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Watch the World Cup Final on the BBC
First 'fixure' moved
Anti-racist gig in Burnley
Watch it on the BBC!
'Fixtures' unveiled
Banned from Millwall
Click here for June 2002 comment entries.
28 June - World Cup Final on the BBC
Apparently it's the World Cup Final this weekend. This will be shown on both ITV and the BBC, so once again you have a choice. If you're only interested in elite football, you might as well watch it on TV - but you're unlikely to be reading this site anyway. If you care for the health of all of football, and understand how it all connects together, then you'll take account of the fact that ITV have shafted Football League clubs, and watch it on the BBC. Over to you.
Click here for more information on the protest against ITV.
25 June - It had to happen
Well, I suppose it was too good too last. The 'fixtures' came out on 13 June, and a whole week and a half went by with the list unchanged. We admired the classical beauty of the list. Undiminished as yet by television companies, this was a list like we used to get, with a traditional backbone of three o'clock kick-offs, a sprinkling of Tuesday night matches and the odd Bank Holiday game. Compared to last season, when five or six matches were moved early on, there was a welcome lack of change.
Ah well, now football's traditional enemies, in the form of the police, have intervened. We now play Reading away on Tuesday 27 August, with an excessively late kick-off time of 8pm, instead of the scheduled Bank Holiday Monday three o'clock kick off. The reason for this is that it's the Reading Festival that weekend, and Thames Valley's finest apparently cannot cope with both. The Festival finishes on Sunday night, by the way, so clearly you can't play a football match in the afternoon the next day.
But isn't the Football League supposed to have a fancy computer for planning the fixtures? The Reading Festival is a predictable event. It takes place over the same weekend every year. They know it's going to happen. So why were Reading ever given a home game in the first place? Why not simply schedule them to be away for both games over that weekend? That would mean one disruption less, one less change of plan for supporters. Or is that too sensible? Why schedule a match that you know you're going to have to move?
I can't exactly say that I was looking forward to spending a Bank Holiday in such an unappealing town, but I'd prefer it to another late night journey home. Of course, for those of us down here it's a minor inconvenience. For Burnley-based Clarets, it's another long midweek trip south. This will be the third time running that we have played at the Madejski Stadium of Shite in the evening. Isn't this something that should be taken into account when planning the 'fixtures'? Can we not play here on a Saturday sometime, please?
23 June - Love Music, Hate Racism
A member of Chumbawamba has been in touch to ask us to publicise an Anti-Nazi Benefit gig taking place in Burnley next Thursday. As a site run by people who love Burnley, hate racism and are obsessed with music, we're happy to do this. The gig, under the banner 'Love Music - Hate Racism' takes place at the Burnley Mechanics, Manchester Road, on 27 June. Doors open at 7 and tickets are £10, £7 concessions.
Boff from Chumbawamba says, "It's organised specially to show opposition to the local BNP presence in the town. Considering BFC's stand against racism, we reckon (as supporters) it's important to stand up and say something about this notion that Burnley is a 'hotbed of racism'. Half of Chumbawamba are lifelong Burnley fans and we want supporters clubs to know about this concert."
As well as Chumbawamba themselves there are various other bands on the bill, the highlight of which has to be an acoustic appearance by Miss Black America, one of Britain's most exciting new bands [click here].
For more information, see the Anti Nazi League website at www.anl.org.uk.
20 June - Watch it on the BBC
This Friday you have a choice to make when watching the England v Brazil game. If you care about this game of ours at all levels, you'll watch it on the BBC. If you're the sort of person who only gets interested in football once every four years, you may well watch it on ITV.
ITV have shafted the Football League and washed their hands of their contractual obligations towards the 72 League clubs. The consequences of them reneging on their contract are already being seen, and they aren't over yet. It's thanks to ITV that clubs are going into administration as a matter of routine - the League's oldest club, Notts County, are the latest - and it's thanks to them that Burnley FC have a £3,000,000 hole in their income. If we can't strengthen our squad this summer, you know who to blame.
ITV, having walked away from their commitment to lower division football, are still clearly happy to show top level matches when they can. Do they not understand the connections between the two? There are players who will wear the England shirt tomorrow - Seaman, Sheringham and Sinclair, a Fourth Division player ten years ago, spring to mind - who learned their trade in the lower divisions. The League is part of the vital infrastructure of English football.
ITV must have thought football would give in quietly, but that isn't going to happen. Football is fighting back, and it's heartening to see Burnley FC taking the lead through its website. One of the ways in which we can demonstrate our disgust with ITV is by giving the BBC our custom when they both show games. This site supports the boycott of ITV, and calls upon all our members and Burnley supporters in general to watch the game only on ITV.
There's more protest to come. The League have launched the 'Save Our Clubs' campaign. Click here to see what Burnley supporters can do. London Clarets members will certainly join the protest against Carlton and Granada on 10 July. We aren't going to stop pushing.
13 June - Here we go again...
Next season's '
fixtures' came out today, and as usual
they're a mixed bunch. [Click here for the list.] For once, we start the season at home, against newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion. We're at home on Boxing Day too for a change, against Wolves, so it looks like lots of us will be 'visiting the family' this Christmas. It's worth bearing in mind, however, that this match brings together two powerful hexes. We always get beat on Boxing Day, and we always lose to Wolves. Perhaps they'll cancel each other out? Or perhaps we should start thinking now about which Burnley pubs will be open at half time on Boxing Day. Wolves also, incidentally, provide the opposition in our first away game.
Of course, my first thought on looking at the fixtures was of uncharted territory, and here it's hit and miss. Many of us have not been to Ipswich before, but the worst news of all in the 'fixture' list is that it's on a Tuesday night in September! What a criminal waste of a great drinking town, and what a ridiculous journey to ask people to make from Burnley. It's about as difficult as Grimsby on a Tuesday night from here. Oh, we've got that too. Similarly, the terra incognito of Brighton away on the 28 December isn't great, but then, with an away capacity of 700, most of us aren't going to get in anyway. At least the other brand new ground is sensibly scheduled, with our trip to Leicester's bowl of crisps on an October Saturday.
The three best drink ups of the First Division are Derby, Norwich and Nottingham Forest, and it's not worked out too bad
for the boozers amongst us. We have to wait until April to sample the delights of the Fat Cat, but at least it's a
Saturday, as is the visit to the scene of our FA Cup triumph (yes, we did have one once) and of two cracking pubs
right next to the station, in September. Forest is on an Easter Monday, which sounds like a good excuse for a Trip to Jerusalem to us. Sheffield's not a bad drinking town either, of course, but we may be encumbered by our hangovers when we take on United on New Year's Day.
The other Bank Holiday game is somewhat less appealing, as handy for London though it undoubtedly is, I never thought I'd be spending a holiday amongst the ring roads of Reading. Still, music lovers might want to note that it's the Reading Festival that weekend too. Shame there's no one decent on. We have to wait until January before we get a Burnley game in London - if you can call Selhurst that - when we take on Palace, although before then we've got a waste of a Saturday in Watford (presumably they'll just be called plain old Watford by then, rather than Gianluca Vialli's...) in November, while Gillingham on the Saturday before Christmas sounds pretty good for us and lousy for everyone else. Ferry, anyone?
Meanwhile, the two matches from which away supporters are banned have both, in one of those strange coincidences, been scheduled for Tuesday nights. Funny that. It is on Tuesday 4 March that we have all been banned from supporting our team. (The Millwall FC membership application's in the post.)
Our season may finish in London, or then again it might not, for on that final Sunday we take on whatever Wimbledon have become by then. It could be in Milton Keynes. Bloody hell.
Last home game the week before is against Sheffield Wednesday. Perhaps we'll send them down. No point going into the home games, as they're all interchangeable from this distance anyway, and you get to the ones you can.
All this, of course, is subject to the usual fannying around with the 'fixtures'. There's so much uncertainty at the moment that impossible to guess to what extent whatever TV deal is done will interfere. We expect, too, that the FA will continue to arrange England matches for Saturdays in their usual friendly way. We'll see, but you can count on one thing - at least one match at Turf Moor will unnecessarily be called off because of the weather.
Ah well, only another 60-odd days to go... Wake me up when if we sign someone.
12 June - Nothing happens - unfortunately
Just when we were complaining that nothing was happening, it's the fact that something won't be happening next season that makes the news, with the announcement that we have been banned from going to Millwall next season.
Click here and here for two instant reactions.
At least Burnley FC have acknowledged the ridiculous position this puts the London Clarets in, for which our thanks.
In more news of things that aren't happening, there have been eight million stories about
David Johnson's future, but the only fact seems to be the announcement by Forest that he is still their player and will return to them on 1 July for pre-season training. Perhaps we can't afford him anymore after the TV meltdown. Perhaps through a string of good performances he's priced himself out of our range. And perhaps Forest, who have a new owner, aren't as hard up anymore. It really did feel like his destiny was to play for Burnley, though.
Anyone got any good news?
You're doubtless aware that the ' fixtures
' come out on Thursday. They won't be on this site particularly early, as I'll be
at work. If you're desperate to get them ASAP, probably your best bets are the official
Burnley FC site and Clarets Mad. They're the ones I'll be checking.
Finally, a parochial tale, but it amused us. Our AGM takes place, as you may know, at the Sekforde Arms on 13 July. The Sekforde is an increasingly popular venue for the AGMs of clubs like ours. Other London supporters clubs, such as Derby and KKMC, hold their meetings there. So when the phone rang the over day and another London-based supporters club of an East Lancashire team tried to book an AGM, she had to inform them gently that the day had already taken by Burnley. Burnley 1 Blackburn 0.
June 2002 comment entries
No help from the League over the Millwall ban
Let Millwall come to Burnley - corrected
Glad to be banned from the Den!
A Millwall view on the away fan ban
Let us all come down to the Den
Wrong club banned
Online club shop 2
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