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To what extent has the media and celebrity culture effected British Football?
Opinions?
Your views would be HUGELY appreciated.
This is my critical research topic for media, and one of the primary research methods is using forums.
There's a few case studies that i'm likely to use, such as 'Colegate' and what has gone on with Ashley Cole over the past year in terms of his treatment in the media and has this affected his game or his club etc. Also obviously David Beckham.
'Wags' are another of my main topics to discuss, and how they, arguably, have overtaken the husband as the media focus. And also how this has affected the game and the player etc.
A few additionaly questions i will consider:
- how far are contemporary footballers valued for commercial reasons rather than sporting ability?
- to what extent do the media influence the british game within what should be non-media concerns.
All contributions are appreciated.
Thanks.
*Affected?
That would be a start.
Someone working to a deadline?
The way the media report football has become very celeb obsessed but i don't think it's affected the actual physical game that much.
Maybe in the managerial world where big name, ex players are often favoured over experienced coaches.
Also the media has practically picked the England team for the past 8 years. Grrr
on my piece of paper it has a scribble where the a and e has been changed many a time
i thought it was affected but everyone seems to use effected nowadays
No they don't, unless you're surrounded by morons.
One can effect change, but your title would then effectively be asking how media and celebrity culture has caused British Football to exist.
"The standard is higher than ever..."
Disagree Mr Majesticon 100%.
Remind me again when was the last time England failed to qualify for a major tournament?
The Premier League is now dominated by three clubs every year, while 4th place is also a formality.
It's also a rarity now that any clubs promoted from the Championship finish outside of the bottom 6. There have been exceptions but over the past decade these have been very few and far between.
The game is now awash with foreign journeymen, particularly at many of the fair-to-middling Premiership sides who consider a 17th position finish as something of an achievement.
Many clubs have now scrapped their youth policies and academies so they are not bringing as many quality youngsters through the ranks. Though that still run academies loan players out to lower league/non league clubs but again, despite the obvious exceptions, a great majority of these players will never get the opportunity to represent their parent club in the top flight.
The wage structures at many top flight clubs are frankly obscene.
Agents are now as recognisable as most of the players, and their greed coupled with the Bosman ruling has effectively ended the transfer market as we, and many smaller clubs relying on the income it generated, know it.
Add to this the continued interference of Sky Television and their ilk whereby loyal supporters who purchased their season tickets well in advance for a 3pm Saturday kick off now have to put up with last minute scheduling to 745 on a Monday, 8pm on a Friday or 1pm on a Sunday and you'll find most fans aren't exactly treated with any respect considering the huge hike in prices compared to a decade ago.
And you're trying to tell me that standards are higher than ever! What planet are you on? You're having a laugh mate, seriously.
Re: "The standard of PLAY is higher than ever"
Re-read my opening sentence again mate.
For your statement to carry any weight
it would imply that the rest of the World (or Europe at least) had not improved.
The standard today is certainly higher. There are many factors that the modern footballers have in their favour, eg better pitches, balls, goal keepers weraing gloves. However, improved fitness levels, more training, better training, better diets, etc make the footballers themselves better too.
Quakerstoy
you're starting to sound like one of the summarisers on Sky, or worse still a writer from the Daily Mail. Read my posts, check the stats, and then come back to me with some worthwhile evidence of your own that justifies your statement.
His post has far more weight..
..than all your posts put together.
Serious answer:
I don't think this is a great topic at all, and that the game itself has been changed far far more by things like technology of equipment used and fitness of players than 'the media.'
If you were to focus on how media coverage has affected the relationship between fans and players (as opposed to the actual game itself) then there's stuff worth reading.
Either way, I'd read Gary Imlach's 'My Father and Other Working Class Heroes' as a primer, cos it's a great book innit.
i did an presentation on this at uni...
lineker and walkers is always a good example of commercial value over ability.
i wonder how many kids now, even know he used to be a massive ledge on the pitch.
did wonders for walkers' profits though.
Haven't bothered with reading this
I've seen who some of the posters are, so could guess at what they've said.
RE: Ashley Cole; I'd argue it is much more that the public and media perception of how well he has played has changed or come under greater scrutiny since his affair and dodgy transfer dealings. He hasn't had his most outstanding season, but he hasn't played nearly as badly as many pundits would claim.
^ this
has quite a bit of truth to it (although I wouldn't know in Cole's case this season personally).
However, take the way that certain players - Lampard or Gerrard for example - can be judged by different people to have both a brilliant and a terrible game at the same time, usually depending on their perception of that player's character and how much they like him.
Fuck off
Do a proper course
You're 17
so this is an 'A' level course!!!!
Whatever happened to Maths and English?
Really, fuck off.
17?!?
And you're telling me that standards now are higher than ever! How far back does ever go? 1991?!?
'Wags' are another of my main topics to discuss, and how they, arguably, have overtaken the husband
That's ludicrous. I don't buy newspapers every Monday morning with 20-page pullouts devoted to WAGs.
-
re Dom: the standard is higher for the top teams, that's it, England last failed to qualify for a world cup in 1994, not that long ago was it? let's not forget the failure to qualify for the euros under Taylor either.
The standard is higher as far as 1 club is concerned
: Chelsea.
Manchester United have been the most successful club in the country on and off for about five decades now. Arsenal have also been one of the most prominent clubs but have still never won anything in Europe.
Liverpool on the other hand are currently going through their worst spell in over 20 years, having not won their domestic league since 1990, so you could hardly say standards have improved at Anfield!
As for the rest, the gap has widened, purely due to money, between those four and the rest that the league is pretty much over in terms of an open-ended contest by September every year: Again, hardly a good advert to say standards have improved.
As for the English national team, you would be correct in saying the last time they failed to qualify was 1994 and apart from being losing semi-finalists two years later in a tournament we didn't have to qualify for as it was on home soil - another distinct advantage - the national side's achievements have considerably lessened ever since; hardly evidence that standards have improved!
Basically, what you are trying to say is because two English sides have got through to the final of a European cup competition, the whole of English football has improved as a result, which is absolute nonsense!
Are you mad?
It is entirely possible for this Liverpool team to be far better than the team of the 80s and for this team to win nothing.
Do you dispute what I said above? I can not reform a team from the 60s to play a team from today, but seeing as probably every athletic record set from 1970 has been smashed by a modern athlete, I don't think I have to.
You're an idiot.
The standard of football is better. I would say that the Liverpool team now is better than that of the 70s/80s. In relative terms (in comparison with the other clubs) Liverpool aren't as good as they used to be but that's not because they've got worse.
Some points that have already been mentioned
-The press pick the England team.
-Managers have a very limited time to improve a team berfore they are sacked.
-Huge foreighn investment
-WAGs, but there is no way these have more attention thatn the footballer
-Beckham to Madrid (and LA) had at least as much to do with commercial potential as football ability.
-"real" fans proced out of games.
-Recent return to supporting local lower league teams
-Idiots now think they know about football.
BUMP
I would really really appreciate anymore views on this please :)
And i'm very grateful to all those who have properly contributed.
And the topic can't change now.
The ‘WAG’ phenomenon is relatively new.
Footballers have always married dolly birds, but once the marriage ceremony had taken place, the newspapers were not interested. Mainly because the girls themselves effectively retired from whatever limited careers they had.
Following the commercial success of Posh and Becks – a brand new phenomenon where the bride was (at the time) an even bigger name than the groom, the media are always looking for candidates to repeat the formula.
So we get an endless diet of Wayne and Colleen, Ashley and Cheryl – all very poor imitations of Posh and Becks, but near enough to sell a few extra copies of Heat. Nowadays, there is so much TV, print and internet space to fill that ANYONE can become a celebrity through nothing more than determination, regardless of lack of ability. Just getting yourself on camera is enough.
Times have also changed to the extent that footballers are no longer confined to the sports pages – increasingly they are held up as fashion icons and models for a lifestyle that should be aspired to. However, whereas footballers used to be role models in terms of their character ( eg Bobby Moore), now it is all about wealth and bling – no one would encourage their child to act like Wayne Rooney does on the field, but they wouldn’t mind the kid coming home with the player’s pay packet.