There has to be a middle ground. Early Saturday kick off for example is totally ****. Part of the charm of going to live football is going to the pub before and after the game, chatting with mates, eventually ending up on a bender...

Having a proper 3 o'clock Saturday game is now a bi monthly thing pretty much as an Arsenal fan. I don't mind the 5.15 Saturday game so much, but early kick offs, Sunday games and midweek games are a bit ****. And it used to be mainly 3 o'clock on Saturday with a few games moved for TV, not its every game moved for TV with a few fluke 3 o'clock Saturday games.

early ko's are the worstest, there is absolutely no chance of an atmosphere unless uv been drinking since 8am, which i normally have been but most other ppl dont for some reason.

aldershot away games are shocking these days. we have a reputation for hooliganism which is partly true but mainly we bring more than a coach load of fans to away games so we have 12pm ko's. Ebbsfleet 2 weeks ago, crawley on easter monday. how are ppl supposed to get to places by 11.30 to go to a footy match srsly?

and the phrase "grand slam sunday" tilts teh **** out of me

I admit the Liverpool animation is funny. I have the theory that we are going to win the league only when Manchester is exactly one league behind us.

Having been in Madrid with Aberdeen, and seen what happened with Bolton, I fully expected that to have gone right over your head.

But whatever, I'm a Bolton fan, not one of the fans that were there. Whereas you're a Man City fan whose opinions on the Munich silence were pretty abhorent to the majority, thankfully your fellow supporters have more class than you do.

I have to say it never used to bother me Mel, as I like the Sunday kick-offs. But it has now become ridiculous, and traipsing up to Hampden for a 12.15 kick-off for a semi-final has probably been the thing that has changed my mind.

Too much money involved for it to change I'm afraid, but my season ticket isn't being renewed, and I'm almost certainly pulling the plug on SKY too, which will no doubt be adding a few quid shortly to pay for their new Champs League deal.

I agree that its pretty ****ing ****ty that the schedule has been adjusted for foreign fans, and not changed to make things more convenient for fans in England. Thats just crazy.

Quite the fair-weather fan. Why are you worried about Prem. start times when "your team" is headed for Champs. Convenient excuse to dump these losers. By the way, isn't it a coincidence that you dropped your "Aberdeen F.C." avatar right after it got bounced from the UEFA cup?

Tell us what will happen next year when Bolton is down. By your rules, are you ethically barred from supporting any teams in the Prem? Are you allowed to take a rooting interest in any given match seeing that "your team" is not even in the league? This is really interesting to me. What happens if Bolton never makes it back, are you never going to have a rooting interest in the Prem? Please let us know the proper rules to follow here.

Something smells rotten in Warrington, I'd say.

raju,

you seriously think that teams are concerned about fans? it's about the bottom line. if city can sell out with high ticket prices while making five digits annually from TV rights, you suggest that they should not? or would you rather lower ticket prices, lowering their wage or transfer budget and putting a worse product on the pitch?

call me crazy, but if i supported a club like city, i'd put up with a few noon kickoffs in exchange for a champions league finish.

this needs to be up here more

We've done the glory hunter bit. They'll never admit that it's an issue.

I dont know what you mean by that.

Anyway, Im totally behind you with the dumping your season ticket thing, I havent renewed mine yet and im not sure if i will. I already mentioned City cant sell me the product i want to buy which is 3pm saturday KOs

Ironically, if we went down i would instantly renew as it means more 3 oclocks for us.


Theo, Its not an individual club issue is it? The whole league (i think) sign up to the tv money and then some clubs get more inconvenienced by it than others. I think City suffer more than most due to the large tv audience they pull, maybe theres a chart somwhere that shows whos on when and how often? Statshaft?


And, I know this sounds a little wierd, I really do, but i would happily go back to the days when we saw one or two games televised each week and everybody Kicked off at 3. You can argue all you like about better products on the pitch but whats changed for the majority of clubs?

We have one or two players we consider to be excellent at what they do and then the odd flair player who excites the crowd. But we always did have, as far back as i can remember. Only now we pay stupid money to see them play at stupid times and we`ve never heard of them.

Thats not a better product. Thats the same product repackaged in shiny paper.


I still dont see who is trousering the £1.7 billion

Fatshaft, I hope your day goes well, Im not going as its the Easter Holidays and my wife wants us to spend some family time together. Oh joy!

Why did I bet on Martins to score first? What a brainfart.

midget viduka FTW..


C'MON FULHAM!

Well you didn;t miss much raju, especially from your guys. Bolton had the majority of the chances, but are now all but dead, unless they can pick up at least four points away to Villa, Spurs, Boro and Chelsea which doesn't look on.

As far as your comments on the price and quality on offer, I concur wholeheartedly (see the Mitchell & Webb sketch I posted earlier).

The EPL is no better, in fact I would argue it's worse entertainment than in the days of the great Liverpool sides, but that wouldn't fit with SKY's corporate message, so they continually bang the drum, and because they dominate football coverage, the man in the street eats it up, despite the evidence of their own eyes to the contrary.

So tomorrow once again we have "Grand Slam Sunday", more overhyped nonsense that we've been subjected to for over a week now.

He's not dumping due to the timing issue; he's jumping off board his sinking team. He already knows Bolton is going to the Champs and that the new scheduling is not going to affect it.

Don't be surprised to see FatShart in a Liverpool kit next season; his Celtic home/away combo is already on order now that Aberdeen F.C. is not up to snuff.

.

I just heard some Horrific news that will see the end of my season ticket buying days if its true.

The new tv deals for the PL involve live games on sat/sun/mon/TUE and WED

Anyone confirm/deny this?


With regard to big fight sunday or whatever the hype monkeys are calling it; How often do you see the same fixtures come out on the same weekend twice in a season on consecutive seasons if somebody isnt dictating to the "computor" who plays who on which dates?

I have another point to make before i go back to the wife.......


Who, out of those who go to the games, can honestly say they get more entertainment or "product" for their money than they did 20 years ago? Hell, even ten years ago?

Do you walk out of the ground feeling that you`d had more fun now than you did in say, 1990?

No? me either. Stick your money, your foreign imports, your all seater stadium and your blanket tv coverage right up your ****ing arse you theiving, money grabbing, band waggon jumping, self centerd ****ers.

The money has ruined something beautiful and i hope every penny burns anyone who made money out of it right in the dick.


I`m really,really,really, really ahhh i already said that.

yay, everton dropped points!

Uniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiited!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

Manchester, Manchester United
A bunch of bouncing Busby Babes
They deserve to be knighted!
If their playing in your town
Get yourself to that football ground
Take a lesson come and see
Football taught by Matt Busby

Oh there's no doubt SKY needed to up the hype a couple of season's back, and decided it was time to set up certain weekends for a huge hyped push. And what a surprise, Super Duper Mega Jumbo Sunday, happens to fall on Eatser Sunday, so bigger than ever viewing as fans stay in the pub all day getting blitzed without the fear of Monday morning commute ahead of them.



Nope not at all, the product now is way worse than it used to be. Mind you 20-30 years ago I was in the stands at Pittodrie watching some of the best teams the UK had ever seen, now I'm having to watch stale defensive premiership football, that the armchair fan rarely sees, or gets blinkered by all the hype, as the top 3 are continually shown.

Bolton recently sent all ST holders a survey and as well as multiple choice Q's, there was a space for comments.

My main comment being, if Game 39 comes off, I won't be back, if Game 39 is still possible come renewal time, I won't renew. Sadly, (or perhaps gladly), it looks a moot point as Bolton are in horrendous trouble now, but enough's enough. I'll be saving my money I spend on the EPL home and away, and making more (but less frequent) trips to watch the Dons next year, and indeed taking in the joys of non-league football at Warrington Town in the Unibond.

the good thing about the 4.00 ko 2day is that we all get an extra hour to work off a hangover and start teh process of another one before we all have to make our way down to CSKA Fulham.

COME ON YOU REDS!!!!

and im also thinking of saying to my dad not to renew our home seasons next year. the atmosphere at the emirates is ****e, i would rather spend my money on aways and going out imo.

Away matches really are the way to go. It's very weird for me personally cos u have to sit etc and get ****ing grassed to stewards for swearing at home. particularly though, i dont sing much as no1 ever joins you and you look like a class dickhead.

However today at CSKA fulham, i'll be singing my heart out, starting chants today and backing the boys to the death. there is just a different mentality in me that comes out at away matches, maybe being outnumbered by opposition fans makes u more up for the fight.
I also celebrate goals much more wildly. last season at the bridge, when flamini scored i fell down 4 rows of seats jumping around and started hyperventilating from screaming so much, that would never happen at a home game imo.

the root of the problem is all-seater stadia and marginal fans. At home, you get a lot of ppl who are clueless abt the mentality of football matches, want to sit down and are more interested in their halftime burger than the footy. Kickoff times are a problem, particularly 12.45 ones, but 5.15 / 4.00 arent really a problem unles ur trying to get back home at a reasonable hour.

Go Tigers Ra Ra Ra.

poor scouse... maybe next year!