Friday Freebie: Time Again For Non-League To Move

Supporters going begging as time moves on

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Thursday night football. Becoming a staple in the European game over the last few years but now seemingly seeping into the Emirates FA Cup. I’ve long spoken out over the way in which the world’s greatest and admired cup competition is diminishing year by year.

The games this week involving Everton and Peterborough plus Sheffield Utd and Cardiff City drew some attention both before and during their games in the Third Round.

The former was moved for TV purposes and then placed on the BBC iPlayer, not even given front end coverage in case Eastenders fans complained. No thought either for the Posh fans needing to head to Merseyside on a Thursday evening for one the biggest games in their recent history.

The latter drew a crowd of just 6,000 people with very few having travelled up from Cardiff. Once again the lack of thinking for the fans who make the atmosphere in the ground sold out for those in the comfy armchairs.

Now, you might ask why or what this has to do with non-league football. Well, the more the FA, the Premier League, even the Football League with their new SKY deal moving kick off times here there and everywhere, our levels of football remain at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon with the very rare exceptions with one National League DAZN game and ground sharing clubs using a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.

See it’s not just pricing that supporters feel is marking them out of the game it is also kick off times on silly days of the week that weren’t ever on the radar of the normal supporter. So many book train tickets well in advance of travel to take advantage of cheaper deals and are now ending up out of pocket, the frustration is growing.

We all know European competitions have their set days, the FA Cup might pick a Friday or Monday evening game which is has done over the past few years, but chucking in a Thursday night for the round which captures the most imagination is another devalue mark.

Slowly the FA are losing any grip on their competition. Each season a little more erodes away from what should be the showpiece game at the end of the season.

The FA Trophy and Vase are already in decline, the Vase is not quite there yet but given the cost of a game versus the paltry prize money on offer I don’t think it’ll be long.

The Trophy has already seen better days, promotion the choice for most with just one automatic spot into the Football League more important than a day out at Wembley.

Unsurprisingly, supporters still want to see their team win silverware, that’s the memories these competitions still create and Non League Finals Day in May is an occasion at Wembley, a reward for the four sides competing on the day.

Once fans in the stadiums turn their back on actually heading to the ground to watch live because they keep getting messed around, how long will it be before we see plenty of empty seats as the TV cameras arrow in?

There are already some murmurs of the lack of atmosphere in Premier League grounds with less regular fans attending, how long before the players and management complain people are there but not actually getting behind the team?

Once you sell yourself to the devil the soul is gone, and we’ve been witnessing that across the game over the years since SKY and the Premier League got their claws into the fabric of the game.

The chance for non-league clubs to keep picking up these disillusioned supporters presents itself all the time and will carry on with TV showing no sign of giving up rights to move games where they see fit and to hell with watching supporters not at home.

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