Supporters’ Loyalty is Being Exploited By Corporate Interests
Football is the most popular sport in the world. A supporter’s involvement with their team lasts longer than a marriage. Once bitten, a football supporter will stick with their team for the rest of their life. But this unwavering loyalty, and the love supporters have for the game, is being exploited by corporate vultures that see this as an opportunity to line their pockets. Football is running out of control, both on and off the field, and nobody is looking after the supporters’ interests while it does so.
What is the Aim of the Reclaim the Game Movement?
Supporters are going to have to say ‘enough is enough!’ Our aim is to be able to take action as a unified mass movement of football supporters. We can have a voice. Collectively we can take action against the corporate interests that are enveloping, and ultimately destroying, the game that we love. We need to use our combined financial strength and be able to act quickly and effectively. Thankfully, the internet provides us with the ability to do exactly that. Reclaim the Game does not profess to provide all the answers or solutions to problems in the sport. All we at Reclaim the Game propose is that we provide the vehicle for being able to take mass action. If we don’t, we believe the game will be destroyed.
How Will We Do This?
If 100,000 of us switched off our Sky subscription for one month as a protest, that represents a loss of revenue to Sky of over £3 million in just one month, on subscriptions alone, not to mention the loss of advertising revenue. We, as a body, may decide to boycott matchday catering and merchandising or, perhaps, the various football sponsoring companies. Take the example of Manchester United, where Vodaphone chose to end its shirt sponsorship deal early as a direct result of action taken by the Manchester United Supporters Trust. That was just one club’s action. We could do more than that together.
Periodically, Reclaim the Game (RTG) will poll all those that have signed up for the movement to solicit views and decide on any action.
Aren't Other Supporters' Groups Already Doing This?
There are other bodies and organisations out there who already campaign for specific issues like safe standing at English grounds. But we believe their focus is too narrow and they appear to be backed by politicians or ex-politicians (we rest our case). And, there are supporters' trusts associated with their clubs. RTG wholeheartedly supports them, but again, their agenda, quite rightly, addresses their own teams' needs rather than the wider issues of football as a whole.
Supporters' Money Needs to be Put to Better Use
We are not against commercialism in football. After all, it has been a professional sport for well over 100 years. But, the huge sums of money that the game now attracts are not being shared equitably and very little of it is going toward grass roots development. Recently, The Observer pointed out that, of the £3.27bn of generated by the combined TV revenues of the FA and Premier League, just £15m per year goes towards grass roots development. That’s just a shocking 1.7%!
So, while the Premier League is congratulating itself on being the richest league in the world, English players and managers are not developing alongside that wealth. England now has the highest rate of young players dropping out of the game in their teens than any other European country. Part of that has been attributed directly to lack of adequate playing facilities. With the level of support and financial resources that English football now has, the England national team should be reaching the latter stages of, if not winning, tournaments consistently. As supporters we should feel cheated, especially since it is our money that is being leaked to the industry’s hangers on, or funding the latest Lamborghini for an average, run-of-the-mill player.
That’s Why We Need the Reclaim the Game Movement
If you want to see England winning tournaments, with skilful, accomplished players and with an English manager. and, If you want to have a realistic chance of getting tickets to see England at those tournaments rather than some Z list celeb who got her tits out on Big Brother. And, If you want to see clubs outside of the so-called Big Four winning trophies. And, If you want to see an end to clubs going out of business due to corrupt financial shenanigans. Then, we need a combined effort now.
Look At History
History shows us that the more money that becomes involved in any sphere, the more corruption, bribery and cheating inevitably ensues. And, in the case of sport, the less it becomes competitive. We can already see these activities becoming more and more prevalent in the game of football as interested parties fight for their share of the spoils. Reclaim the Game wants to keep football as a simple, fair and competitive sport. That’s how it developed to what it is today and why so many supporters love it. Allow it to carry on in the direction it is going now and it will die.
All Are Welcome
Whether you’ve followed football for 50 years or 50 minutes, please sign up. If you go to every game, or if you only watch on TV, so what? All Reclaim the Game asks is that you have a genuine love of football and realise that it is being ruined by incompetent administrators, corrupt middlemen and greedy corporate interests.
It takes just a few seconds (and we won't pass your details on to any other parties).
Look at our blog. You’ll see numerous articles and examples that back up what we are saying. Please fell free to write your comments to us. Sign up here now and pass this url on to your fellow supporters and friends. Let’s get enough of us on board so we can start to fight back before it is too late. Football is too good to allow the greed of a few to ruin it for the many.
