TELEVISED FOOTBALL David Berry and Steve Pinder

This season sees a new agreement between the football authorities and television. League matches of Britain's most popular spectator sport will be televised live. The relationship between British football and TV has been stormy and this could be the death-knell. For football is a dying TV sport that live coverage might finally destroy. The first televised game — the 1938 FA Cup Final — was live. 93,357 people packed Wembley to see Preston beat Huddersfield 1-0. About 9,000 watched it Dan Maskell on TV. Last season's final went out live and was watched by over 14 million in this country. 100,000 saw it at Wembley. But, apart from special matches, TV coverage hasn't been all that successful. In 1960, the embryonic ITV companies won the right to show a number of live games. The first match, Blackpool vs Bolton, was so dire and attendance so poor that other clubs refused to cooperate and the deal fell scheduling as of the attraction of the game. through. Many people see live coverage of the League Out of this came a compromise that as the last desperate fling to regain lost lasted till last season — special matches like audiences. Cup Finals, where a full crowd and In fact, covering a game live is easier for excitement are virtually guaranteed, could television. There's no video-editing which go out live, but the more regular and saves money and time. Only one additional mundane fixtures, would be shown as camera is needed to the six usually present highlights. The 1966 World Cup, held in for a highlighted match and that's just for England, rocketed attendances and viewing on-the-spot interviews. There isn't any figures and the 70s saw the industry grow, need to rethink the style of coverage since with pundits and savants providing expert special games have always been televised analysis to back up the commentator. The live. Football will continue to be shown in division between televised soccer and the the realistic mode. QUANTEL technology local match also grew — previews on Friday (splitting the screen) which is so effective in nights and Saturday lunchtimes, games cricket and golf, is unlikely to be used. As from around the world and instant the professionals claim, it's like being there. teleprinted results all produced a television But, of course, it isn't. Television package. So a game that had, before concentrates on action — goals and fouls — television, been the preserve of the working and the game is both more interesting and class male became the purlieu of all, whose more boring than it appears on TV. brief glimpses of Best, Law, Greaves and The main problem of televising football Keegan, turned them into experts with no is simply that the pitch is too big. It can't need to visit the grounds. be shot as a whole — unlike a tennis court But in the late 70s, viewing figures or a snooker table. Football is also a fast declined. The BBC Match of the Day game — unlike golf — and so often switched to Sunday afternoon last year, by camerapeople lose the main object of their agreement with ITV. And the switch attention: the ball. Hence the need for so revealed that the very large viewing figures many cameras. This means that the actual Match got a couple of years ago, were as game is 'bad TV whereas the razzmatazz is much a product of careful Saturday night great television. Jimmy Hill Brian Moore

Until this season, football has been Wilson will give the background to the would let nothing interfere with his 45 covered on television as a carefully- game and introduce special features on minute fix each week. But would he have contrived media package. And essential to clubs or players. In contrast, ITV coverage watched three hours? The experience of this package has been the commentators. relies much more heavily on the journalism watching an ordinary live game is of long The football commentators employed by of Brian Moore. It is no surprise, then, that periods of boredom punctuated by a the TV companies are a mixture of sport the BBC is more popular because the possible spell of brilliance. With no crowd journalists and 'experts' — former players coverage is more mediated and the behind the viewer and no team loyalty, will or managers. It is worth looking at mediation is essential for the game to make the viewers take a chance on that spell examples here because the sound-track that 'good TV. happening? More likely the competing goes with the game is the most obvious Football commentating is a tough job and attractions of the other three channels will distinction between going to a match and is often, like most sport journalism, a win out — especially if any argument with watching it on the box. Most viewers, as part-time activity or a stepping stone to other people in the home is on-the-cards. with royal occasions, choose to watch their higher, more prestigious work. Hill is an Match worked because it was short and sport on BBC. Sport is one of the few active power in the game itself and the new sweet and could be part of a Saturday night televised programmes for the BBC gets TV football star, Jimmy Greaves, has with friends. higher viewing figures than ITV. For already moved from football to TVAM and For the next nine months, football will football, the BBC relies on two ex-players his own sport series for Central TV. be part of most men's television. There will who have made the transition from expert With all this television attention to detail be the usual complaints about too much comments to regular journalism. Interest­ and packaging, it is no wonder that even a televised soccer and, next year, there will ingly enough, neither Bob Wilson nor middle-of-the-table clash could be made be another unholy scramble between the Jimmy Hill were world-class players in interesting viewing. A predominantly local football authorities and the TV companies their time. Now their commentary con­ sport, thanks to television, could be made for a new deal. Cliff Morgan, head of BBC tributes to what is seen in TV circles as the attractive all over the country. At the same Sport, said last year that he could imagine best football coverage in the world. time, as ground attendances dropped the BBC pulling out of football coverage Wilson, an Arsenal goalkeeper till (obscurely enough a larger drop under Tory and this is more realistic than it sounds. recently, and Hill, ex-Fulham rather longer governments than Labour), TV seemed to Football needs TV more than vice versa. ago, have an analytic rather than a capture the missing millions. Without television, it would lose all the descriptive style. Hill will take a player who But the staple diet for the millions of major sponsorship of which the new Canon may not have scored a goal, or laid on that football viewers in the 70s wasn't live League and the Milk Cup are just vital pass, and explain to the viewer why he football. Anthony Crosland was one viewer immediate examples. Football's popularity has made a vital contribution to the game. who, despite their loved one's protest, as a spectator sport is decreasing and the 42 October 1983 Marxism Today

League authorities desperately hope that live football on TV will encourage back the missing millions. However, according to Chris Lightbown, live football will put people off: 'We go to football to capture a dream — the dream of seeing that moment of skill we remember all our lives. Live TV will show people it's not on'. The usual fantasy of League officials is that TV has destroyed the old addiction to watch the game. But the opposite is more likely. TV coverage has kept football in peoples' minds and it is worth asking how much the TV companies have listened to nostalgia, rather than hard economics, when they have made deals with football authorities. Without the box, it is a minority sport. Television has stemmed for a while the decline of popular interest in the game. But when a new generation of television producers emerges — a gener­ ation that hasn't been brought up to go to soccer every Saturday afternoon — it is unlikely that they will treat football as generously. For the vast crowds that turned up to matches this century came from a leisure sociology that no longer exists. Going to a match was a working man's Saturday afternoon. For football has always been an anti-family game. It excludes women. The sports that are increasing in popularity — racket sports, running, darts, snooker, golf etc — are all games that rely on individual performance and can be played by men and women together. And they're much easier to organise. TV has created the image that football dominates sports coverage. In fact, there has only been an average of two hours per week on each channel. Over a year, football will receive less actual playing time on TV than snooker or cricket or tennis. As a game, football is under rather than over-exposed. It seems very likely that the development of televised sport in the next decade will be indoors. The difficulty with outside sport events for television is their unpredict­ ability. And, although there is no intrinsic reason why football should not be played in covered stadia — as it is beginning to be in the USA — the conservatism of the football authorities will surely prevent this happen­ ing here. The point is that most people in football live on forgotten dreams and bad marketing practices in which TV has connived. Football has had a good deal from British TV; with current feelings in television, the next few years might change this. Live coverage could be the beginning of the end.