Friday Freebie: TV in the headlines but not for good reasons

Deals here, coverage there, but where does non-league fit in?

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TV was the theme of the week but in two different respects, the new deal for Premier League clubs and the choice of FA Cup 3^rd round ties in January. However while on the same topic, two very different viewpoints on the situation.

Let’s start with the deal for the elite level clubs. No question it’s a mouthwatering number £6.7billion over 4 years, when you consider how many clubs there are to receive the cash it equates to around £335million each, a staggering amount in anyone’s mind.

FA Cup Factfile’s Phil Annets posted during the week there are 5,200 senior men’s clubs in England that play on a Saturday, split between all those clubs would see somewhere in the region of £1.2million for each.

Now when you break it down like that you start to think of what that would do for each non-league club, it’s a huge amount of money that would change the life of any club below the National League, although for a few at that level it would also be life changing.

However, I wouldn’t expect that money to filter it’s way down, at least not more than a few million pounds, I mean why should it? It’s for those clubs who play in front of the cameras every week for nine months, their reward if you like. What the Premier League aren’t very good at telling you are they do contribute a sizeable amount to grassroots football from each deal they negotiate.

What was more important within this deal is the fact the 3pm Saturday blackout remains in place. That infuriated the armchair fans no end because they seem to think football is a TV show, ready to be shown whenever they want to watch it.

They seem to forget that football is there to be enjoyed live, in front of your eyes, not through a screen at whatever time of day you fancy it. Why should a TV audience dictate to those who actually get off the sofa and attend games? The argument then comes back ‘I can’t get a ticket’, best wait for the highlights then later in the evening, or even how about attending a non-league game and actually viewing live football.

I know that last part isn’t for everyone but the paying public should always be getting first dibs on games, kicking off at 3pm or at least a sensible time of day. However, I had a debate the other evening with a friend of mine that removing that blackout would lower non-league attendances.

My reasoning is many of us follow a Premier League team, whether closely or loosely there is an attachment. A lot of us attend non-league games as we’re priced out of the top level games, others go because they’re fed up with the ‘product’ at the top or simply prefer the still pure version of the game.

There would be those who if they could watch their team via a stream at 3pm on a Saturday would turn their back on non-league and revert to that. It might only be a few at one club, at others it could be hundreds. It won’t apply to everyone however, but enough to be detrimental to the game at the lower levels.

That income is never replaced, that TV deal means it never matters to the top flight clubs if they fill their stadiums or not, they’re covered by that wealth, non-league clubs survive from week to week, month to month in some cases that’s how it rolls.

Which brings us nicely onto the FA Cup choices from the BBC and ITV. Now both companies have been all over non-league clubs for the first two rounds of the competition proper, come the big boys entering and we’ve all been dropped like a hot potato.

There were good causes for splitting the games between those high profile clubs and the opportunity for seeing an upset, after all that’s what we want from the FA Cup right, the big clubs being embarrassed by those from Leagues One and Two plus the non-leaguers.

Instead they’ve both played the safe card and gone for games you can possibly see twice a season on SKY, Arsenal vs Liverpool, Tottenham vs Burnley and Crystal Palace vs Everton.

The only two correct picks in my opinion are Wigan vs Manchester United and Sunderland vs Newcastle, the rest are mere thoughtless picks that quite frankly show no ambition.

I hope the non-league clubs left in it pull off some more shocks and prove the schedulers wrong, and make them realise that they’ll need to think more carefully about the 4^th round at the end of January.

I’m not here saying every non-league has to feature, but tell me where we’re looking for shocks then from this round of coverage, frankly, not inspiring at all and quite the turn off.

What do you think on the choices of FA Cup coverage? And should more money seep down into the lower leagues from TV deals? Let me know in the comments below.