Has TV coverage ruined English football?

Millions of people from around the world tune in to the Premier League each week hoping to catch a glimpse of their footballing heroes.

The world is fanatical about football and because of this television companies have incredible power over the game, especially in England.

Control

Television companies in England now have the right to move the kick-off of games to whatever time they wish. The old 3PM kick-off on a Saturday afternoon is now a dinosaur. Most of the big games now take place on Sunday afternoon.

If you’re in England you have to subscribe to two satellite/cable channels if you want to see all the live Premier League games. However a terrestrial channel does carry a highlights show but you see very little of your sides game unless your side are playing Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool.

Trouble

The rise of the television company’s power in England also looks to have had an effect on gates across the country. Some of the Premier League games now have awful attendance figures. You look at some of the smaller teams in the league and despite the television money they could do with a few more spectators coming through the turnstiles.

With the television money has came overspending on wages and transfer fees. This has proved a big problem at Portsmouth. They are a relatively small club compared to a lot of their rivals in the league.

Yet because they thought they had the television money to fall back on they spent what they couldn’t afford and now could go out of existence. Obviously the television companies can’t be blamed for poor financial management, but would Pompey have overspent if they didn’t know they had the TV money coming at the start of each season?

If they survive this season, then next season they will have to rely on parachute payments in the Championship. The same sort of thing happened at Leeds United and its taken them six years and two relegation’s to get anywhere near back to steadying the ship.

Lower

Even games from League One and Two have been televised live on television in recent weeks. These lower league clubs depend on people coming to the games and the fans are the lifeblood of these smaller clubs. They may receive decent money for the cameras being at the game but I’m sure they would prefer fans at the game.

Torn

I have to admit that I’m torn on the issue of whether the blanket coverage of football in England is good or bad and I do have both the channels necessary to watch Premier League football. One of the main reasons for me subscribing to these services is that these two channels also carry coverage of other European leagues.

As a football writer and football fan I like to experience every there is to sample when it comes to football. I watch football from Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Holland and Scotland. And if it wasn’t for such comprehensive coverage I wouldn’t get to see what the other European leagues have to offer. To say I was against such coverage would be hypocritical.

Spread

One thing that would make me feel better about paying those subscription fees would be for the money to be spread around the leagues. So that the grass roots of English football would actually benefit from the enormous amount of cash that the television company’s receive from viewers.

Instead the company directors line their own pockets. I would also like the Premier League clubs to receive less money from these companies and the money going to developing the game further down the pyramid.

However naive this notion is on my part, it would make the Premier League clubs take a serious look at their finances. In these days of financial trouble and poor management that would be no bad thing.