British soccer losing public appeal

Press, 11 October 1985, Page 18

British soccer losing public appeal

/ •British soccer, set to lose .one and a half million fans this .season, is going broke. The national game, beset by .squabblirig, bickering, violence, greed and tragedy, no • longer appeals to the public. Last , year, only 17.8 - million people watched sDccer matches in England, a record low figure. This year the crowds are ( even smaller ■ with early ’• season predictions suggest,ihg another 1.6 million fans will . 'not pass through the . turnstiles. ■. .‘What has made matters more, painful for. the money . managers,. and. through them . the . players, is that soccer is hot being televised this season. ■ ‘ . . . The clubs confidently expected that Without the live /television coverage, and recorded game -highlights of last year, the crowds would flood .back. But the fans have voted with their feet -i the sport just is not good enough and attendances are down nine per cent on last .'year. . ■ . • .The “jobs”; of hundreds of professional players are in jeopardy because of the lack' of‘..interest in the •sports. ‘ .: iragedies of Brussels

and Bradford may have had some effect. Certainly riots at Birmingham and Leeds have turned peoples backs on the gates as well as the fans’ stomachs. Soccer has been crying poor for years. But it seems this time they mean it. The loss of the lucrative European games, because of the blame levelled at English football after the Brussels riot, is a body blow. New domestic competitions were announced to take up the slack. But hyped-up substitute competitions such as the Full Members Cup have failed to grab the fans and crowds at some of the games have been as low as 2000. And full neither describes the grounds nor the spectators because, drink has been banned from all grounds and anyone who even arrives drunk is arrested. Not that drunks make up the majority of the audience at these games but they are a substantial number of the fans, not surprising either when you consider that most of the games start at 3 p.m. — the same time as the pubs close. There are probably many and Varied reasonsiwhy the

soccer fans are staying away but certainly six of them can be identified. ® The first is hooliganism. Many of the missing millions no doubt do not relish the idea of being thumped by some jackbooted moron who has travelled halfway across the country to cause “aggro” in the name of supporting his team. ® So far this year violence in the crowds at games has been minimal but the scars of yesteryear still show vividly in the dwindling audiences. ® Boring football. An exciting game of football is not exactly as rare as Halley’s comet but these days it comes a close second. ® The fans do not believe they are getting value for money from overpaid stars. ® The cost. It has become very expensive to go to a soccer match, especially in London. The recession in northern England has kept ticket prices there reasonably sane but some London clubs are charging a fortune. It is not unique to have to pay £lO ($25.81) for a seat at a very ordinary first division game. • No soccer on television. The other school of thought

about televised soccer is that it stimulates interest encouraging people to go to a game live next week. The lack of soccer on television could be said to add to the apathy of the already disenchanted. ® The tragedies at Brussels and Bradford. The riot and deaths at Brussels has probably had the most detrimental effect on crowds. The stark horror of the occasion was brought home to English fan and foe alike via live television coverage. If anything was designed to turn away crowds from turnstiles, that was it. ® Too many games? The four divisions host 92 teams of which probably 70 are broke or verging on bankruptcy. Fourth division teams rarely attract crowds of more than 2000 and the revenue from such paltry gates is nowhere near enough to foster ambitions to rise to the third division. This year’s statistics tell a stark tale of foreboding. Arsenal, one of the first division’s premier dubs, for instance, are down 6000 on the crowds for this time last year. Aston Villa has dropped 50w, Chelsea has dropped

8000, and even Liverpool is down 3000. Only Manchester United, currently undefeated in the first division and flying high have shown any substantial increase in crowds — up more than 8000 on this time last season. In years gone by, it has been the lower division clubs who have complained of feeling the financial pinch. But now clubs such as Liverpool are also having a whinge. The Liverpool chief executive, Peter Robinson, says: “If gates continue to decline at their present rate for any length of time then we are all going to go bust. “If we (Liverpool) cannot arrest the slide we are going to lose £200,000 ($517,192) this season in league gates alone. “Together with the lack of revenue from Europe, no television money and not even the ability to play friendlies in Europe, we’re going to be in big trouble. “The situation is very serious in Liverpool It’s worse in London. The clubs there are suffering equally big losses at the turnstiles, some even bigger than us.' But admission prices at Liverpool are a loqpheaper

than they are at some London clubs.” The major clubs are talking of pruning players. The excessive wages of the 1970 s have been reduced but clubs are still finding they cannot afford high price fees for players who will not attract crowds, or more importantly, win matches. Top clubs on the continent operate with only first team squads of 16 or 18 players whereas English clubs have up to 32. Clearly some are going to have to cut back. “Our first priority is to maintain the strongest possible first-team squad even if it means a greatly reduced one,” says Robinson. “Otherwise, what is a prominent club at the moment may well become a moderate one very quickly,” he adds.

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