Post by sihath on May 10, 2014 13:28:40 GMT
The report shows how naïve and arrogant Greg Dyke is. I heard Stan Collymore ranting yesterday that he felt like he wasted his time speaking to the FA as clearly they weren't interested in listening.
I think that the gap between the top clubs in the PL and the likes of us and the other teams in the 3rd/4th tier of the game has widened since we were a 1st Division team.
The wages, the money from TV, the media coverage, the fans attitudes.
I think there's often a patronising attitude towards lower league clubs from the media/PL fans and now the FA themselves, often because of ignorance of what goes on down here.
I remember the FA Cup draw in 2002 when we got Swindon. The BBC were the FA Cup broadcasters and the draw was made just after a previous round game. John Motson was in the studio and when we were drawn against Swindon Motty said "of course Oxford and Swindon were the 2 teams that Robert Maxwell wanted to merge to create the Thames Valley Royals". Make Lawrenson was also in the studio and put him right, but I think that illustrates the attitude/understanding towards lower league teams by the media. They don't have a clue and, they really don't give a stuff.
This latest brainwave shows how out of touch the FA are. Danny Mills saying that Torquay fans would love to play Man Utd B. Really? Seeing as how the FA commission couldn't be bothered to talk to anyone at all from the Conference I very much doubt they talked to any Torquay fans. But because Danny is part of the media that hype up the PL he believes he's right.
Hopefully there will be a change in attitudes from the FA, but as they have no chance of implementing any changes that the PL don't want, they'll ride roughshod over the lower leagues.
This is reminiscent of what the big clubs were doing pre-PL when Man Utd Chairman Martin Edwards when he was trying to keep as much TV money as possible for the big clubs said "smaller clubs were bleeding the game dry and that they should be put to sleep"
Luckily lower league fans are a resilient bunch and we're still here (just).