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komen:tari updated.

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I am writing this as I await the beginning of ‘Asr, during half-time as United are 2-0 down to City. I am watching the game on my laptop connected to my tv/monitor, sourcing the game via SopCast. As the Premier League looks to spread its wings abroad, this is what a ‘local’ football fan is reduced to: unwilling to pay £40/mth for access to Sky Sports, the web is the source of this junkie to satisfy her addiction.

The move by the English Premier League to make clubs in England’s top tier play an extra fixture abroad reeks of blatant capitalist opportunism. It is amazing how loudly the bottom line speaks these days. With no, if not little, respect for the fans that have brought the football clubs of the Premiership to where it is today, the executives in charge aim to squeeze yet another extra penny (or pound) from fans. Having perhaps exploited all they can within limitations in the UK, they have realised that there now exists a more lucrative – and gullible – market abroad: they are not slow off the mark to exploit this.

Would football fans abroad welcome this? I open the floor to you, the football fan in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Shanghai, Hong Kong and beyond; for I am no longer within those geographical boundaries to have much of a say. From where I sit, though, I have always felt that I get a much better deal when it comes to watching football when I am in Malaysia. Every week when there is a Premiership fixture, I almost always manage to catch a United fixture, regardless of whether it is shown live in the UK or not. As it is, if the game is played on a Saturday at 3pm, it is not televised: whether on Sky or Setanta. In fact, it is illegal to broadcast a football game between 1445 and 1715 hours on Saturday: this is backed by the UEFA and is in the interest of encouraging more fans to go to games. So for £35/month, one gets only to watch one’s club play if a) it is an early kickoff on Saturday, b) a late kickoff on Saturday or c) a Sunday kickoff.

Now if you are a fan of say, Morecambe, the chances of your team ever making it onto television is miniscule until the playoffs. In fact, there was a greater chance of Morecambe appearing on tv as a Conference side that it will ever have as a Championship side. So if you wanted to watch your team play, you would go along to Christie Park, pay about £13 and shout yourself hoarse for 90 minutes. There is a 99% chance you will be able to get a ticket. Say you were a fan of any of the top six Premiership teams, and walking up to your ground and getting a ticket could cost you anwhere between £35 to £71 (at White Hart Lane, for Spurs games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle United or West Ham United sitting in the West Upper Stand) – and that is, if you manage to get a ticket. So it probably pays to ditch your favourite Premiership team – at least, going to their live games – and try and find a lower-tier local team to support: not hard in England, which has a 72-team lower tier league system.

But anyway, my point is… I fail to see the need to play an extra fixture abroad when the need for fans in England are far from being met. Instead, why not stop thinking about the bottom line and empire expansion, and play one extra game where you let fans fill your stadiums for free. Or a tenner, even. That’d be a treat to oh, so many!

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On the note of the Manchester derby which I mentioned I was watching earlier (yes we lost, hammer it in harder why don’t you). I was on the verge of inflicting damaging pain on poor unsuspecting carpet mites when my mom, of all people, sent me this text:

Mak saya

I couldn’t stay angry or depressed for very much longer, hehe.