Football League Suspended

[Stuart]

8 minutes ago, rigger said:

If you feel strongly about it, just listen on the radio.

Brilliant that. Well done.

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

10 in the Championship.

That ten included players and staff

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

BCD really doesn’t feel like football is coming back.

Feels more like it’s being kidnapped by TV companies.

Really? So you rather have no football until we have vaccine or treatment for coronavirus then? It is a short term measure. That's it

The TV companies have been great in putting every game on TV for fans. And Stuart football has been on TV for 28 years now. Some fans only watched their team on TV. 

[TBTF]

7 hours ago, Athlete said:

The best post I have read on this forum for a long while.. 

Most clubs are now offering refunds and those that aren't are doing some incentive for season ticket holders yet the silence from Ewood is deafening 

Let's not forget BWD is one of the most deprived areas of the country and a lot of fans will be struggling at the moment 

Holiday firms and airlines have to offer refunds football should be no different 

A burning question for me was would it be right to accept a refund ??  Well with the salary Waggot gets.. The Answer is Yes 

 

 

Yes it was a great post by JHR .

The absurdity that football is has been spotlighted through this pandemic and a good many will have come to despise it with what they have been force fed Via the media. Pure and simple it’s about money . But that doesn’t set them apart from the rest of the economy - problem is they think they are a special case all the time. I’m sick of reading and hearing that we NEED football back . Personally I couldn’t give a rats arse anymore - perspectives have changed massively for many people . And if behind closed doors is the answer then I reckon football is going to be in for a massive shock . Without a shadow of doubt ST sales will be decimated - certainly in impoverished areas like ours. 
The bubble is about to burst and not before time contract values are set to plummet this summer . I’m not even sure I will renew my sky football let alone my ST such is my apathy towards it all. 
If there is any more bleating about how hard done by they are it will finish me off . All we read is about testing ... what about the rest of the universe being able to get tests ??
But the last straw will be any approach by ‘football‘ for a government bail out because of its ‘importance’ to society . That would sicken me tbh but I would walk away forever if if taxpayers money ( we already pay to go anyway) is used to bail out the game.

This pandemic has been a generational leveller affecting the lives of millions . But millions of normal people have stepped up and in doing so have shown football to be By comparison the grotesque business that we all really knew it was.

They are not special cases in a million years and if Waggott and his cronies even start down that hard done to road then it really will be all over for me .

Edited May 30, 2020 by TBTF

[rigger]

9 hours ago, Stuart said:

Brilliant that. Well done.

Thank you,

[arbitro]

My Sky Sports subscription has been suspended and yesterday I dang Sky to cancel it completely. The pleasant young lady asked me why and I told her that I just don't want to watch football without any supporters inside the stadiums. I also said the last few weeks have confirmed a long held view that the EPL and Championship have become ogres with money being more important than anything. The fear of having to pay back broadcasting money has perversely been dressed up as integrity - a bigger oxy moron you would struggle to find. 

[arbitro]

The FA are still hopeful the Youth Cup can be completed. I don't know how clubs will be with regard to the scholars contracts coming to an end, probably before the suggested dates.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52864383

[Stuart]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

My Sky Sports subscription has been suspended and yesterday I dang Sky to cancel it completely. The pleasant young lady asked me why and I told her that I just don't want to watch football without any supporters inside the stadiums. I also said the last few weeks have confirmed a long held view that the EPL and Championship have become ogres with money being more important than anything. The fear of having to pay back broadcasting money has perversely been dressed up as integrity - a bigger oxy moron you would struggle to find. 

I cancelled my Sky Sports just before lockdown, and thankfully before they dreamt up the suspension idea.

I’ve no intention of renewing. It just isn’t value for money and even when I did have it I found myself watching less and less and almost no PL games, ending up really only watching Rovers away games on red button. The PL has just become sterile. Any fixture involving a team from the (traditional) bottom half was only ever important to me when one of those teams was Blackburn Rovers.

As far as BCD, having watched most of the Bayern - Schalke game it did not encourage me to go back one bit. Fanless football indeed!

 

Have to say, hearing that Sky are introducing new features to increase fan interaction sounds foreboding. Far from getting back, this could well be where clubs decide to permanently close a stand or a couple of tiers (Waggott way ahead of the curve on that one) and go all in with the TV companies. (I jest, of course - at least I hope I do!)

“New Sky Sports digital innovations also planned to enhance fan experience”

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11996210/sky-sports-to-show-64-live-premier-league-games-with-25-free-to-air

Also, fans are now a ‘contingency’ to BCD with actual spectators to be phased back - how will they be decided?:

“No one knows when matches will move away from the behind-closed-doors model and it is right to have contingency plans in place, but there is optimism at the Premier League and at clubs that we will see fans back in the stadiums next season and it may happen on a phased basis," Masters said.”

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/11996642/premier-league-chief-executive-richard-masters-optimistic-of-fans-returning-next-season

 

Oh, and to rub salt in the wounds Sky are now offering a sports package which combines their coverage with BT subscription. Brilliant! Just like they used to have when Sky had exclusive rights but now it just costs more. Good old competition laws to protect consumers from being ripped off. Talk about being taken the piss out of!

If Jim White thinks it’s a good idea then it probably isn’t!

 

It could be argued that after becoming the proverbial self-licking lollipop, football finally ate itself but the PL handing over control to the TV companies is what has really killed it. Such a shame they can’t franchise the top 10 PL clubs and let the rest of football have real competition - including exclusivity of the FA Cup. Let’s face it, everyone would be happy. “BSkyT” can have it (and the Champions League for me) and terrestrial TV can have the rest.

[Norbert Rassragr]

I can imagine Jim selling it like the Athletico Mince version of him: "This offer is so exciting, it is making my balls tingle and a bit leaking out my Jap's eye. Are you excited by this offer?"

[rigger]

I packed in Sky three years ago, I don’t miss it one bit. I miss going to the Rovers like crazy. Not just the game, but the interaction as well.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

My Sky Sports subscription has been suspended and yesterday I dang Sky to cancel it completely. The pleasant young lady asked me why and I told her that I just don't want to watch football without any supporters inside the stadiums. I also said the last few weeks have confirmed a long held view that the EPL and Championship have become ogres with money being more important than anything. The fear of having to pay back broadcasting money has perversely been dressed up as integrity - a bigger oxy moron you would struggle to find. 

Some strange views on here imo.

A lot of people (who supported the immediate cessation of football) seem quite pleased with themselves that they have subsequently cancelled their Satellite and Cable TV subscriptions as there's no live football on. 

Fair play, I can't argue with anyone that's done that. Sensible move.

However you can't do that on the one hand then complain about the fact that football are complaining they have to repay money to broadcasters. Why do they have to do that? Firstly because they have a contractual obligation to provide the entertainment they've been paid for and secondly because the TV Companies are losing money hand over first as well because everyone has been cancelling their subscriptions! They're all businesses at the end of the day

It's a bit like the players complaining about returning too early when the Clubs only real  reason to return earlier than would be otherwise necessary is the fact that nearly all the Clubs revenue goes straight into the players' pockets and they can't withstand having to repay a chunk of TV revenue.

It really is hypocrisy and lack of self awareness of the highest order from the top players. We've seen the utmost resistance from them and the PFA to the idea of anything other than minor and temporary wage deferrals and when public sentiment seemed to be shifting against them, they somehow managed to head it off at the pass by forming a voluntary charity which we have no idea whether the majority are contributing anything significant, or anything at all to.

The whole problem stems from the fact the players are paid too much. This is hardly a new concept and the upside of that in this Country is that apart from maybe Real Madrid, Barcelona or Nation State funded PSG,  a move to one of the Premier League's top five or six Clubs is the most favourable option for the world's best players.

The downside is that we all knew deep down it couldn't go on forever. We probably didn't expect it to be for this reason or so soon as the market for overseas rights hadn't yet been saturated where the PL was concerned. However we probably all expected that at some point the TV Companies would say "enough is enough" and either pull out altogether or start reducing their offers.

You can therefore criticise the Clubs for the way they've carried on over the years leading us to this position. You can definitely  imo criticise them if they try to make themselves out to be a special case, resist efforts to get them to return when the normal population has to, and even more so if they subsequently start asking for subsidies.

I don't think though you can criticise  Clubs for failing to foresee this particular crisis or the fact that they are in trouble because of it.

No-one could have foreseen it.

[rigger]

22 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Some strange views on here imo.

A lot of people (who supported the immediate cessation of football) seem quite pleased with themselves that they have subsequently cancelled their Satellite and Cable TV subscriptions as there's no live football on. 

Fair play, I can't argue with anyone that's done that. Sensible move.

However you can't do that on the one hand then complain about the fact that football are complaining they have to repay money to broadcasters. Why do they have to do that? Firstly because they have a contractual obligation to provide the entertainment they've been paid for and secondly because the TV Companies are losing money hand over first as well because everyone has been cancelling their subscriptions! They're all businesses at the end of the day

It's a bit like the players complaining about returning too early when the Clubs only real  reason to return earlier than would be otherwise necessary is the fact that nearly all the Clubs revenue goes straight into the players' pockets and they can't withstand having to repay a chunk of TV revenue.

It really is hypocrisy and lack of self awareness of the highest order from the top players. We've seen the utmost resistance from them and the PFA to the idea of anything other than minor and temporary wage deferrals and when public sentiment seemed to be shifting against them, they somehow managed to head it off at the pass by forming a voluntary charity which we have no idea whether the majority are contributing anything significant, or anything at all to.

The whole problem stems from the fact the players are paid too much. This is hardly a new concept and the upside of that in this Country is that apart from maybe Real Madrid, Barcelona or Nation State funded PSG,  a move to one of the Premier League's top five or six Clubs is the most favourable option for the world's best players.

The downside is that we all knew deep down it couldn't go on forever. We probably didn't expect it to be for this reason or so soon as the market for overseas rights hadn't yet been saturated where the PL was concerned. However we probably all expected that at some point the TV Companies would say "enough is enough" and either pull out altogether or start reducing their offers.

You can therefore criticise the Clubs for the way they've carried on over the years leading us to this position. You can definitely  imo criticise them if they try to make themselves out to be a special case, resist efforts to get them to return when the normal population has to, and even more so if they subsequently start asking for subsidies.

I don't think though you can criticise  Clubs for failing to foresee this particular crisis or the fact that they are in trouble because of it.

No-one could have foreseen it.

You would have thought that octopus from the World Cup would have had some idea.

[chaddyrovers]

Behind Closed Doors football is a short term measures until we get a vaccine or treatment plan. That's it. 

I have no idea why when watching a football game on TV, the crowd really matters. Most of the time you don't hear them anyway

 

[Mattyblue]

You don’t, other people obviously do think it impacts the spectacle and therefore their enjoyment of a match.

So, cancelling a not cheap monthly package then makes perfect sense, no?

[arbitro]

22 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Behind Closed Doors football is a short term measures until we get a vaccine or treatment plan. That's it. 

I have no idea why when watching a football game on TV, the crowd really matters. Most of the time you don't hear them anyway

 

Of course you hear them unless you are just being selective. It's a choice that people make and whilst it is one of my reasons for cancelling I know of quite a few who have simply said they can't afford it anymore and football has slipped down their list of priorities.

You have to understand that there are differing views to yours.

[Stuart]

59 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Behind Closed Doors football is a short term measures until we get a vaccine or treatment plan. That's it. 

I have no idea why when watching a football game on TV, the crowd really matters. Most of the time you don't hear them anyway

This is exactly what the TV companies what you to think - and it hasn’t even started yet. Thankfully you are a minority or clubs would be selling their stadiums and upgrading their training facilities. Professional football is only a thing because people wanted to pay to watch and cheer on their team.

Football is going to be very sterile. Someone told me to listen on the radio. Well, it would be a pretty quiet radio show - more like an audiobook.

Even more daft is that we will probably see garden parties and house parties replace terraces and pubs for a while, negating the social distancing requirement - but at least everyone will be able to have a cheap beer while they watch. TV companies couldn’t have scripted a premature restart any better.

Now if they can just convince more people to think like Chaddy...

[Mattyblue]

Oh there are plenty Stuart, however normally they are social media obsessed  PL ‘fans’ that couldn’t find a football ground if you plonked them on Anfield Road, not ST holders that should actually appreciate what a club represents, and who should cherish it, but there you go.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Mattyblue

[speeeeeeedie]

6 hours ago, arbitro said:

My Sky Sports subscription has been suspended and yesterday I dang Sky to cancel it completely. The pleasant young lady asked me why and I told her that I just don't want to watch football without any supporters inside the stadiums. I also said the last few weeks have confirmed a long held view that the EPL and Championship have become ogres with money being more important than anything. The fear of having to pay back broadcasting money has perversely been dressed up as integrity - a bigger oxy moron you would struggle to find. 

Of course it's all about money. Very few things aren't in the 21st century.

I talk to a lot of people about football. This forum is the only place where the majority view is not to resume games. The reasons for are all over the place too. Taking away resources from elsewhere. Football isn't football without fans. 

I mentioned it last week but there is a bitterness toward the game from a few on here. I don't understand it. Football exists outside of Ewood. There's a whole world of it out there.

 

[Mattyblue]

Don’t understand it? Because the modern game is a cesspit, perhaps that doesn’t come across on a glossy PL match day on NBC Soccer Channel or whatever.

Rovers come first on here, it’s full of club fanatics, so obviously we look at stuff through a blue and white lens, a different view from others you speak to.

You’ve said before that you aren’t that arsed about Rovers, that you prefer watching England games and the Premier League.

Fair enough, as I imagine it’s difficult picking up our games out there without ifollow, but nobody should apologise for putting a Rovers and EFL spin on things.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Mattyblue

[arbitro]

11 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Of course it's all about money. Very few things aren't in the 21st century.

I talk to a lot of people about football. This forum is the only place where the majority view is not to resume games. The reasons for are all over the place too. Taking away resources from elsewhere. Football isn't football without fans. 

I mentioned it last week but there is a bitterness toward the game from a few on here. I don't understand it. Football exists outside of Ewood. There's a whole world of it out there.

 

I really don't understand your last sentence. For the majority on here it's Rovers and then generally other football falls behind. Along with my brothers we have been watching Rovers over 150 years and speaking to them they are so unmotivated and ambivalent towards football at the moment it's hard to envisage them getting season tickets whenever they are on sale. The last ten weeks have given many, many people a wake up call to other things that push football further down their priority list. Personally I have missed going to watch Rovers with friends and family but not the actual football itself which is hit and miss. There hasn't been a void left in my life through not being able to watch football and that is only the reasons I have cancelled my Sky Sports subscription.

 

 

[Stuart]

Posters on a Rovers messageboard being more interested in Rovers than an armchair-neutral “wider world”, who’d have thought?

Or maybe I’m just too parochial in my old age!

[roversfan99]

I have been a big critic of bringing back football so soon but its far from a unique industry in terms of being desperate to get back to business as soon as permitted to do so for financial reasons.

I also think that, as @chaddyrovers points out behind closed doors is a short term measure. It is not a decision made purposely to try and tailor football towards the armchair supporters or anything like that, it is out of necessity only. 

The part where he is talking out of his arse however is when he dismisses the role of supporters in the experience of watching a football game. That is an opinion either out of ignorance and naivety, or one whereby he will champion anything resulting from the decisions of the current Tory government. Not necessarily from him but quotes like "new normal" and "becoming a TV sport" are annoying too. Once he watches some behind closed doors football, maybe that opinion will change, I have watched quite a few Bundesliga games since the restart in passing and it is nowhere near the same. It is different on two levels, the individual games which dont feel the same, and the overall feeling that the winners and losers of the final league season lose their importance somewhat, who cares who wins the league etc when there is no one around to see it?

I see the remaining season as somewhat of a empty shell and something that is being done as a tick box exercise just to have a season completed in the records. My worry is towards next season because if as expected at least some if not all of the season is behind closed doors, which i appreciate and understand any decision if that has to be the case, how is it possible to be enthusiastic about a season which will not particularly matter.

[speeeeeeedie]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Don’t understand it? Because the modern game is a cesspit, perhaps that doesn’t come across on a glossy PL match day on NBC Soccer Channel or whatever.

Rovers come first on here, it’s full of club fanatics, so obviously we look at stuff through a blue and white lens, a different view from others you speak to.

You’ve said before that you aren’t that arsed about Rovers, that you prefer watching England games and the Premier League.

Fair enough, as I imagine it’s difficult picking up our games out there without ifollow, but nobody should apologise for putting a Rovers and EFL spin on things.

I am fully aware that this is a Rovers board. I've been on it for years. I am a Rovers fan, always will be. However, living overseas somewhat limits my ability to go to Ewood or get a feeling of how events are felt in East Lancs.

I do get to see Rovers games on TV each season. The last two I watched were utter dross. Wigan at home, Derby away. If I had a season ticket I'd wonder about ever going again if those performances were an indicator of what usually occurs.

I put some of the bitterness down to Rovers current situation. Being owned by Venkys and middling around the Championship is frustrating for supporters who enjoyed 20 years at the top table, and a few prior to that almost getting there more than once.

Above all I like football. I want Rovers to do well but my life or mood doesn't change if they win or lose. It never has. 

 

[Mattyblue]

And that’s where you differ from most on here.

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

And that’s where you differ from most on here.

Exactly. If we lose, I do not watch, listen, or read anything football, until we play again.

[chaddyrovers]

Football is becoming a TV Sport for all supporters for short period of time and until it is safe and we have vaccine or treatment plan. The majority of sport is a TV sport now whether its football, cricket, F1 or other sports. The PL is offering all fans to be available to watch it through TV companies. 

I think Sky Sports package is cheap in my opinion. I only paid 28 pounds per month for Sky Sports coverage of the sports I like to watch each week. People will disagree with me But considering what sports I watch it is fully worth it. 

43 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

The part where he is talking out of his arse however is when he dismisses the role of supporters in the experience of watching a football game. That is an opinion either out of ignorance and naivety, or one whereby he will champion anything resulting from the decisions of the current Tory government. Not necessarily from him but quotes like "new normal" and "becoming a TV sport" are annoying too. Once he watches some behind closed doors football, maybe that opinion will change,

I have seen behind closed games before as I have said before. Football has to become a TV Sport for a while. You watch alot of football already on TV so Football is TV Sport for you.