Against Modern Football & Sky

With Leeds away round the corner it got me thinking why there hasn't been more hype around this fixture. It's just been dubbed as any old Quarter Final. It's Leeds v Chelsea - near enough a sell out, Leeds fans have temporarily halted the boycott for this, it's a genuine football rivalry that stretches back decades. My real gripe with Sky (and to a lesser extent the BBC) is their uncanny ability to influence the thoughts and views of the public, there is this modern day notion whereby if something is said by the likes of Alan Hansen or Mark Lawrenson on Match of the Day, that makes it right. Football fans these days tend not to live the experience of going to games and leaving, breathing football so don't have the ability to stimulate their own views. Sky have genuinely managed to convince the public that the "Manchester Derby" is now the biggest game/rivalry in football, not so long ago it was Chelsea v United, then before that it was Arsenal v United, then before that Liverpool v United. Sky's affiliation with United is well known so I needn't go into that but Sky's attempt to create new rivalries whilst ignoring long standing and genuine rivalries is ridiculous.

Growing up with a lot of Arsenal fans I still remember the days when they weren't the laughing stock of today and had a reputable side. Back then every Arsenal fan I know identified their biggest rivals as Man Utd and dismissed Tottenham as a team of somewhat irrelevance, I still remember my cousins telling me they "didn't mind" Tottenham yet hated Chelsea. How messed up is that? Seems now that Arsenal have declined and sold their best player to United is sinking in that they never were and never have been their rivals in the first place. Not in the same sense that Leeds, Liverpool and Man City are to them anyway. It's a fallacy of a rivalry, which in the eyes of real fans never existed. The attempt to create Fulham/QPR vs Chelsea into a major "rivalry" is another growing annoyance I have with Sky, since the promotion of both clubs to the Premier League this has been an ongoing thing, "The West London Derby" it is dubbed, without the acknowledgement of the fact the only two clubs that play in West London are QPR and Brentford. Fundamentally "West" sounds cooler than "South West". The Terry/Cole-Ferdinand saga has only fuelled Sky's desire to turn Chelsea v QPR into a big fixture when in reality it never has been, not for Chelsea fans anyway, same with Chelsea v Fulham. This is not just synonymous of Chelsea and Arsenal (both of whom have undoubtedly benefitted from Sky in terms of revenue and overseas fanbase), same can be said of United whose fans have undoubtedly bought into these rivalries as well (the ones that aren't from Manchester anyway).

So yeah, Leeds play Chelsea on Wednesday and nobody apart from fans of those clubs even realises what a rivalry it is yet we're told the Manchester Derby is the biggest and best football fixture out there. When the Old First Division died, a lot of football history went with it, Now we're just stuck with a cash cow - The Premier League - of which the sole aim is to make money and gain viewing figures, armchair/first generation football fans. Don't be surprised if within the next 10 years, Man City v Liverpool or Arsenal v Everton are "major rivals" because that's certainly the way football is heading..