Just how out of touch are the FA and those that run football? Just when will they realise that most fans are sick to death of being messed about and some are being forced away from the clubs they love?
The Villa’s home game against West Ham on October 6 is the only game to kick off at 3pm on that Saturday. ONE GAME? 3pm, Saturday afternoon, is the traditional time for football and the time that most of us want to be at our clubs watching football. Not 5.15pm thank you very much, not 12.30 or 12.00 and most certainly not crummy lunch time kick offs on a Sunday when I for one want to be stuffing my face with roast beef and yorkshire pud!
Villa v the Hammers will be only one of two games (the other is Manchester United v Wigan at the stupid time of 12.45pm) on the Saturday, another 8 are played the day after.
Part of the reason is the stupid decision to play Uefa Cup ties on a Thursday. Seriously, football does not have to be on every night of the week and if it does, surely Tuesday and Wednesday would be more suitable for teams who have weekend fixtures upcoming?
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters’ Federation, said: ‘Fans still very much like the traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off and the decline in that element of the game is a matter of great concern. For there to be just one game kicking off at that time is quite extraordinary and it will be a dark weekend for fans. It’s symbolic of the way things are going but the views of the match-going fan seem to be bottom of the list of priorities. We will certainly bring this up at our next meeting with the Premier League.’
A Premier League spokesman, obviously oblivious to what fans want, said: ‘It is a combination of factors – teams featuring in Europe, television games and policing issues. We always try to give fans as much notice as possible as our research shows that if we do that, then they can make the appropriate travel arrangements.’
It isn’t always that simple and I think it is high time the fans got a say in the way the game is run. Saturday 3pm and Wednesday nights at 7.45pm. It worked well for many years and should be the bedrock that football is run by.
Villa alone had around 9 fixture changes before Christmas, this is just not on.
Do you agree or am I just a moaning old fashioned git?!?
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