BBC overkill on reporting proposed european super league

EkwaNimitee I beg to differ. I am an avid football fan and have added my objections to the Super League. To millions of fans this was a very important issue and People Power has won. There were thousands of complaints about broadcasts on Prince Philips life and death but it was news at the time. Hopefully you can get back to listening to your radio stations soon.

There is a lot of other things going on around the world that may possibly be more important - for instance, there has been absolutely nothing about the fact that Covid is now spreading through Thailand at a speed of knots, with very little health care available, and no vaccine .
So I guess after that, anything about football is news!
However, BBC now keeps repeating the same stories from 6am to 10pm plus, rather than updating throughout the day as they used to.
I often wonder just what all the journalists and staff are doing in the background are actually doing if not researching new items ???

I am not a football fan, but I recognise that it is very important to millions of people, and from what I can understand, this super league falling apart is a good thing. But, the cynic in me also recognises that Johnson grasped the opportunity for a bit of PR, not only does he deliver the vaccines, have a pint, he also saves the beautiful game! What a hero of the working class. Michael Heseltine summed Johnson up well Well, I think that you have to see Boris as a career map. He works it out, he decides which way the wind is blowing, and that wonderful phrase about a politician - a man who waits to see the way the crowd is running and then dashes in front and says, ‘Follow me’.

It`s all about money,the haves want more,pure greed.
And the BBC make money from it,so why not promote it for an hour or so,it`s what they do best.

Alegrias1

I think the scale of the coverage is less about the actual football and more about the fact that half a dozen super rich club owners think they can mess about with a hundred-year-old system and undermine it for their own gains.

I'm not even going to mention Lucca's typo in case I get sent to the Tower.

???

The role of football in the UK is tremendously important - for those who don't like it it is easy not to recognise this but in fact it's a huge part of society and it's not just about people kicking a ball around and others watching but also is part of our economic infrastructure and can be a showcase for critical issues like race, homophobia, sex, equal opps and in this instance, the power wielded by billionaires. It's had less than a couple of days' media coverage and it's not removed normal programmes. The coverage of Prince Phillip's death was pretty immense as is all news concerning the royals - personally I'm sick of hearing about the Sussex family but we still get this - completely overshadowing anything about the proposed Super League.

We don’t hear enough about all the issues around the world. The media have got their priorities wrong.
So glad this is all over now.

TV companies seem to delight in overkill on ONE subject all the time !!! Last week it was Prince Phillip...now, I am a royalist and enjoyed SOME of the programmes about his life BUT NOT every hour of every day for a whole week ....and now this week its FOOTBALL....I hate football ...no interest in it whatsoever (apologies to those who do !) all seems to be about making money now and not sport, anyway ...............now, I wonder what next week;s ENTIRE TV coverage is going to be about ????

My older brother was a professional footballer, played for his country. I detest football these days. Nothing other than money and fame sought by both clubs and players. Agree the news items were over the top.

I was relieved to hear something different for a change. And it wasn't so much about the sport, but how greed and profit drives everything.

Cabbie21

We don’t hear enough about all the issues around the world. The media have got their priorities wrong.
So glad this is all over now.

Sadly I think the media have got exactly the right priorities - anything to stop us engaging in discussion of anything meaningful. The power of the media has always been in agenda setting.

Just because one item does not interest one person doesn't mean that it is not important news. Nor does the fact that that person is interested in something else make that frontline news.

Items that interest a lot of people are news whether they are reporting disasters or about sport. An enormous number of people are itnerested in football, even if they only watch it from their armchair. Plans that threaten to ruin an already badly run sport, are of concern to millions aand millians of people, not just in the UK but elsewhere. That is news and deserves wide coverage.

I'm a big football fan and my team was one of the 6 involved although we pulled out first. I didn't agree with it as most fans don't and the reason it was such a big deal is that English football doesn't just affect the top flight clubs, it filters down to the none league and grass roots teams too. Our owners have built a new academy to bring young players through from school age, created jobs, built new housing for local people and given millions of pounds to charity, so it's not always about making money.

And perhaps the widespread coverage and the obvious distaste for the plan, made those clubs think again.

Ask yourself what news was being hidden Dyson and the PM gets my vote

But the news about Dyson and the PM wasn’t hidden.

As far as I can see, the request Dyson made was quite reasonable - if expats domiciled in Singapore ended up staying more than 90 days in the UK because of COVID travel restrictions, could the tax rules that make them pay tax in the UK be suspended.

What I do not understand is why Dyson had to do it on a private line and not through the usual channels. However having done some browsing, I think it says much about the personalities of both Dyson and Johnson.

Dyson is a brilliant engineer, but also an inveterate schemer and someone always looking for the way round things - that is probably what makes him such a good inventor. Johnson in his turn likes to see himself as the greater arranger and fixer, promises, promises, although not good at deliviering on his blether.

No sympathy for either. As they say 'Serves your right'

GrauntyHelen I thought this thread was about the proposed football Super League?
Which, to get back on topic, as an avid fan, I was very pleased to see go pear shaped before it started.

Interesting that BJ should be so exercised by football when he couldn't be bothered to comment last week as 12 year olds burned busses in Northern Ireland.

I find football OK to watch, but hearing about any kind of sport on the radio or any listening device, utterly boring, the only sport I do like to watch are gymnastics and ice skating. Cricket to me is the most boring sport in the world, I hate it with a passion and would rather watch paint dry, I don't understand any of the rules of anything other sport than gymnastics , and nor do I care to learn, I don't listen to any thing on radio other than music. If all sports were banned (not gymnastics/ ice skating) it would be fine with me. We all have our own interests, and I don't even know what the super league is. ?

Nice to have something other than COVID!

It's huge for football as others have said and the game brings millions into the country, not just to the clubs.

Simple answer is not to listen to the first 10 minutes of the news, we've been doing that since the first lockdown as the Covid coverage just got too depressing

Mollygo

I’m not a football fan,and I used the off button so didn’t watch all the hoo-haa about it, but the publicity this time seems to have been a good idea.
Henetha a cap on player salaries is a great thought. Marcus Rashford could lead the way and might even be the first to say he doesn’t need his £200,000 per week.
Where would all the extra money go?
Lower prices for tickets so less well off fans could get to matches? ?
Money donated to charities? ? It could make a world of difference to a lot of people.
More money for club owners. ???

Nice idea Molly... if only eh??

All over now of course, but perhaps the club owners were ‘testing the water’ about the idea.

Like it or not though, it’s business, and without these rich owners the clubs would do badly.
Football changed when the players first started getting paid astronomical sums, it changed everything.

Lemongrove It certainly did.
The obscene amounts paid to and for footballers are only available because of rich owners. Nobody is worth that amount of money. Paying those footballers so highly makes access difficult for poorer fans. The high cost of a ticket e.g. £95 for Liverpool premier match is an incredible amount to pay.

....and have you seen the cost of a replica strip. DGS wanted one for a fairly low division club and it was about £35 just for the top - for a very skinny 8 year old.

Mollygo

Lemongrove It certainly did.
The obscene amounts paid to and for footballers are only available because of rich owners. Nobody is worth that amount of money. Paying those footballers so highly makes access difficult for poorer fans. The high cost of a ticket e.g. £95 for Liverpool premier match is an incredible amount to pay.

Lots of people are paid obscene amounts of money but in a free market economy are judged worth it if the organisation paying them decides it makes financial sense. And lots of things are inaccessible for poor people. That’s how the market works. You can charge people what you want for a football match, a replica strip, a West End theatre ticket, a meal in a Michelin * restaurant - if demand is lower than supply, then you lower your prices, if not and demand exceeds supply, you might even put your prices up even more. In addition, of course, with football, the real money is in the broadcasting rights. So if lots of people are willing to eg subscribe to Sky Sports and Sky Sports can then get lots of advertising revenue, then the broadcasters can be asked for lots of money by the footballing organisations. Then if there’s lots of money flowing into football ( at the top end) it’s perfectly obvious the players will ( and should) get a goodly share of it. How on earth could or should it work otherwise in a market economy? In the mad crazy unfair world that is capitalism, I think it’s bloody great that footballers can be paid silly amounts of money - especially as they are disproportionally black and/or working class. If I were to get cross about people getting paid obscene amounts of money, I’d focus on commodity traders, currency speculators, asset strippers for starters.