'It's a lie that TV is killing game'

RECENT reports about the scheduling of this season's 22 extra live SPL matches on Setanta have been horribly ill-informed.

There has been much bleating from chairmen and managers about the four-in-a-row sequence of live Monday night games which ends tomorrow with Falkirk against Hearts.

Yep, you've guessed it, it's that old chestnut about television killing football.

Bob Geldof and his Boomtown Rats clearly aren't the only ones who Don't Like Mondays. But it's a shame for the doom and gloom merchants that attendance figures don't warrant pressing the panic button.

The first Monday match, Dunfermline against Hibs on a miserable night in Fife, drew a crowd of more than 6,000 into East End Park - that's par for the course.

Fears of a four-figure turnout at Pittodrie for Aberdeen v Hibs then proved unfounded. More than 11,000 were there - 700 up on the last meeting of those two in the North East.

A week ago the anti-Monday protest was dealt another blow when Aberdeen went to Inverness and Caley Thistle reported their second-biggest home crowd of the season - only the visit of leaders Celtic drew more.

So the rumoured financial hit for SPL clubs hasn't happened, with attendances holding up pretty well.

And don't forget that, even if crowds had been drastically down, the top 12 clubs are sharing an extra £4million of TV revenue this season as a direct result of the 60-match Setanta deal.

Here's another popular misconception about Monday night football in Scotland. You might not want it. Well, Setanta didn't ask for it either.

This is not about television calling the tune. Nor are the SPL authorities dictating the play. It's not even individual police forces who have jailed plans to show football on a Friday night.

It's the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) that have put the idea behind bars.

They've already ruled out four Fridays, which then became Mondays, and seem unlikely to relent in the course of this season - or even during the remainder of the Setanta contract.

The official line is that police resources would be over-stretched if there was SPL football on a Friday evening.

This is because they also need large numbers to deal with revellers in town and city centres around the country.

But if forces in Grampian and the Highlands seem happy to handle the extra work, why have their bosses pulled rank?

Was there enough prior consultation between the SPL and ACPOS? Have the top cops thrown their toys out of the pram?

I really don't know but can't help feeling the Friday experiment is worthwhile.

And it has been tried before. Sky Sports showed SPL games on a Friday night a few years ago at places like Kilmarnock and Motherwell without any problems.

Even this season the potential for Friday football has been underlined.

First Division Livingston played Hamilton a month ago and got a bigger home crowd than for their next Saturday match.

The Scotland Under-21 team also played France at Pittodrie on a Friday in August and there were more than 12,000 to watch it, many paying at the gate.

Commercial opportunities for clubs would be greater if games could be scheduled at the end of the week rather than the start of it.

Wining and dining would be a much more attractive proposition with a weekend of recovery in prospect.

I'm not suggesting Scottish football should be awash with Friday night football. I don't think that's what was being proposed.

We'd be talking occasional rather than regular. But it's surely worth a try. ACPOS have imposed what is effectively a blanket ban and that can't be healthy.

I'm led to believe SPL negotiations with them are continuing but the chances of this collection of chief constables and their deputies changing their stance must be somewhere between unlikely and impossible.

Meantime, Setanta can only take a watching brief but it's frustrating that we can't test out the Friday feeling for football.

So the cameras head for Falkirk tomorrow night and an intriguing match-up between Celtic's midweek conquerors in the CIS Cup and troubled Hearts.

John Hughes (below) has moulded an exciting young team and the Bairns have been one of the season's surprise packages.

They could complete a fantastic fortnight if they can hammer the final nail into Hearts' faint hopes of relaunching a title challenge.

Falkirk scored eight goals and racked up six points with back-to-back SPL wins against Dunfermline and Dundee United.

They then ended Celtic's ambitions of a treble with a deserved midweek win.

Hearts, though, could descend into freefall if they crash again after two damaging defeats inside the last week. If they lose at Falkirk the Jambos might join the chorus and decide they don't like Mondays either.

Taken from the Sunday Mail
'It's a lie that TV is killing game'