by Sky. So the coverage all comes from them. The Premier League don't have thousands of cameras at games every week, it is all Sky. The footage from the Greek or Arabic stations we watch - how often have you seen the outside broadcast van of a Greek TV station outside a football ground, not often I would bet? I am sure there are some contractual rights and obligations involved in this, and that the allocation of monies is not exactly on a level basis to each club, but it is far better than clubs selling their games individually which is what some would want.

This would make the Sunday 4PM slot guaranteed to have Man Utd / Chelsea / Man City / Spurs every week, and a pretty solid bet that Norwich v Bolton would never be televised at all. 'Stop Sky' and their greed is an easy shout for those fans of clubs that make money, not so easy for the clubs that would not exist without the TV revenue. 

Overall this smacks of one the depressing traits of "Modern Britain" which is that everyone wants to see every game and goal in HD from 10 different angles but very few actually realise that somebody somewhere has to pay for it. I would be more than happy to go back to when I started going to football when hardly any game was on TV, Match of the Day had at most 3 games and maybe some other goals and that was it apart from the cup games. Real fans going to watch football instead of people sitting at home and in pubs all weekend watching it. 

In the early 80s we would go to Spurs as a first choice, but I would also often go to QPR, Charlton and also my local non-league side - the decision based on finance more than anything on a Saturday. No one does this now, if you can't get to see your team you just flick the TV on and watch them there instead. We are all under the illusion that the "match day experience" is better now than ever, and for those in corporate I have no doubt that is true, but for the average fan, far from it. UEFA Cup Final, second leg, 1984 at White Hart Lane was £6 entry on the turnstile on the day, and some people didn't go due to the cost! These were the days of atmosphere at grounds, Arsenal would have the whole of the Park Lane, Spurs would have the entire North Bank for the Derby games. Tens of thousands of fans, not the allocation of a few hundred tickets now wedged away in the corner so as not to upset the real paying customers in the £400 seats with a prawn sandwich and glass of wine at half time.

So when you wish for the demise of Sky, remember that will mean a lot less football available than there is now. The present system is far from ideal and the Premier League should take this as the final warning that they actually need to look to fans to understand what the future model should be, but to just turn Sky off - that would be a sparse line up of teams the following week.