The stethoscope we have applied to the Football League over the past week has revealed a not altogether satisfactory heartbeat and the fact that the weaknesses section of our study has been easily the most read does indicate that there is concern for the competition’s health among supporters. Which leads us to the threats section, the most portentous of the four categories, and one which can often appear indistinguishable from the weaknesses discussed on Wednesday. Indeed, it’s when such shortcomings escalate that weaknesses become threats. In the world of business (and I’ll go on record here by stating that I…
All posts tagged Wigan
Wigan Athletic are in No Mood to Relinquish their Premier League Status
Cardiff City supporters contemplating the riches to be found on reaching the Promised Land of the Premier League may be forgiven for daydreaming of improved press coverage and wider attention. They’ll imagine the club’s badge imprinted in the Match of the Day opening titles, approving remarks from Shearer and Hansen and lengthening column inches. But Wigan Athletic fans will tell you how it really is – after a brief flurry of patronising welcomes, smaller clubs are soon relegated back to the box of afterthoughts. The legions of top flight followers will soon be no more familiar with your club’s players…
Crime and Punishment: Football in the Dock
“In recent years sport has achieved an increasingly high profile as part of New Labour’s social inclusion agenda, based on assumptions about its potential contribution to areas such as social and economic regeneration, crime reduction, health improvement and educational achievement. However, these new opportunities … have been accompanied by a potential threat: evidence-based policy-making.” So began the introduction to Fred Coalter’s 2007 book A Wider Social Role for Sport, which sounded a lone sceptical note at a time when sport was apparently perceived by those in power as a panacea, an uncomplicatedly Good Thing. Coalter’s concern was that while this…
Revisiting the Price of Football
There comes a point in every football fan’s life when the “sod it, I’m not going moment” occurs. For some Manchester City fans, contributing £62 to Arsenal’s coffers was a step too far. For me, spending £25 to sit in a rickety away end at Brisbane Road on a cold December afternoon watching Exeter toil against an equally uninspiring Leyton Orient side proved beyond even my levels of tolerance and fanaticism. Despite the game being only a short ride away on the Central Line and no other plans, it was too much. I stayed at home. But this isn’t about Arsenal,…
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