Football must start thinking about fans rather than TV money

SPORTSMAIL CAMPAIGN: It is time to stop putting TV cash before fans by putting on 8:15pm starts… football must end the kick-off times scandal

• Kick-off times have been getting later, with some starts as late as 8:15pm
• This is stopping children from attending games due to matches finishing too late
• It also means that supporters who do attend don’t get home until the early hours
• Football must think about fans over TV money and bring kick-off times forward

It was the old-fashioned dream of FA Cup glory that took Norwich City fans to Liverpool for a fifth-round tie on Wednesday night, though getting out of the place at the end of it all was something few wanted to think about.

The last train home to Norfolk left Liverpool Lime Street more than an hour before the match even started, and the 8.15pm kick-off time saw many of the 1,000 travelling fans arriving home at 5.30am, after the 2-1 defeat.

‘It’s too late for the away fans. They haven’t been considered,’ said Norwich boss Dean Smith. Which was putting it mildly.

Norwich travelled to Liverpool on Wednesday, with the game at Anfield starting at 8:15pm

Some fans have had to make some very lengthy journeys in recent days to watch their teams

For all but the last three of the grand old competition’s 140 editions, the Anfield tie would have been a much anticipated weekend event, drawing in young fans squeezed out of the game because Premier League matches are sold out and unaffordable.

But not only have the fifth-round ties been tossed away into midweek — to ensure vast Premier League squads get their winter break — but the kick-off times are now so late that the TV coverage has become a farce.

Middlesbrough’s tie with Tottenham was switched from BBC One to BBC Two halfway through extra time. So much for cherishing the ‘best club competition in the world’.

In the previous round, Boro completed their shock penalty shootout victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford at 10.53pm.

Some fans also had to make the long trip from Tottenham to Middlesbrough on Tuesday

It was another 8.15pm start for Boreham Wood at Everton on Thursday night, for what ought to have been the trip of a lifetime. Everyone in the travelling contingent was frightfully polite about this brush with Frank Lampard and Co. But another 8.15pm midweek kick-off killed any chance of children being there.

‘They’re back at school so there’s no chance,’ said fan David Arthur, who was travelling without his two sons. ‘It’s not exactly the magic of the Cup but they’ll stay up to watch on TV. And my wife’s not expecting extra time.’

Arthur was making the trip by car. The last train back to Elstree and Borehamwood on Thursday night left Lime Street half an hour after kick-off.

The Football Supporters’ Association have been fighting for years to get football and broadcasters to treat the hard-working, match-going fans with more respect. It has been hard going. Promises are broken on such a routine basis that they have become utterly meaningless.

There was talk of ‘football flexible train tickets’ at one stage, with the Premier League and Football League reporting progress. It didn’t happen.

The Premier League have also pledged to provide six weeks’ notice to fans of teams in games shifted to evening kick-offs for TV purposes — ‘broadcast selections’, as they’re known.

This would at least allow fans to prepare, book time off and hotels if they can actually afford them. It doesn’t happen. Not one of the League’s six advance dates for rescheduling announcements has been hit this season.

At a meeting with the FSA last September, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters apologised and said his staff were working ‘to ensure that the next target date’ for announcing Christmas and New Year ‘broadcast selections’ would be met. It wasn’t.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has apologised before about kick-off times

Leeds United were one of the hardest hit as seven of their December games were moved for TV. ‘It’s easy to see why fans believe they are simply props in a very expensive television show,’ said Leeds United Supporters’ Trust’s Adam Willerton.

The axing of FA Cup replays, to allow the Premier League’s players their little R&R, has already dealt a blow to the small clubs for which the competition is a lifeline. ‘That decision didn’t really do clubs like ours any favours,’ said Kidderminster Harriers owner Richard Lane.

But the kick-off times add insult to injury. ‘It’s ridiculous,’ said Robin Sainty, chairman of the Canaries Trust, the Norwich City supporters’ group.

‘It’s five hours from Norwich to Liverpool by car and if there was extra time you wouldn’t have been out of the ground until 10.45pm. We just see this time and time again. No one seems to care about fans, so long as the TV revenue’s rolling in.’

Norwich fans were in Liverpool for the Premier League clash on February 19 when news came through that the Leeds away game, scheduled for March 12, had been put back 24 hours to help with the Yorkshire club’s fixture congestion. That was less than three weeks’ notice.

‘Many fans buy their train tickets in advance because it’s cheaper that way but if you cancel you lose your money,’ explained Sainty.

The Premier League said that the advertised dates by which rescheduling is announced are not ‘deadlines’ but ‘approximate dates’. ITV, who screened the Norwich and Boreham Wood Cup ties, said there were ‘staggered kick-off times to reduce overlap on coverage of matches’, which it hoped would ‘work better for audiences’. Try telling that to actual supporters — the game’s real lifeblood.

‘Cup games like this one at Anfield mean so much to fans,’ said Sainty. ‘When your league season has been so horrendous, you dream of the Cup.

‘We might just look like another fixture to schedule before the news starts but it means so much more than that to us.’

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