Great article in today's Independent - discuss - agree or disagree?

[drew]

I suppose it depends how you want to run the sport/club really. Is football a sport, or a tourist attraction? If it's a tourist attraction then you make it shiny with wi-fi and a 'day out' sort of event, with tourist attraction prices because if these individuals don't come back they'll be replaced by other tourists (which is great). If it's a sport you focus on that, and those that want to come will do so week-in, week-out, pretty much regardless (which is great). What you can't do is have it both ways round - you cannot charge people 'once a year' prices every week.

The FA seriously need to look at the point of their existence. If their aim is to have a strong national team capable of winning the World Cup, which World Cup are they aiming for? What is their plan to create a team that can do it? What are they putting in place to make it happen, and when? How are they going to measure the intermediate success to see whether they're on track or not? If their purpose is something else, what is it?

Why is football trying to have its cake and eat it? And why are we surprised when this fails every 4 years?!!

The FA govern the game from top to bottom in this country. Whether that be kids playing at the weekend or the national team. They are not there to exclusively ensure the success of the England Mens team. Perhaps if people opened their eyes and saw the wider picture they might not be so blinkered in their condemnation. Unfortunately, at the top end of the game, the FA have ceded a massive chunk of power to the Premier league but then we all know money talks.

 

[drew]

I agree with you also... to an extent.

I agree. Fans do not change their allegiance often and, if it does happen, it's almost always as a result of a significant move to another part of the country and takes years for the transition to occur.

The early nineties saw surges in support for various sports which, I think was down to the customers leaving the product (as well as the brand). Rugby saw a huge rise in popularity and there are many among my generation who are not "natural" egg chasers but were driven from football by the associated stigma. I recall American Football was big over here at the time and even Baseball was on mainstream telly. Many UK cities suddenly had Ice Hockey and Basketball teams which seem to have since disappeared as football has rehabilitated itself. None of these other sports were huge I admit, but I'm sure the vast majority of their supporters would have been football fans were the match day experience like it is now.

Have to agree with this. I stuck with it through the 70s and 80s and am glad I did but it's not hard to see why a lot of people were put off.