Tag Archives: Sky Sports

The Premier League and Sky Sports rewriting football history

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Last night Chelsea won the league. Fair play to them. Well done. They were the best team in the league, but I wake up this morning to see that Sky and the Premier League are at it again. They are rewriting history.

In England, the FA Cup was founded in 1871. The Football League in 1888. No country has a grander, longer history of the game than us. We are the originators. The forefathers. It is something to be proud of. But time and again, Sky Sports have attempted to rewrite that history.

Alongside the Premier League, over the years they have tried to promote “Premier League era only statistics.” IE since 1992.

The key reason for this is commercial. Sky hold very few highlight rights for anything that happened before this time. So they continually show more recent events, events that they do not need to pay extra for.

They are in hand with the Premier League, who in 1992 decided to ‘break away’ from the football league, and have spent years building up the Premier League brand, and disassociating themselves with what went before.

With both in collusion with eachother, they have been able to brainwash many fans, usually younger who did not know football before 1992, to disregard anything before that date as pointless.

We saw it a few years ago when Manchester City won the league title with the last kick of the game. Sky Sports billed the event (and reported it after) as the closest title race in history, and the best end to a title race. They have since continually shown the footage of Sergio Aguero’s goal. It completely ignores Anfield 89.

Last season Leicester won the league. Greatest story in English football was what was written. Really? Is it a greater story than Nottingham Forest in 1977/98 under the great Brian Clough who got promoted, then the next year won the First Divison Title, and the year after the European Cup? I do not think so.

So we go on to Chelsea…

So Sky Sports report it as Chelsea winning their 5th Premier League title. Moving two ahead of Arsenal into second place. What it ignores is the 100 years+ of football that happened before 1992.

Chelsea last night won their 6th league title. This brings them level with Sunderland, 6th on the all time list. Behind Manchester United (20 league titles), Liverpool (18), Arsenal (13), Everton (9) and Aston Vila (7). Not quite as impressive now is it?

That is a tweet from the Premier League’s own Twitter feed. Not some shitty little photoshop created by some 14 year old in the UAE.

Chelsea are the first team to win the Premier League title on a Friday

Chelsea have not made history. By my reckoning, the top flight of English football has been won on a Friday night at least 5 times. Including Arsenal at Anfield in 19889 – that season Sky refuse to talk about.

Chelsea yesterday made history by winning their 6th league title. But it was personal history. In the grand scheme of 140 years of English football, it was not historic. They now have as many league titles as Sunderland, who just got relegated.

Of course, some Chelsea fans (and even some Arsenal fans) will comment on things such as your’e turning into Liverpool fans, banging on about history. You might be right, by it is not me who bought up history. It is the Premier League who claimed that Chelsea were making history, and Sky Sports that count league titles from 1992. They are the ones bashing on about historical moments, whilst ignoring history.

The Premier League is not a new league established in 1992. It is the top flight of English football which dates back to 1888. All that has happened is it has changed its name, got a new trophy, become more about making money then the football, and slowly killing the English game for most real fans.

English league football. Est 1888, not 1992.

Keenos

Sky and BT ruining football…AGAIN

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So yesterday, SkySports and BT Sport announced the first round of TV games covering up until the beginning of October and quelle surprise, they have made it as tough as possible for Arsenal fans.

As in April last season, we have had pretty much every match moved, with only 1 out fo the 7 match’s remaining at 3pm on a Saturday – Aston Villa on the 20th of September. The full set of fixtures are:

Sat 16th Aug 17.30 Crystal Palace H
Sat 23rd Aug 17.30 Everton A
Sun 31st Aug 16.00 Leicester A
Sat 13th Sep 12.45 Man City H
Sat 20th Sep 15.00 Aston Villa A
Sat 27th Sep 17.30 Spurs H
Sun 5th Oct 14.05 Chelsea A

Firstly the Spurs game. I remember the days when it used to be an 11.30am kick off. It perhaps shows the way the game has changed, the hooliganism being less frequent, that it is now at 5.30pm. Or is it just that the power of the TV companies is now great than the power of the police?

As always, the biggest problem is going to be travelling to and from the games.

Everton v Arsenal

Everton v Arsenal

There were already major engineering works on the weekend of 23/45 August (Bank Holiday weekend), meaning that to get to Everton it was going to be a 4 hour, 3 train via Birmingham trek, but it was manageable. The changing of the fixture however has made it a nightmare for Arsenal fans.

A 3pm kick off would have meant fans could comfortably get the 19:04 and get back to London in time for the last underground trains. Due to the change, fans are either going to have to leave half way through the 2nd half, make other arrangements to get their, or do an over nighter. The only bright side is with it being a bank holiday weekend, an over nighter is not too bad.

The Leicester game is an even bigger piss take. On Saturday 30th August, you can get a train back to London up until 21:58. Brilliant. Sky, however, have moved the game to a 4pm kick off on the Sunday. The result:

Leicester v Arsenal Out

Leicester v Arsenal Out

Leicester v Arsenal Return

Leicester v Arsenal Return

On first look, it does not seem to bad, until you see those dreaded words ‘bus service’. The journey home will now take you via Kettering, where you will have to take a 70 minute bus journey back into St Pancras. This highlights the disregard that TV companies have for travelling fans. On the Saturday, no problems, on the Sunday, problems, so what do they do? Move the game to the Sunday.

So once again, thanks Sky, thanks BT. One 3pm KO in the first 7 games, and two nightmare journey. You clearly do not give a fuck about us. The more you do this, the less guilty I feel about streaming everything for free. You do not care about us, I will refuse to put money into your pockets.

By hook or by crook, I will get to Everton and Leicester, but I get the feeling this is the first of many travel challenges I will face as I embark on the 38 game season.

Keenos