The Leeds United Supporters’ Trust (LUST) has called on the Football League to place a limit on the number of games each club can have moved for TV coverage during a season.
By the end of December Leeds will already have had 10 games televised since the start of the season, and it’s a fair bet there will be plenty more to come in the new year. And it’s easy to see why, as the average viewing figure for our games is 150,000 people more than for matches not involving Leeds.
We already know what Massimo Cellino thinks about Leeds constantly being selected, claiming that the amount of money the club gets from Sky isn’t enough to compensate for the loss of matchday revenue, and now it’s clear that the fans are getting fed up with it as well.
During the Blackburn game there were chants of "Thursday night, what the *****” and "we hate Sky”, but funnily enough the Sky commentators didn’t mention them, even though they came through loud and clear during the broadcast. But they must have heard them, as they did comment on the anti-Cellino chants that were made during the same game.
Now LUST have asked the Football League to shield us from the inconvenience of the constant changes. A spokesman for the organisation told the Yorkshire Post "These figures go to show just how massive the support for Leeds United is nationally.”
"To attract such viewing figures while our loyal support still turns up in numbers to games, like it did at the Huddersfield game last week, is yet another testament to the country’s best supporter base. Those fans are deserving of better than to be subject to constant fixture changes, be they caused by Sky, the Police or other clubs’ fixture changes.”
"We call on the Football League to consider setting a maximum number of games per season that clubs supporters can be subjected to fixture change and a minimum 3 months’ notice period.” A longer notice period will certainly help fans to plan in advance, especially those who travel by train, who need to book well in advance to get the cheapest tickets.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Leeds United said the club is still doing it’s bit to help. "We are not surprised to hear about the drawing power of the club. Our fans demonstrate their incredible support every game, travelling up and down the country to follow their team. "
"The club are committed to improving the experience of a match-day for our supporters and are looking to improve the current situation with regards to the frequency of games moved for television coverage.”
Personally, I think that if Sky must insist on showing Leeds so many times during a season, they ought to show fewer Leeds home games (so that it’s not just us suffering a drop in revenue from other sources) and should prioritise the away games where the home club gives us a small allocation of tickets. Then they would actually be providing a service to fans who were unable to get to the games in person.
I’ll wish LUST and the club good luck in their efforts to get a fairer deal for us all, but as we all know, it can be difficult to get any common sense out of the Football League.
UPDATE: A couple of hours after I'd posted this article we learned that our away game at Sheffield Wednesday is to be televised by Sky. It now kicks off at 12.30 on Saturday 16 January. So no sign just yet in the number of Leeds fixtures being selected by TV or a three month notice period for fixture changes.