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Charlie Beckett

April 3rd, 2007

It’s the money not the media that makes fans mad

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

April 3rd, 2007

It’s the money not the media that makes fans mad

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

So Sir Alec ferguson thinks rudeness in the media makes football fans turn in such a venomous way upon sports big figures like Steve McClaren? Well I think he is right that the bitterness of previously loyal football fans is more evident at national as well as league level. But the media has always been coarse about our national sport and it’s no worse now. If anything there is a kind of unspoken pact between the press, the TV companies and the clubs to deliver a sanitised soap opera in return for a multi-million pound entertainment business (previously known as The National Game) that handsomely rewards all concerned. no the real reason is that fans are sick of being treated like mugs. they pay a fortune for season tickets etc Then they watch incredibly well-paid young chaps fail to deliver or show commitment. That is all understandable – my workrate might drop if I was given a five year million quid contract. But it doesn’t make the fan feel good about the product.
I should confess I am a season ticket holder at a certain East London club facing the drop. I’ve never heard the vitriol that a minority of fans expressed against their own players before. We are used to bubbles bursting. But I blame the disconnection between the owners, players and officials from the people who pay for football, not the journalists, for the increase in bile.

About the author

Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Journalism