This week’s heated media coverage over the broadcasting of the England football matches on Pay-TV channel Setanta raises an interesting sub-plot IMO. That of sport and the patriotic togetherness that International matches (in any sport) create is being sacrificed to make more people richer than they need to be.
I’ll be fair here though. If someone waved £10 million in my face and said I couldn’t wave the Union Jack anymore, I’d take it without a second thought. But then I don’t have something that the Nation wants! Probably.
I remember years ago, we used to sit in the pub and discuss who won the boxing, take an interest, get some mates together and often even watch it. Now? I haven’t heard anyone outside the media even mention it. I couldn’t begin to tell you who the big name fighters are now. I do know that Amir Khan fought on Saturday, and I found out a couple of days later he lost. No idea who to though. And all this is because Sky and whoever runs boxing these days charges £15 a pop to watch the fight. Quite simply, you’re either a big fan or you don’t bother, but I guess it’s become a minority sport now and the interest just isn’t there.
And now it appears that’s the way our National games are going. Only 1.55 million watched England beat Croatia on Setanta last night, while 11 million watched Croatia come and beat England on BBC1 last year. In the big games, your team wins and you get some patriotic pride out of it. Like big competitions, it brings the Nation together. I’ve nothing against Setanta, but I already pay Sky for the Premiership and enough’s enough. I like my football but I’m not stupid.
The problem is, Sky couldn’t give a sh*t about patriotism, Setanta don’t give a sh*t about patriotism, The FA don’t give a sh*t about patriotism…so where does that leave us? Up sh*t creek without a paddle, that’s where.
In my opinion, any sport, if it’s your National team involved it should be free-to-air. We all pay our taxes, we fund the sports, we should be able to watch the National game. Ryder Cup, cricket internationals, Rugby, football…whatever it is.