What’s the big idea?

A new season and new attempts to ruin a simply beautiful game. Welcome back!

I’ve waited until football was back before writing about it being back, in order to avoid yet another season preview. And yes, this is always the best part of the year for everyone, before harsh realities kick in to make fools of those who rushed in with hope. But increasingly, the new season brings with it not the joy of expectation, but a sense of fear that the simple beauty of football may have been messed about with once too often.

In England’s Premier League, yet more ground is being conceded to TV with the introduction of live touchline interviews with substituted players, cameras briefly on the pitch for close ups of goal celebrations, and camera access to dressing rooms at half time. Let’s be clear. Precisely no one aside from TV executives has asked for these changes, and few will welcome them. Substituted players won’t want to answer crass questions (“How does it feel to be subbed off on the verge of a hat-trick?”) and will soon learn to media train any answers into banality. Neither players nor managers will want the detail of half-time talks beamed live to everywhere, and so will need to find other ways of saying what needs to be said. And camera operators scampering onto the pitch in the aftermath of a goal is all a bit breaking the fourth wall.

There are several points to make here. The first is that when TV seeks to reflect what is ‘real’, what often happens is that the people doing the real things end up performing a version of reality for TV. It’s why the first series of a reality TV show is invariably the best, because the participants haven’t worked out how to play the game. So this drive to make things more authentic actually results in making them less authentic. I’ve said before that the relationship between football and TV is increasingly one in which the tail wags the dog, and these latest innovations – along with the awful VAR (supposedly improved this season by generously providing explanations of decisions for the mug punters at the live games ages after the incident has passed) – are prime examples of how the compelling simplicity of a game that has held the attention of successive generations for over 150 years is being overshadowed by a set of gimmicks.

Those who run football should value what they have more – and resist the constant pressure from TV companies to provide new elements to spice things up for the viewers. (I’m getting strong aromas of Monkey Tennis here.) If the game becomes unrecognisable, what guarantee is there that audience interest will not wither? If that happens, TV execs won’t want to spend the money they are now.

In the meantime, TV will continue to drive the majority of late fixture changes and anti-social kick-off times, contributing to the growing sense of alienation felt by matchgoing fans who everyone says they value, but who see very little evidence of that. I’ve written about the tension between the game and the crowd before, and that will continue to be a theme this season. Also continuing will be the #stopexploitingloyalty campaign run by an increasing number of fan groups under the umbrella of the Football Supporters Association. It would be nice to think there are some football executives out there with the nous to get to grips with these tensions.

This whole issue took on a new, although not original, twist, when the prospect of playing domestic league games overseas was raised again. La Liga has asked for permission to play the Villarreal v Barcelona game in December in Miami, while Serie A wants to play the AC Milan v Como game in Perth, Australia.

This idea – remember the Premier League’s wizard 39^th game wheeze, first aired in 2008 and raised again in 2017? – is not original. But it keeps being raised, and while the Premier League is staying quiet this time, there is no doubt it is willing its Spanish and Italian counterparts on so that – regrettably – England has to follow suit.

Once again a fundamental football principle is at stake. League titles are valued because they are the result of every team playing every other team at the same grounds, home and away. Call it a level playing field of level playing fields. The sheer bonkersness of the thinking behind this latest idea was revealed by Villarreal’s president Fernado Roig’s promise to fly all season ticket holders to Miami free of charge.

Villarreal have 19,500 season ticket holders. Aside from the expense, the sheer logistical challenge of transporting that number of people to the game would be quite something – and let’s not even start talking about the environmental issues. Also, the reasons previously given for moving games included opening the game up to new audiences – those audiences currently so well served by TV coverage and its attendant innovations. If the same audience will be watching live in a new location, what is the point?

Of course, what this is really about is normalising the playing of domestic games abroad – and spending whatever it takes in order to do so.

But the idea is not as popular among overseas fans as some would have you believe. Spanish, Italian and English games are seen as being defined by being played in their respective countries, an overseas game is seen as inauthentic in the same way many gridiron fans view the London NFL games with suspicion. But what the fans think doesn’t matter – or so the people waving and cashing the cheques would like to think.

The frequency with which this idea is raised enables professional sage observers to opine that it is inevitable it will happen. But that’s what they said about the European Super League. Fans and players are likely to mobilise in numbers over this. And the presence of English football’s new regulator will be important.

Fan groups attempted to get the ability to block the playing of domestic games overseas written on the face of the bill, but that was blocked by the FA, which feared regulatory overreach. The FA is keen to stress it is firmly against the idea, but doubts about the FA’s ability or resolve to protect the game have deep roots. The Football Governance Act does contain provision that can be interpreted as the ability to block overseas games if there is not sufficient support for the idea. With the backing of strong opposition from fan groups and players, this could be a chance for the regulator to demonstrate its worth.

All I’ve said here will, no doubt, be dismissed as outdated raging against innovation and entrepreneurialism – the argument that is the last refuge for those who have run out of justification for their relentless greed. But The Football Fan has always been about recognising the true value of the game. A welcome reminder of that came in Sid Lowe’s wonderful article about the return of Real Oviedo to the top flight in Spain – a timely reminder of why the simple things mean so much. Ironically, the story would make a great TV drama and a great advert for the game – but TV and too many of those supposedly promoting the game would never give the story a chance to breathe in the first place.

I’m currently reading Joey D’Urso’s book More than a shirt. It’s a fantastic read – well written, excellently researched and intelligently executed. It’s about the symbolism of football shirts, and D’Urso takes a truly international journey in order to link themes and promote understanding of the bigger picture. And that’s something we could certainly do with more of.

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I also recommend a look at the latest edition of the Fan Engagement Index from Kevin Rye’s Think Fan Engagement project. I’ve argued frequently with Kev, who I’ve known since his days at Supporters Direct, about the methodology and conclusions of the Index, but measuring the quality of fan engagement is going to be an extremely important task in the new regulated era, and anything that helps us keep beyond the corporate doublespeak is worthwhile.

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Before we close, a plug for Misha Verollet-Dahncke’s Unmodern football Substack, and in particular a post headlined Football is the police state’s petri dish. The police using football as a testing ground is a theme I have written about numerous times (there’s a fair bit on the subject in my ebook Taking Our Ball Back) and this is the view from a German perspective.

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The Brazilian football and culture website Ludopedia has kindly asked to publish some of my posts, so you can now read me in Portuguese. There’s plenty more there, all part of the site’s stated aim of “expanding access to knowledge and promoting critical reflections from football.” It’s well worth checking out.

• The photo at the top of this post shows the jetty where you can arrive by boat at the home ground of Venezia FC – surely one of the most pleasurable match day arrival points in what is one of my favourite places in the world. © Martin Cloake