Do you like football games on Mondays at 9 pm or on Tuesdays at 5.30 pm? Do you have to take one or even more days off work frequently to watch your beloved team? Have you ever organised costly travel, but in the last moment the match was postponed by the professional league? Are you in favour of 5 different kick-off times for five matches for one match day?
Supporters that cheer for their teams inside the stadia all over Europe share the same experiences that very often make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to follow their team due to kick-off times in modern football that were made mostly for TV but not for us, the fans.
Due to profitable contracts with professional leagues and clubs, TV-companies all over Europe have achieved to gain massive influence over match day fixtures and schedules. Match days are spread over the entire week and scheduled at dates and times that make it almost impossible for big parts of both home and away fans to follow their team. Viewing figures, enough advertisement space for commercials and the tendency to show as many live games on TV as possible have become more important than the interests of supporters inside the stadia.
However, we know that the stadium atmosphere that WE create is part of this profitable football show on TV! We are not just part of the game, the fans inside the stadia are essential for the attractiveness and money-making in the game! At the same time, it is the fans that are very often prevented from attending and supporting their team by exactly those that usually benefit the most from them. Result: TV and football want to sell emotions whilst their matchday fixing procedures are largely contributing to a decreasing atmosphere and the exclusion of large sets of the often-quoted “lifeblood of football”, the fans.
It’s time that we speak up!
OUR GAME, OUR TIME!
Wether it is Sunday in one country or Saturday afternoon in the other,
Raise your voice as football fans, hold up a banner, organise a choreography or an info event, inform in your fanzines, make press releases, involve your whole stand or your stadium. Become active and join the European wide Action Days “Our Game, Our Time” by using this slogan on your banners and info materials! The 30 April – 16 May 2010 will be the (grande) finale of the season in most countries across Europe.
So, make use of this time to make your points and to stand up for a change of the matchday fixing system in your country in future seasons!
Let’s join forces and blow the final whistle to kick-off times that are like a slap in the face for committed match-going fans…
..now! Together we can achieve more!
