Government back fans television call
As it stands, 160 of next season’s Premier League games will not be televised which means countless supporters will miss out on their respective teams playing important games.
For the opening of the season, at least, there will be no spectators inside grounds and when the gates do re-open it is going to be reduced numbers which will keep many fans away from the games.
Over the past couple of weeks, Burnley FC Supporters Groups have been involved with the Football Supporters Association (FSA) in campaigning for those games not scheduled for coverage, and that includes our first two games against Leicester and Southampton, to be made available legally to supporters.
Today that campaign took a major step forward with the influential Oliver Dowden (Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and Nigel Huddleston (Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage).
The battle is not won but a spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has said: “Our focus is on working with the football authorities, safety and medical experts to get fans back in stadia as quickly as possible.
“It is for the Premier League and its broadcasting partners to come to an agreement on screening matches, however we urge them to follow the spirit of Project Restart and listen to club’s loyal fans and consider what can be achieved in the meantime.”
Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the FSA welcome the intervention of the Government. He said: “We all want to get back to games when it’s safe to do so but it’s not in anyone’s interests to have a situation where fans excluded from grounds for health reasons or COVID related capacity reductions feel they have no option but to resort to illegal pirate broadcast schemes.”
The Premier League hasn’t commented at the stage ahead of their shareholders meeting tomorrow. We have been in discussions with our own club and, at this stage, believe that they will be supporting the fans on this issue.
We must now await any decision from tomorrow’s meeting as to whether the fight has been won or whether it must continue.
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