In an extremely candid conversation with ESPN soccernet, West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan shared his concerns and revelations, about the fallout from England’s embarrassing effort at the World Cup in South Africa. According to him, there is already a financial impact right across the board for the Premiership. He claims that soccer fans in England were so turned off, by the shabby showing of the Three Lions last month, that ticket sales are down for many teams. “ There is no doubt that this has alienated the fans……..they have no more heroes. No more Bobby Moore or Bobby Charlton, or Stanley Mathews. Not even a new David Beckham, who was a real icon. There are no icons. Instead, we have our players up on assault charges, or involved in sex scandals with their team-mate’s girlfriend……….The public think to themselves that these players are over indulged, they earn too much money for too little return. We’ll all see the results of such a poor performance ………The whole of the Premier League will be 10% down in the sale of their season tickets, and this is down to the England team. I know from talks with other chairmen that a number of clubs are actively down on sales.”
Is Sullivan accurate in his assessment, that the drop in ticket sales in the Premiership is directly connected to the woeful World Cup showing by England, or is it reflective of fan concerns with their own local teams ? The fans of Manchester United and Liverpool are angry with the respective owners and would like to see the clubs sold to local people, as opposed to their current ones who are American. There is a lot of concern pertaining to the Merseyside squad at Anfield especially, who did not qualify for Champions League play this upcoming season. Will the weak showing by Wayne Rooney in South Africa, affect ticket sales at Old Trafford ? I guess we’ll know in about one months time, when the Premiership season gets underway.
With all the controversy that surrounded Chelsea’s John Terry, who the West Ham owner was referring to in discussing a scandal, with Terry allegedly having had an affair with an ex England, team-mate’s ( Wayne Bridge ) girlfriend, it seemed that the fans of the Blues came to the defense of their team captain. At the Blues home games at Stamford Bridge, there were banners with his portrait on them, proclaiming Terry as their leader. It seemed that his personal crises became a rallying point for many Chelsea fans. The published figures from the Blues home games, had the exact same attendance statistics, all season long. With the team having won the rarely achieved Double, both the Premiership and FA Cup titles, it would be surprising if there was a drop of any kind in their support. It’s not as though England was the only soccer power that underachieved in South Africa. The same could certainly be said of Italy, Brazil, Portugal, and especially France. With the Premiership featuring players from all over the world, I can’t imagine that the die hard football fans will stay away from the the object of their passion for very long, if they have any sense of optimism about their own favorite club teams. If their local teams are performing up to par, or exceeding expectations, the struggles of the English side in South Africa will eventually diminish in importance, as do most peak moments in sports. If they underachieve, then the angst about England will continue to aggravate their anxiety.
.