Dancing with the Devil

Robert Walpole is considered the first de facto Prime Minister of Great Britain. The actual position didn’t exist at the time but it was he who first took on the tasks that would eventually fall under the remit of the office.  A forgotten figure from history that is unlikely to ever impact greatly on conversations at football grounds. It was he who first articulated the view that “every man has his price”, a point of reward at which loyalty is secured, favour is considered a given and opinion is aligned with that of the benefactor.  He argued that it applied to all aspects of life regardless of class or profession. If you apply it then to modern sport you could argue the media has long been the paymaster of the world’s most popular disciplines but the resultant marriage is often far from harmonious.

There’s an element of the chicken and the egg to be debated when it comes to the relationship between broadcast media and sport. Is it the coverage that the media provides that makes sport so popular or is it the widespread public interest in sport that leads them to provide broadcasters with a bounty of viewers and listeners?

The truth realistically lies somewhere between the two viewpoints. Alex Ferguson’s relationship with the BBC has twice made notable headlines in recent weeks. Initially by him choosing to end a seven year boycott with the broadcaster which had seen him repeatedly flout contractual obligations to speak to them. Then when he did eventually sit down for interview he took the opportunity to articulate a view that he would feel many at the upper echelon of football management agree with. Namely that the sport’s top clubs have done a deal with the devil such is the influence they have allowed television to have on the sport. Clearly the £106m that United earned from their domestic and European endeavours last season is not enough to secure the manager’s loyalty or sway him towards possessing a positive outlook towards the fourth estate.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche took Walpole to task saying that rather than every man having a financial price instead “there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing”. Perhaps Fergie couldn’t avoid using a first outing on the world’s best known public service broadcaster to launch a swipe at the satellite broadcasters who he feels are distorting the game with their requirements and influence. It’s understandable that the big spending corporations would want a certain say in scheduling and make certain demands for access to players such is the money that is being spent for broadcast rights. But when you multiply this to take into the account the number of territories that the Champions League or English Premier League is broadcast in then one can start to understand why Ferguson and his ilk can get frustrated with the amount of time and control they feel they waive or the distractions they might feel they have to endure.

Coverage of sport has becoming an insatiable beast. It’s no wonder that the world’s biggest clubs have courted the notion of the in-house TV station as a means of not only squeezing some extra revenue out of fans but more importantly providing a vehicle of completely controlling the message they disseminate to their faithful. Modern managers and players benefit massively as a result of the agreements that others, be it chairmen or club owners, have entered into off the back of their association, surely it’s not unreasonable that this comes at some minor inconvenience no more than any of us mere mortals occasionally have reason to complain about aspects of how we make our living.

There’s no doubting that the change in the relationship has come at a cost to the insight that fans get into the game they love. The days of being able to get players to open up and chat about their views on the game are fast becoming a distant memory. Even the notion of approaching a player or manager directly is now considered an abomination. Sport is now a realm heavily controlled by specialists in corporate communications with what is said or not said carefully chosen and drilled with its big stars often only available when it comes in return for the promotion of corporate entities.

The media is seen by many sports people as something to be suspicious of. Some are justified having suffered at the hands of tabloid media. Others will argue that those who wield microphones or craft prose from behind a computer screen aren’t qualified to comment fully on events having not known what it is like to take part in the heat of battle. It’s overly romantic to think that the lines of communication will revert to being as open as they were in days gone by, but the bricks of cash flooding soccer shouldn’t be used to build a bridge of inconvenience to the ultimate paymasters, the fans.