Save the game from corporate freedloaders and couch potatoes

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Further to previous discussions, here's Steve Bruce in The Times today saying it's time to do something about the drift of the Premiership and corporatised football, perhaps most demonstrated by the latest twist in Beckham's career as a performing freak, and about the fall-off in attendances.

It was fitting that a saturnine sky and relentless rain provided the backdrop for Steve Bruce to paint his doomsday scenario for football. While David Beckham sealed a move that will earn him £70,000 a day, a sport gorged on greed continued to head for meltdown, according to the Birmingham City manager, who talked gravely of failing academies, alienated fans and uninterested children.
The Premiership has spawned a monster and Bruce is prepared to put his money where his mouth is to save the game from a world of corporate freeloaders and couch potatoes. “Roy Keane was right when he spoke about the prawn-sandwich brigade [when he was a Manchester United player, and everyone needs a reality check,” Bruce said. Football has been taken away from the working man.

Whajy'all think?

Bateman

More from Bruce;

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,1984943,00.html


Empty seats and packed schedule give Bruce cause for concern


Stuart James at St Andrew's
Monday January 8, 2007
The Guardian


Steve Bruce did not take long to come up with a solution for the thousands of empty seats. Having expressed his shock at the 16,444 attendance - lower than any Birmingham crowd in the Championship this term - Bruce claimed football needs a reality check. His belief that ticket prices ought to be slashed is unlikely to be popular in boardrooms but his suggestion that players' salaries should be lowered will have widespread support.

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"Lower the prices and let people back in who want to come and support football matches but simply can't afford to," said the Birmingham manager. "We get enough income off television and all the rest of it now; possibly [reducing player salaries] is what it needs. If we all do it, then fine. But we can't have the FA Cup third round with 4,000 Newcastle fans and 16,000 people in the ground. It absolutely shocked me."
Bruce said his thoughts were "a discussion everybody needed to have", although presumably it was not part of his conversation when he spoke to Birmingham's owners about new signings. Having lost Nicklas Bendtner to a serious ankle injury after the Dane "fell down a hole in the pitch", Bruce would have been on dangerous ground himself had he pleaded for money and cheaper tickets in the same sentence.

He might have been expected to be more sanguine about his side's spirited performance here, Birmingham recovering from 2-1 down to salvage a draw after Radhi Jaidi was dismissed for a professional foul on Obafemi but, with other priorities, another fixture is hardly an attractive prospect. Newcastle will feel the same way. Glenn Roeder admitted his side should have been "out of sight" after Kieron Dyer drove in Newcastle's second.

That they allowed Birmingham to earn a replay owed much to the injuries that have forced Roeder to turn to youth, Newcastle's manager blaming "inexperience" for the home side scoring twice from crosses. DJ Campbell converted the first from Sebastian Larsson's corner and the Swede, expected to agree a permanent deal from Arsenal, found space just as easily when he volleyed home Damien Johnson's delivery late on.

At the opposite end benign defending had enabled Newcastle to bring parity five minutes before the break when Steven Taylor stole in at the near post unmarked. Roeder lamented his side's failure to show that "killer instinct" again, although the Newcastle manager could at least take solace from Dyer's display. He was full of running and incisive in possession and this rare 90 minutes was more a leap than a step in the right direction.

"We have had a gruelling Christmas period but I have managed to come through it," said Dyer. "I just want to stay fit now. We've got the FA Cup and the Uefa Cup to think about and I don't want to be a player who goes his whole career without winning anything." His £80,000-a-week wages ought to soften the blow in the absence of silverware but that could all change if Bruce gets his way.

Man of the match: Kieron Dyer (Newcastle United)

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Me I'll happily watch a game in the park, the eL games and internationals obviously, and the odd trip to England / Spain / Italy a couple of times a year. However, I really couldn't imagine myself forking out the kind of money that the Premiership, and even some Championship, teams are looking for these days.

Chucky the tree

hahaha, oh dear brucey, what are you playing at?

KdjaCL

Chucky the tree wrote:

hahaha, oh dear brucey, what are you playing at?

Lol or not playing at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/6254677.stm as it seems.



kdjac

Chucky the tree

i hope they get a points deduction.

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KdjaCL wrote:

Lol or not playing at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/6254677.stm as it seems.



kdjac

Hope Leeds get the points!
Of course, if that happened in Irish football, we'd have wall-to-wall headlines about a Mickey Mouse league not worth supporting, heartily endorsed on boards.ie.

Pigman II

Hah, Karen Brady. I remember her. She can direct me into her pants anytime she likes.