Newcastle; Excited Johnny, who lives with his Mam, is on the phone to his Dad:
"Dad, Dad, Can't wait see to see you at the weekend and watch the big game! Newcastle v Man United, maybe Matty Longstaff will score the winner like last season!"
Struggling Dad, laid off due to Covid-19-related closures and restrictions:
"About that son...I don't think we'll be able to watch it, I just can't afford it."
Johnny : "Don't be daft, Dad, you've got a SKY subscription AND BT, it'll be on one!"
Dad - 'Fraid not, son, its on Pay Per View & £15 is just too much right now, sorry..."
The Premier League are attempting to milk English football fans for every last penny and Pay Per View football must be stopped before it is even allowed to start.
At a time of national & global struggle due to the Corona Virus pandemic when watching football in locked down areas is many people's main source of solace, The Premier League in its infinite wisdom have decided now is the time to transfer certain games to an exclusive Pay-Per-View channel charged at the hyper-exorbitant price of £15 per game.
After a transfer window in which the 20 top flight clubs spent over £1 BILLION on new football players, the Premier League has scored a spectacular PR own goal that is morally obscene to put an additional premium on certain matches not on SKY, BT or Amazon at an amount per match at ridiculously record levels of £ per match:
Pay-per-view TV is usually reserved for Heavy-Weight Boxing Title clashes which are few & far between, often turned into 'Boxing Nights' by groups of friends to split the cost but in the climate of Covid-19 where households are forbidden to mix indoors, screening games that normally bring people together for such a price is encouraging people to break Corona Virus rules which is quite frankly, dangerous.
Football is the people's game and now more than ever, the people need football.
The pubs, restaurants & cafes are shutting, socializing is banned and we're not allowed to see friends and family so for millions of football fans up and down the country against a backdrop of adult and elderly loneliness and rise in mental health problems, the beautiful game as it proved it could still truly be last weekend is the last great source of entertainment and distraction from the reduced life we are forced to live at the moment.
After the joy across the country at last Sunday's Premier League goal-fest when on the Superest of Sundays, the nation watched as West Ham shocked Leicester away 3-0, Jose Mourinho's Spurs embarrassed former club Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford and Champions Liverpool were astonishingly humbled 7-2 by last year's Houdini act Aston Villa, the Premier League has pulled the rug from the under the feet of its fans.
Its millions of loyal, paying, subscribing fans who not only buy season tickets - this season paying unprecedently in advance not knowing when they are going to be allowed to see their teams live - but who also buy SKY, BT & Amazon subscriptions for hundreds of pounds already annually, are being not just overlooked but treated with absolute contempt.
The first proposed Pay Per View game is Newcastle vs Man United at 8pm on Saturday and its a fixture that is particularly poignant in this debate for as well as always providing thrilling matches between The Magpies and The Red Devils over the years from 5-0 home wins to 6-2 away victories, last season's 1-0 win in front of 50,000 fans at a packed out St. James' Park represented everything good & magical about football.
Geordie youngster Matty Longstaff scored on his home debut for Newcastle and was presented the Man of the Match award by elder brother, Sean, himself a breakout star a year earlier, as the Longstaff brothers teamed up for their hometown club for the first time, watched by youngsters across the country dreaming of being them and football fans of all ages celebrated a rare moment of purity in an often tarnished modern game.
A repeat of that or similar positive moments in the nation's collective football psyche are being denied and at what cost to the national game? Pundits, presenters, journalists, supporters and fans are almost unanimously against the move with their anger being demonstrated on social media, radio phone-ins, newspapers & wherever fans are:
A common theme of complaint by ordinary football fans of the football and TV powers that be is how out of touch those in the football bubble are, demonstrated by Eniola Aluko's comments on Twitter, the former footballer now Presenter & Sporting Director asked the following 'genuine question' - possibly before she realised Aston Villa fans will have to fork out an extra £45 to watch 3 Pay Per View games in the next raft of fixtures and for a neutral to see all the matches would cost an unbelievable £2500 all told.
Meanwhile in Newcastle, some good has emerged from the PPV Scandal as Generous Geordies rallied around an idea to Boycott PPV and donate to the NUFC Fans' FoodBank instead, a fantastic selfless idea that has already raised over £2000 for Britain's biggest and busiest FoodBank, The West End FoodBank, as featured in 'I, Daniel Blake':
Clearly fans in Newcastle have their priorities straight with 79% of those surveyed by The Chronicle saying they will boycott the Pay Per View match on Saturday night in favour of listening to it on the radio or waiting for the highlights on Match of the Day.
In a week that has seen Man United's Marcus Rashford receive an MBE for services to alleviate child poverty during Covid-19 by starting a movement that forced the Goverment to make a U-turn on free school meals while his club have been in talks to take a bigger slice of the football pie in the distressingly small-minded 'The Big Picture' power grab, it would be refreshing to see The Premier League change its mind and scrap its PPV plan for the good of the game. Its never too late to do the right thing.
You can donate to The NUFC Fans' FoodBank 'Charity Not PPV' Campaign here:
Comments