|
|
small objects of desire:
|
| The recent events in Istanbul which resulted in the murder
of two football supporters, have, as such matters always do, brought attention to the fact
that football is just a game and there are more far more important things in life. Bill
Shankly came out with a famous quote which was meant to be tongue in cheek but was
misinterpreted when he said that ‘Football isn’t a matter of life or death; its
more important than that.’ There are more important things than the ‘beautiful
game’ as Pele described it but football is, never the less a very central feature in
the lives of many of us. When the team you support reaches an F.A Cup Final for the first
time since 1957 there is a tendency, for a few moments at least to think that theVilla
Park ticket office is in fact the centre of the universe around which all other matter
rotates. The period since we were last in the final has seen some shocking cup displays from the Villa. There has been a huge black hole that has sucked F.A Cup ticket revenue from Villa supporters for the last 43 years. For once, just briefly, for this season at least, we can see some justification for parting with hard earned cash to watch Aston Villa Football Club playing in the F.A Cup. There used to be a feeling at Villa Park that the F.A Cup draw was conducted by a senile ‘four horseman of the apocalypse’ who instead of being named Pestilence, disease, famine and so had the less threatening titles of ‘away,’ ‘match,’ ‘quarter’ and ‘final.’ All Aston Villa fans will want to win the final but for the moment, most of us are just content with having got there and are still be recovering from the shock of having reached somewhere that all our previous performances over many years suggested was quite unattainable. These happy feelings will inevitably be hardened by the desire to win, as May 20th looms ever closer. The Cup has come in for a lot of criticism this season and in some ways you wonder who has been in control of events. Other than the outbreak of war in 1914 and 1939 has there ever before been a year when the F.A Cup (or the ‘Worlds greatest Cup Competition’ as the Football Association like to bill it) has been so heavily influenced by events outside of England? The 3or 4 hours which may be needed to queue for a Cup Final ticket could provide the time to check this out. Its just about possible to stand in the queue with the record book in one hand whilst balancing a polystyrene cup of tea in the other. The art here is to ensure that the tea stains end up on the pages where John Motson is raving on about Spurs winning the cup when the year ends with a 1. Certainly football events in Europe (namely the Champions League) and of course the World Club Championship in Brazil have had an enormous impact on this years Cup timetable. There have been major domestic disruptions in the past such as the weather. It could be argued though that the weather, which led to the big freeze of 1963, was a factor, which originated from Siberia rather than dear old blighty. Never the less it was still able to wreak havoc with even the longest and baggiest shorts (testicles shrank to the extent that it took sixty-six days to complete the third round). The Cup Final had to be put back by three weeks. We have not had serious problems with the weather this season but the non-domestic Champions League and World Club Championship events have an unusually high level of influence over the F.A Cup. This is especially ironic considering the latter is marketed as the ‘Worlds greatest Cup competition.’ The reason is of course, money; the latter attracts the interest of all Clubs but there are greater broadcasting revenues out there than ever before and hence from a financial perspective the F.A Cup has become a senior servant when once it was a master. It may have glamour and a recognition across the world as being one of the ‘finals to play in’ but the new, ‘all singing, no time for limping your playing again next week’ Champions League is where the very serious money is. When the F.A Cup time table was worked out by the Cup committee for season 1999/2000 there was a huge allowance made to accommodate clubs who might still be in the second stage of the Champions League. The timetable for the latter meant 4 successive mid week appointments with continental opposition and hence no times to fit in any replays. One of the bizarre fall outs from this is that there was a six week gap between the Quarter Finals weekend and the first Semi Final; indeed very serious consideration was being given (about this time last year) to abandon the concept of the replay altogether for this seasons tournament. We may have fortunately avoided that particular scenario but there has still been the impact of a third round in December (which was not well attended) and of course no replays at the Semi Final stage (or indeed the final). The fall out from the first stage of the Champions League has increased the number of rounds of the UEFA Cup (Leeds for example have beaten five teams just to get into the Quarter Final stages). The problem is that whilst the governors of the English game obviously want their Club sides to do well the cost of the success is that there is a big clash of dates based on the traditional F.A Cup timetable and those of the reformatted European Competitions. The ironic thing about winning the F.A Cup is that one of the first comments usually made once the final whistle has gone is that the winners ‘can look forward to a European campaign the following season.’ To win a major European trophy these days is a much lengthier business than it ever used to be, thus for Chelsea to win the Champions League it would be 19 games (they had to play a qualifier) for Manchester United its 17 games. If Leeds United were to win the UEFA Cup its 15 games and the same for Arsenal who were slotted in from the first stage of the Champions League. The F.A Cup is still, however, a holy grail for most English Clubs and despite some of the seeming Monty Python planning from the organisers this season the Cup has been a huge boost to Aston Villa. The F.A Cup Committee have faced the unenviable problem of not wanting to devalue the tournament and to ensure that what they perceive, as the big clubs in the English game will take the trophy seriously. By ‘seriously’ I refer to the issue of ‘fielding the strongest possible side’ and thus not giving a potentially easy passage into the next round for the opposing team. This is of course a crucial rule and one which needs to be enforced by the Authorities in order to ensure that there can be no suggestion of collusion, or back handers (use whatever term you want) influencing Cup results. This rule is as much about policing the teams who begin their F.A Cup campaign in the preliminary rounds in August and September as it those in the Premiership. Villa are expected to receive some 25,000 tickets for the F.A Cup Final and this essentially rules out about a third of the Villa supporters who attended the semi final from obtaining a ticket in the Villa section of the ground. There will undoubtedly be black market tickets but availability and cost are such that there, will, alas be large numbers of disappointed supporters. This has certainly been a year when its been well worth investing in an Aston Villa season ticket and it’s a great pity that the Clubs price increases at the start of the season probably lost several thousand supporters who had previously been ‘long term season ticket holders.’ The matter of F.A Cup Final ticket allocations has always been surrounded in controversy (it was only in 1962 that the official allowance to each finalist was increased to 15,000 and bare in mind that Wembley capacity at this time was 100,000). At one stage the finalists only received 8,000 tickets each. The distribution of tickets for Cup Finals is an emotive issue, which needs ever-harsher regulation. The Football Association is to be applauded for the £75,000 fine, which they have imposed on Leicester City after the problems in last seasons league cup final when Spurs fans purchased black market tickets in the Leicester section of the ground. The pictures which showed a female Leicester fan being punched in the throat by a Spurs thug totally supported the view of the woman that she felt `betrayed’ by some of Leicester’s staff. Don’t forget this assault took place in the Leicester section of the crowd. There was clearly a breakdown of ticket distribution and its surprising that this should happen at a club such as Leicester who in recent years have developed some very ‘fan friendly ’ policies. The foxes even consulted with supporters on the design for team shirts. The strange thing is that the Club don’t appear to be that remorseful over what happened; indeed if you didn’t know which club was involved in this situation and had to make a guess then Leicester would be one of the last ones that would spring to mind. Clubs owe it; not only to their supporters but also to all fans to make sure that tickets for matches are properly distributed. This is a fundamental bond of trust, which if broken will in the long term hurt the offending club far more than it ever will its supporters. Jon Follows |
|
