For those lucky enough to have had some time off over Christmas there will be the bind of having to return, but very quickly the Friday feeling - for ‘conventional’ workers - will be back, but then you wake up on Saturday without the festive bubble, and you admit to yourself that that mould patch on your bedroom ceiling really is spreading a bit, and then there’s the overflowing recycling bin problem because they did the last collection earlier than usual before Christmas but aren’t coming again until the end of the first week of January, and on top of that, you can’t temporarily use the black bin because you missed that collection just before New Year when your sleep was all over the place, as was your awareness of the days, and though back then it was kind of ok as it was still festive, the reality of the situation is now stark, on top of which, you still haven’t got a working car for when your kids return to school and clubs next week, and if all that isn’t enough then you find out that for next Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi finals, the refs will be asked to announce the VAR’s decisions to the crowd.
The EFL have taken responsibility for this latest terrorist attack on the game, but no explanation is forthcoming as to whether the announcing (which will presumably take place once the five-minute delays have been concluded) will constitute the same words broadcast on the big screen. They can save it, because I’m not really into explanations, although someone has decided that they are really important, and it will really please the fans, or ‘improve the in-stadium experience’ just like VAR has.
The truth is the opposite of course, it’s not just an attack on the game but also the fans, whose input into the ‘event’ is further decreasing. The clubs and authorities have done a great job of taking the ownership of match day away from those keeping the game going. We are hosted on arrival by the adrenalin junkie on the PA system, then presented with the theatre of the Premier League music and adornments as the untouchable Gods shake hands, we are invited like 7 year olds to yell back the surname of the player who has just scored, we are encouraged to belt out Sweet Caroline under the illusion it is a feel-good anthem and not an act of crowd control in conjunction with William Hill.
When Sepp Blatter (whose corrupt-controlled reign at FIFA elicits more dewy-eyed nostalgia with every passing day that Gianni Infantino is in the job) spoke against video replays, arguing that fans moaning about decisions was an essential part of football, he was derided (by Gary Lineker among others) but I honestly think he was promoting community. So many times I’ve been to games and missed why someone was sent off, or not seen how a fight on the pitch started, or even just seen the tail-end of the ball looping into the net. You used to find the answers from other people in the stand or even on the train home, and then you’d rush to see footage of the thing you partly witnessed.
Football is creating more of a distance from the supporters under the guise of serving us. I really wanted to go to the Newcastle game, only to receive the ‘unfortunately’ email that has followed every other home match I have applied to go to this season. For the first time though, I am not disappointed. The announcement announcement came seconds after the ‘unfortunately’ email and served as a consolation amid the despair of EFL’s atrocity. Not getting a ticket I can accept, outright vandalism is tougher to shrug off.
I can only hope this trial fails. Above the emotional and passionate pleas, how would it even work out for deaf fans, unless we’re enrolling refs on sign language courses? No doubt the additional act will give something else for the front row tourists to film, but I can’t see how else this will do any good.
Football used to put a shield up against the strains of everyday life, but it has been edging towards the other side for a good while now, and we can only rely on Christmas, even with all its marketing excess and reminders of sadness and loneliness and expressions of prejudice around the festive table, that is keeping up its end of the bargain.
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