So we have had a refreshing break from the incessant continuum of football.
You know when Sky Sports started I thought that at last we would be able to watch the matches that we want to instead of being shown a few highlights of all the matches of the world renowned BBC program Match of the Day. Sky then used their control of coverage to influence the date on which matches are played and prevented the ordinary fan from seeing their team some of the time.
We needed a challenger and Virgin did not step up. Thankfully BT Sports has appeared and they have shown me what a good organisation can do in terms of covering National League football and the two F.A. competitions other than the Cup, the Trophy and the Vase. Kudos to BT and I hope that crowds in the lower leagues increase as a result. It has always fascinated me how something is nothing until it appears on television and then it becomes everything.
These days I can watch football seven days a week if I choose to and I have come close but it is the choice that I want. I do not need to watch every match that is available. My dream is to see all matches live streamed so that all fans everywhere can watch their own team live but "SKY" have put a stop to that as they make more money by denying that opportunity to ordinary people. Advertisers will pay big money if they know they have a captive audience of millions.
Enough of power broker bashing. What did I learn this week as I picked up several football newspapers. The mighty Malmesbury Victoria are moving from the Hellenic League to the Western League. That is positive and I do not hear much positivity about the Western League, that organisation that mops up everything on the far lower left of the country. The Football League Trophy will include invited teams with Category One Academies, an interesting innovation.
The F.A.Cup now requires teams participating to have gained 63 points from a 38 game season. I have not seen how that works if your season is more or less that 38 games. I think the competition was probably getting a bit too big and this exercises a measure of control over the number of entrants.
In the F.A.Trophy preliminary round Salisbury have been drawn against Hereford. Good start!
Did you know that 95 laws of the game have changed over the summer. It seems that most of the changes are merely an attempt to clarify things that are already common practice but need to be defined more clearly in the rulebook. There may be one or two problems next season if a keen eyed referee decided to interpret a newly written rule other than the way it was intended. Remember that is what accountants and lawyers do so why not referees?
I think that will do for now. I must get back to catching up on Game of Thrones.
You know when Sky Sports started I thought that at last we would be able to watch the matches that we want to instead of being shown a few highlights of all the matches of the world renowned BBC program Match of the Day. Sky then used their control of coverage to influence the date on which matches are played and prevented the ordinary fan from seeing their team some of the time.
We needed a challenger and Virgin did not step up. Thankfully BT Sports has appeared and they have shown me what a good organisation can do in terms of covering National League football and the two F.A. competitions other than the Cup, the Trophy and the Vase. Kudos to BT and I hope that crowds in the lower leagues increase as a result. It has always fascinated me how something is nothing until it appears on television and then it becomes everything.
These days I can watch football seven days a week if I choose to and I have come close but it is the choice that I want. I do not need to watch every match that is available. My dream is to see all matches live streamed so that all fans everywhere can watch their own team live but "SKY" have put a stop to that as they make more money by denying that opportunity to ordinary people. Advertisers will pay big money if they know they have a captive audience of millions.
Enough of power broker bashing. What did I learn this week as I picked up several football newspapers. The mighty Malmesbury Victoria are moving from the Hellenic League to the Western League. That is positive and I do not hear much positivity about the Western League, that organisation that mops up everything on the far lower left of the country. The Football League Trophy will include invited teams with Category One Academies, an interesting innovation.
The F.A.Cup now requires teams participating to have gained 63 points from a 38 game season. I have not seen how that works if your season is more or less that 38 games. I think the competition was probably getting a bit too big and this exercises a measure of control over the number of entrants.
In the F.A.Trophy preliminary round Salisbury have been drawn against Hereford. Good start!
Did you know that 95 laws of the game have changed over the summer. It seems that most of the changes are merely an attempt to clarify things that are already common practice but need to be defined more clearly in the rulebook. There may be one or two problems next season if a keen eyed referee decided to interpret a newly written rule other than the way it was intended. Remember that is what accountants and lawyers do so why not referees?
I think that will do for now. I must get back to catching up on Game of Thrones.
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