A Tradition Dies But There's Nobody There To See it
History is made tomorrow when for the first time in the history of top flight English football only one match kicks off at 3 p.m - Aston Villa v West Ham.
This weeks UEFA Cup games and the demands of television means that all the other matches, with the exception of Wigan v Man Utd which kicks off on Saturday at 12:15, have been moved back to Sunday.
Last week on Talksport the 15th anniversary of the Premier League's inception was celebrated with a phone-in asking listeners to name those things that had changed for the better and those that had changed for the worse during the life of the Premiership. The subjects aired included: the change of the back pass rule (although obviously Liverpool must have hated that as it meant they couldn't bore opponents to death before nipping down the other end to score, notice how they stopped winning league when the rule changed), all seater stadia, better food (!) but the one that got most people going was the change from the traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off.
Now this week Football Focus runs a similar exercise and 65% of the voters when asked whether or not the demise of the 3pm kick off was a good thing or not said good. Now I know that football focus and Talk Sport have different agendas but I wouldn't have thought the listeners/viwers were that far apart.
Since Sky became official league partners and then official Premiership Sponsors I've seen West Ham play on everyday apart from Thursday thanks to the demands of television. I suppose as the demographics of football going supporters change so will the memories and kick offs on a Saturday afternoon will be something us oldies talk about.
4 comments:
It's madness, isn't it.
Once upon a time everything was settled for the week by ten to five on Saturday afternoon and then it was time to watch Doctor Who.
We're all getting old, aren't we?
We are Shy. Did you ever have the Football Pink newspaper in Sunderland (or Lancashire before you moved)?
I can remember catching the train from Upton Park to Waterloo and picking up the footbal paper before getting on the train home, and that was in the days before internet and mobile phones.
Up here in the remote north we still have the Football Pink. Where my wife is from it's actually green and is actually known as "The Green 'Un".
I suspect that technology marches to different beat round here and I can't help thinking that the term "internet penetration" has a different meaning in Sunderland!
Lol Shy!
I don't know if you watched the rugby today but Stuart Barnes said that England had been molesting George Gregan all afternoon and that Australia lacked penetration! Those crazy rugby guys eh.
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