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SIDELINES TV WATCH Review of the month on screen ITV4 has produced some great football documentaries recently, and it excelled itself with When Football Changed Forever (October 6). Recalling the final season before the Premier League, it was such an expertly crafted demolition of Sky’s hype that it appeared ITV had waited 25 years before exacting revenge on the rival channel which won broadcasting rights. So many years on, it’s easy to forget just how ramshackle Sky’s takeover of football actually was. One of the Sky deal’s masterminds was Alan Sugar, which only proves how dim his fellow top-flight chairmen must have been. The then Spurs chairman gleefully recalled how he phoned Sky’s negotiators from within a TV rights deal meeting and told them how to beat ITV, who were favourites to keep broadcasting. Although Sugar had a vested interest because his company, Amstrad, manufactured satellite dishes, his motives for shafting ITV seemed to be mischief as much as business. Compared to other talking heads such as Manchester United’s Martin Edwards and Arsenal’s David Dein, Sugar was positively cuddly. Edwards and Dein were equally loathsome in boasting of their teams’ self-interest, whinging about how unfair the pre-Sky deal was for benefiting all clubs rather than the already rich ones. You could have a grudging respect for them if they had at least seemed competent in making football a monopoly, yet When Football Changed Forever demonstrated how poor ITV head of sport Greg Dyke was at negotiating. Dyke’s weakness was at least as equally responsible as Sky’s finances in giving Rupert Murdoch a stranglehold on football. Dyke came across as a flat-track bully who went missing during big games. That someone so hopeless at handling pressure and happy to cede control of the game to big clubs became FA chairman summarises the capitulation of football’s governing body to the Premier League. When Football Changed Forever was scrupulously fair in giving time to both the Premier League’s proponents and detractors. Yet the former, including cartoon pipsqueak Rick Parry, were unable to venture any arguments as to how the Premier League has benefited anyone in football aside from the Premier League. Meanwhile, broadsheet journalists Michael White and David Conn stoically explained how supporters, approximately 85 League clubs and the whole of grassroots football had been effectively abandoned. As if that wasn’t bracing enough, When Football Changed Forever also had a terrific season of football on the pitch to show in its very busy hour. Anyone struggling to find sympathy for either Leeds or Manchester United as title winners would probably have picked the former by default, if only because Reds defender Gary Pallister was so whiny 25 years on about his side’s fixture congestion. BRADFORD TIM Throw in brief footage of 6.06’s first host Danny Baker reminding viewers how inventive football phone-ins should be, and When Football Changed Forever was to modern viewers as startling as government secrets being released under the 30-year rule. In the show, Michael White admitted he had been saying for years that he expected the Premier League bubble to burst, but that it hadn’t happened yet. Signs that it might actually happen came with recent news that Sky and BT Sport’s viewing figures have begun dropping (see page 19). That’s little wonder, given the cognitive dissonance between Sky’s pre-match build-up and the matches themselves. The goalless draw between Liverpool and Manchester United on Monday Night Football (Sky Sports 1, October 17) was an infamous stinker, and even its pundits barely bothered to claim it was “a fascinating tactical contest” or similar eyewash. Having followed the Hollywood superhero franchise hoopla around “Red Monday”, you had to feel sorry for commentator Martin Tyler, who probably feels the same dismay as most functioning adults about his employers’ hype. Midway through the second half, Tyler began admitting that Liverpool v Manchester United games are often ponderous. Viewers would have been justified in yelling “You didn’t tell us that before the game!” but at least hostage Tyler began blinking out coded “Help me” messages with statements such as “Could United have been more ambitious in this game?” when they won their first corner after 81 minutes. Inevitably, moments after their coverage finished, Sky Sports began yelling about José Mourinho’s return to Chelsea with the same pomposity. Chelsea’s resultant 4-0 tonking of Manchester United was more compelling. But at least Tyler had the sense to treat it with his usual calmness on Super Sunday (Sky Sports 1, October 23). Tyler is one of TV’s few remnants of the pre-Premier League era. At least he knows that only the branding has changed between Division One and the Premier League and that any season will have just as many good games and howlers, no matter what Sky call them. John Earls Modern times Football’s bid for world domination 6 WSC Metro, October 12 DPD Group, October 20 Daily Star, October 26
page 7
Taking liberties BANNING ORDERS Increased police powers could be infringing football fans’ rights This autumn the football banning order is 30 years old. The main target of Margaret Thatcher’s Public Order Act 1986 were striking miners (“the enemy within”) but hidden away in s.30 was a rather unusual power. The exclusion order was not aimed at flying pickets, but instead at football “hooligans”, who were occupying the front and back pages of newspapers all too frequently. A court now had the power, upon convicting an individual of a “football-related offence”, to issue an order that would exclude them from future matches. Furthermore, breach of this order was a criminal offence. The football fan of the 1980s was to be the guinea pig for a hybrid legal power that combined the full force of the criminal justice system with the lesser protections for defendants provided by civil law. Nowadays we see these so-called “civil preventative orders” everywhere, applied for against those suspected of committing anti-social behaviour, child sex offences and terrorism. Some orders, such as the notorious ASBO, have been and gone, but the football banning order (FBO), as it is now known, has grown and flourished. Whereas the original exclusion order lasted a minimum of a year, the current FBO lasts a minimum of three. Supporters are no longer just banned from attending the match, they are now subject to 24-hour exclusion zones around both stadiums and town centres on matchday. They will have their passport confiscated for a “control period” around games when England or English club sides are playing abroad and also football tournaments, even if the home nations have not qualified. Games covered by the FBO now include National League matches, and even youth and women’s games and tournaments. Most worryingly in terms of the extending power was the change in 2000 which allowed courts to issue an FBO even for a fan who has not been convicted of an offence, provided they believe that it would help to prevent violence or disorder in connection to a football match. Fans often accept an FBO without realising just how serious a restriction on their liberty it entails, and sometimes because they are threatened with the costs of the case being recovered from them if they contest the application (this can amount to around £5,000). So what is the problem with this? Banning a fan convicted of fighting at football is clearly a very sensible move, and the police are keen to assert that they believe FBOs following conviction have played an important role in managing the “hooligan firms” (there is also some anecdotal evidence from those engaging in football violence to support this). However what about the fan who drinks a bottle of beer while watching the match, or throws a streamer onto the pitch, or engages in “indecent” chanting. All of these are criminal offences and while a ban from the stadium might seem appropriate, are passport confiscations and exclusion orders around town centres really necessary? Moreover, what about those against whom the police do not have sufficient evidence to charge but instead apply for a FBO “on application” because they believe banning the supporter will help prevent future disorder? Should we not be concerned that such a severe restriction on liberty is being imposed without adherence to the normal protections of the criminal justice system? At the very least, we need an independent assessment of whether FBOs actually work. The FBO on application was introduced following disorder at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, but evidence from those tournaments suggested that the disorder was not caused by those “known troublemakers” that the FBOs target. And why has the effectiveness of the FBO not been called into question following the disorder in Marseille and Lens, when it PHOTOS SC /W MCPHERSON COLIN clearly failed to stop “hooliganism” by English fans on a scale not seen since the Public Order Act was introduced? The wider problem is that fans continue to be guinea pigs for novel state responses to disorder and other “deviance”. In recent weeks, we have seen the first major uses of s.35 dispersal powers under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and once again it is football matches that are the testing laboratory, with fans of Bristol City, Grimsby Town and Stoke City among those being ordered to leave the locality because it is feared they will cause “harassment, alarm, or distress”. Unlike political protesters subjected to similar restrictions, football fans rarely complain when they feel their rights have been infringed. As a result the FBO and burgeoning new powers are able to develop relatively unchecked, interfering with the freedoms not just of those who wish to commit violence at football, but also of fans who may commit an isolated nonviolent offence, or those who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Geoff Pearson Scenes from Football History No 303 ROBINSON DAVE WSC 7

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SIDELINES

TV WATCH Review of the month on screen

ITV4 has produced some great football documentaries recently, and it excelled itself with When Football Changed Forever (October 6). Recalling the final season before the Premier League, it was such an expertly crafted demolition of Sky’s hype that it appeared ITV had waited 25 years before exacting revenge on the rival channel which won broadcasting rights.

So many years on, it’s easy to forget just how ramshackle Sky’s takeover of football actually was. One of the Sky deal’s masterminds was Alan Sugar, which only proves how dim his fellow top-flight chairmen must have been. The then Spurs chairman gleefully recalled how he phoned Sky’s negotiators from within a TV rights deal meeting and told them how to beat ITV, who were favourites to keep broadcasting.

Although Sugar had a vested interest because his company, Amstrad, manufactured satellite dishes, his motives for shafting ITV seemed to be mischief as much as business. Compared to other talking heads such as Manchester United’s Martin Edwards and Arsenal’s David Dein, Sugar was positively cuddly.

Edwards and Dein were equally loathsome in boasting of their teams’ self-interest, whinging about how unfair the pre-Sky deal was for benefiting all clubs rather than the already rich ones. You could have a grudging respect for them if they had at least seemed competent in making football a monopoly, yet When Football Changed Forever demonstrated how poor ITV head of sport Greg Dyke was at negotiating.

Dyke’s weakness was at least as equally responsible as Sky’s finances in giving Rupert Murdoch a stranglehold on football. Dyke came across as a flat-track bully who went missing during big games. That someone so hopeless at handling pressure and happy to cede control of the game to big clubs became FA chairman summarises the capitulation of football’s governing body to the Premier League.

When Football Changed Forever was scrupulously fair in giving time to both the Premier League’s proponents and detractors. Yet the former, including cartoon pipsqueak Rick Parry, were unable to venture any arguments as to how the Premier League has benefited anyone in football aside from the Premier League. Meanwhile, broadsheet journalists Michael

White and David Conn stoically explained how supporters, approximately 85 League clubs and the whole of grassroots football had been effectively abandoned.

As if that wasn’t bracing enough, When Football Changed Forever also had a terrific season of football on the pitch to show in its very busy hour. Anyone struggling to find sympathy for either Leeds or Manchester United as title winners would probably have picked the former by default, if only because Reds defender Gary Pallister was so whiny 25 years on about his side’s fixture congestion.

BRADFORD

TIM

Throw in brief footage of 6.06’s first host Danny Baker reminding viewers how inventive football phone-ins should be, and When Football Changed Forever was to modern viewers as startling as government secrets being released under the 30-year rule. In the show, Michael White admitted he had been saying for years that he expected the Premier League bubble to burst, but that it hadn’t happened yet. Signs that it might actually happen came with recent news that Sky and BT Sport’s viewing figures have begun dropping (see page 19).

That’s little wonder, given the cognitive dissonance between Sky’s pre-match build-up and the matches themselves. The goalless draw between Liverpool and Manchester United on Monday Night Football (Sky Sports 1, October 17) was an infamous stinker, and even its pundits barely bothered to claim it was “a fascinating tactical contest” or similar eyewash.

Having followed the Hollywood superhero franchise hoopla around “Red Monday”, you had to feel sorry for commentator Martin Tyler, who probably feels the same dismay as most functioning adults about his employers’ hype. Midway through the second half, Tyler began admitting that Liverpool v Manchester United games are often ponderous. Viewers would have been justified in yelling “You didn’t tell us that before the game!” but at least hostage Tyler began blinking out coded “Help me” messages with statements such as “Could United have been more ambitious in this game?” when they won their first corner after 81 minutes.

Inevitably, moments after their coverage finished, Sky Sports began yelling about José Mourinho’s return to Chelsea with the same pomposity. Chelsea’s resultant 4-0 tonking of Manchester United was more compelling. But at least Tyler had the sense to treat it with his usual calmness on Super Sunday (Sky Sports 1, October 23). Tyler is one of TV’s few remnants of the pre-Premier League era. At least he knows that only the branding has changed between Division One and the Premier League and that any season will have just as many good games and howlers, no matter what Sky call them.

John Earls

Modern times Football’s bid for world domination

6 WSC

Metro, October 12

DPD Group, October 20

Daily Star, October 26

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