We knew they would, and the only surprise is that they’ve taken so long to do it. Finally, and to no one’s amazement, the Football League has humiliatingly rolled over for the sake of a few quid from ITV. The people who only this summer we were told to regard as our enemies have now won the deal to show League highlights.
From now on, the Football League can only be regarded as ITV’s whore. ITV can pay it what they want, and the League will take it. They’ll mess football about in any way they see fit, and we’ll accept it. We’ll even fake gratitude for their patronisation. If ITV asked the Football League to go down on its knees before it and grovel, we can now be reassured that it would. For a fistful of used notes, the Football League has traded its self respect.
We, the supporters, have been betrayed, by the Football League, and by the Chairmen and Directors who voted to accept ITV’s silver – and that, sadly, includes Burnley FC. Particularly let down are those football supporters who, generally against their better judgement, obeyed the League’s call to join the feeble ‘protest’ against Carlton and Granada.
Let’s go back to that protest. We promoted it, here on this website, and encouraged our members to join in, with the backing of Burnley FC. We did so, in truth, with many reservations and little conviction, but we still did so because we knew that at the heart of the battle between the Football League and Carlton and Granada was a simple matter of right and wrong. Whatever the merits of the deal, the Football League had obeyed it to the letter; Carlton and Granada just changed their minds and walked away. It was from a clear sense that an injustice had been done that London Clarets members turned out for the protest.
As recorded elsewhere, that protest was pathetic. The League couldn’t even organise that properly. They never succeeded in making their issue a crucial one for football supporters (compare this to, say, the way the smarter and more media-savvy Wimbledon supporters have got opposition to franchising onto the agenda of many fans). They never built up the momentum that could have embarrassed Carlton and Granada into a settlement. The court-case the followed was merely ill-conceived.
Remember also how the League and Burnley FC encouraged everyone to boycott ITV coverage of the World Cup? Doubtless now they’ll be urging us to tune in for the good of the game!
Following the court case, in panic, the League struck a lame deal with Sky, which happened to undermine seriously the value of the highlights. Sky attached so many strings to when and in what format highlights could be shown that they effectively became worthless. None of those who trumpeted the Sky deal as some sort of salvation – including those at our own club – seemed to notice this at the time.
Which brings us up to the present day. There may be commercial reasons for proceeding with the highlights deal, but how can it still not feel sickening? It still sticks in the craw, and no wad of cash will wash this bitter taste away. It’s such a tiny sum of money too. When it boils down to it, a small amount of money will be divided very thinly between the clubs. We’re talking £1m a season, plus a few more million from the liquidation of ITV Digital – which surely as the main creditor we were entitled to anyway – and a promise to waive the legal costs due to Carlton and Granada following the failed court case.
The difference between ITV’s offer and the rival one put forward by the BBC and Channel 5 is said to be a few hundred thousand pounds, or to put it another way, about £5,000 less per club per season. That’s the price of betrayal. It seems we can look forward to £88,000 this season. The money won’t even amount to a weekly wage bill for many, and I can’t see it being the difference between survival and liquidation for anyone.
Worst from our point of view, the ITV deal is likely to mean regional highlights programmes. These are next to useless for anyone who lives away from the club. Burnley, with a greater diaspora of exiled fans than most, would be better served by national programme. That’s another reason why Burnley should have stuck by their principles and voted against the deal.
However, it seems that all their principles dissolved when it came to the crunch. I am saddened and disappointed by Burnley FC's decision to vote in favour of the ITV deal. After all they said and did! Here was a club that led the fight against Carlton and Granada, and which urged its supporters to do so. Burnley FC was at such pains to stress its anger at Carlton and Granada's actions that it even banned their reporters from the ground, and I applauded that decision. They never stopped telling us what damage Carlton and Granada had done to the club.
Talked turned out to be cheap. All, it seems, meant nothing when a small amount of money came up for grabs. Burnley FC has stated that money received from an alternative deal with the BBC and Channel 5 would have been wiped out by the court costs Carlton and Granada would then have insisted were met. If so, what a dreadful decision that court case was! It seems Carlton and Granada won twice. Not only did they shed their obligations, but they gave themselves the option of picking up the highlights on a barter basis.
As someone who attended the protest like a good little supporter, I personally feel betrayed. That sense of betrayal will not go away. I took a precious day off work to hang around outside an office block waving an incomprehensible placard. Other supporters went to the trouble of travelling into London to attend this protest!
The League should apologise to everyone who gave up time and spent money to attend their hopeless protest. Burnley FC should personally apologise to those Burnley supporters - London Clarets members all - who did as they were urged and went along. There may have been no option, but those who voted to accept the deal should at least have the decency to admit they are ashamed and embarrassed by what they have ended up doing.
In no way should anyone attempt to present the new deal as good news. The League and its clubs should instead beg the forgiveness of the football supporters they have served so wretchedly.
