As somebody who enjoys watching football I was astonished at the latest television deal that the Premier League has signed with Sky Sports and BT Sport for £5.136 billion. Some of the football clubs, including ironically Manchester United, have said that they hope the money doesn't go straight to the players! At present the average Premier League wage is about £44,000 each week, with Wayne Rooney being the highest paid player earning over £300,000 per week!!

The Premier League has fundamentally affected football in the UK because it has been able to do exactly what it wants unregulated, while the FA has just watched. The clubs appear above the law with so many of them now the play things of foreign owners and investors, and all it takes is a large amount of money to purchase one (irrespective of where the money has come from!). Many of these clubs are run at a loss paying sky high wages but ignoring their customers - their loyal supporters. The founding of FC United of Manchester is a good example of where a set of loyal supportershad had enough of being treated like a permanent cash cow to be milked every fortnight. The ironic thing is that these clubs need the supporters to create the atmosphere at the matches which is part of the package both Sky Sports and BT Sport have purchased, with the clubs carrying on exploiting them with high ticket prices.


It saddens me to walk around the precinct and see so many young lads wearing Manchester United, Liverpool or even Arsenal shirts - what about Grimsby Town? They might not have had much luck and been badly run in recent years, but they are your local team. Okay if your from Scunthorpe or Lincoln but live in Grimsby then fair enough but get a Lincoln or a Scunny shirt on then! I can also understand those Town fans who also cheer on a big club as well (they deserve to experience some success) but those who just go, 'Grimsby are rubbish!' and that's it are a disgrace! They might be rubbish at the moment but they haven't always been and they might be good again - let's face it Hull City have been rubbish for most of their history but look at them at the moment. Where would football be in Britain without Grimsby Town, Lincoln City and Scunthorpe?! Grimsby Town have long and proud history with England internationals like Jackie Bestall and George Tweedy, and more recentlt top players like Kevin Drinkell and Italian international Ivano Bonetti. I've watched the Mariners beat nearly every current Premier League team, and it was a Grimsby director who just happened to be President of FIFA who secured the world cup in England in 1966.

If you want football to end up as foreign owned clubs with superstar all foreign teams, and a third rate England international team then you haven't got long to wait. The moment Manchester United managed to force the rule change which meant that for league games the home team kept the entire gate receipts was the beginning of the end of fair play. Anyway, it's away at Barnet next Saturday.

UTM
Captain Haddock