English Football's a ripoff - official

[Peter Orchard]

Great article by Paul Wilson in the Guardian is a must read.

[MickeyPaul]

Interesting indeed, Peter.

While the product on the pitch is still recognisably English, and good, knockabout fun much of the time, life in the Premiership is far from fun for the dozen or so clubs who are scared to death of going down. Far too many fixtures are about survival and many are much too grim to be classed as entertainment. And money is the problem.

Someone posted something here (I think) a few months back talking about the drop in quality of the Premiership and I think I replied about the danger of it going the same way as the Scots Premier went where almost everyone outside the Old Firm were terrified of being dragged into the relegation battle and the quality of the football was reflecting this fear. Also teams scrapping for Euro places with the money that brings seemed to be playing in a similar, negative fashion.

I've seen so few matches or teams the last couple of years that have excited me and quite frankly I don't mind missing games these days. The last two teams I can recall really exciting me were South Korea and Japan at the World Cup. They'll soon learn though.

[crowie]

Yep, its a good article Peter

From my experiences.

We were charged £25 a ticket for the recent Scotland v Italy game, the first fixture in the San Siro saw us paying £11 for a ticket.

I was in Dortmund a couple of years ago for the Germany v Scotland game. Remember looking at the Dortmund website before I went to have a look at stadium etc. For normal league games they removed a large part of the seating and made it a (I think) 20,000 capacity terracing. Pretty sure the standing prices were something like 9 Euros (bout £6). And people wonder why they get average attendances of 80,000.

Also, in Italy, Serie B game I was at, Hellas v Cagliari, 2004. 10 Euro a ticket. Also had cracking level 1 seats behind the goal for Inter v Parma for £22 incl booking fees (from Inter website).

I am sure one of my local teams (Raith Rovers) are about £13 a ticket for Scottish Div 2, Dunfermline can be about £20 for SPL (although they do a good deal on parent/child tickets I believe). I would rather go and watch the local Junior side, Hill O'Beath for £3.

[MickeyPaul]

I heard a good discussion about it all on Soccer Saturday at the weekend and Alan McInally was adamant that teams had no obligation at all to provide entertainment. Not really the way to go about attracting new fans is it?

Jim McClean wasn't everyone's cup of tea but one thing in particular I admired him for was that he cared about providing entertainment and making sure the fans got their money's worth. Alex Ferguson too shares a similar philosophy I believe. It is actually possible to play good attacking football and win games is it not? I read it in a book.

I can't imagine paying £20+ to sit and be bored to tears for 2 hours when I could be in the pub. It's all very well for the hardcore fans but I need more. If they want me, they're going to have to excite me in the same way that 10 pints of Guinness can. That aint gonna be easy.

[all_funkt_up]

The way they see it in Europe is that they would rather charge 80'000 fans £10 each rather than 30'000 £30 each.....

Remember seeing a comparison of season ticket prices and at Juve this season, there is a ticket for kids that costs them a £1 a game.

Interesting that the Guardian http://football.guardian.co.uk/comme...551650,00.html seems to be the standard bearer of Fan's rights these days. I remember reading that last month and seeing that a Ticket for Bristol was twice the price of one for Real Madrid

I hope they think its worth it.... Makes you wonder where the money goes doesnt it. We dont have the most successful league (in European competition terms), we dont have the 'best' players and yet pay through the nose for our football.

Look at Manchester United for example, the richest club in the world, a "footballing success" and yet they have won only one European Cup knockout game since 1999. They arent and their fans arent getting value for money surely. Top dollar doesnt necessarily mean the best eh....

The more I try to rationalise why a trip to Anfield is worth a day off work and £100, the less I find I am able to. Like now, I am sat frantically trying to get tickets for next week's game v Chelsea and wondering if theres any point...... £42 it cost me for my ticket for the Birmingham game this coming weekend, plus trainfare and a few pints and I wonder what the point is when I see Morientes skulking around like a spoilt kid.

what is the point...............................?

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Talk about timing - taking from the BBC site this is. The FA are to investigate into failing attendances it seems.

Premier League chiefs will stage a special meeting to study whether rising ticket prices and television coverage have contributed to falling crowds.
The attendance working group, headed by chief executive Richard Scudamore, will deal with concerns from chairmen.

Blackburn chairman John Williams, a member of the group, said: "We have to do something now because by the time you see the bandwagon it's too late."

Their attendance against Newcastle on Sunday was 9,000 fewer than last term.

Williams added: "We in the Premier League have had 10 great years, a fantastic success story, but we are certainly going through the doldrums now.

"Richard Scudamore is going to reconstitute the working group and it's time to sit down and go through a whole plethora of things that might be done.

"The wheels have not come off but the product does need a good service - it needs tweaking rather than major surgery."

Williams believes a combination of factors including saturation television coverage, tickets prices, negative tactics and predictable results are behind the fall in attendances.

Sports minister Richard Caborn said he too was concerned by the fall in numbers.

Caborn said: "I'm pleased the Premier League has taken this initiative, and the working party is going to have to look at whether clubs are pricing fans out of going to matches.

"One also has to question how much football there is on television and whether it's undermining attendances. I believe there is clear evidence that is the case."

Caborn added that football now had greater competition for fans from other sports, particularly in the first two months of the season from cricket and both rugby codes.

The working party will report any proposals to the next meeting of Premier League chairmen in November.

However, the Premier League remains optimistic and it points out that there were worries about attendances at this point last season but that overall the clubs operated at a 94.2% occupancy rate compared to 93.7% in the 2002-03 season.

Those figures are considerably higher than in Spain and Germany, despite prices in those countries being significantly lower.

A spokesman said: "It's very early in the season to take any sort of meaningful analysis from these statistics."

[christianu]

You bloody Scots- jealous that we have one of the best leagues in the world. Jumping on this as fast as you can :booty