Australian lessons for the SPL?

Can we learn from the Australians with regards to avoiding matches being postponed? If not- then the folk who run football in this country should be shot- well at least they should review their procedures.

After reading that the Perth Glory v Celtic match could possibly be moved due to a waterlogged pitch, I thought what a great idea, why did the Scottish football authorities not come up with such a plan?

The people who are arranging the match v Perth have already stated three days before the game that it may either be called off, or moved to another venue and they are working round the clock to ensure that the match will be played.

If the same thing happens over here – we tend to be told about an hour or two before kick off that the match is postponed.

An hour or so before the match the vast majority of fans are on there way to the stadium – on a large number of cases, it’s a long journey that people are having to undertake to get to the stadium to start with.

With the amount of money that rail or car travel costs in Scotland, I think it’s safe to say that the possibility of a postponed match would be enough to stop me getting tickets for away matches.

Take last season, twice Celtic and the fans made the journey to Inverness to hear that the game would be postponed. From Glasgow to Inverness, it’s approximately 180 miles and, according to google maps will cost about £30 on petrol/diesel.

That is only taking into account local fans but what about the folk who travel from further afield, such as the Irish fans who need to book and pay for ferries or flights?

To travel by train from Glasgow to Inverness, it’s about 3 and a half hours and a return ticket will start from £42 per person.

Doing that journey and paying it twice and not even getting to see the game will and does put some fans off. The alternative would be to stay at home and watch it on TV or even down the pub and have a pint or twelve while watching the match and probably forget the score by the time you get back home, but that’s a different story.

Of course, that’s nowhere near as good as being in the stand, watching the match with your fellow hoops fans but it’s a much cheaper and less time consuming option.

Increase the cost to folk who go with their kids and it can get very expensive very quickly.

For me, it’s time for the SPL to take action against teams who, continually, fail to provide a suitable pitch to play football on.

I think if a club cannot provide a suitable pitch to play the match on, they should either be forced to move it to another local stadium or forfeit the match.

Harsh? Maybe, but it wasn’t so long ago that teams were refused entry into the SPL if they never had a stadium capable of seating 10,000 fans.

I fail to see the difference, if a team cannot provide a stadium they don’t get into the league, if they can’t provide a suitable pitch/venue to play the game, they are told ‘never mind, maybe some other time’.

Now, I do understand that external circumstances would have to be taken into consideration, last season, a game at Parkhead was postponed because of the conditions of the roads and walkways approaching the stadium in the winter. That is out of Celtic’s control so we shouldn’t suffer for that. For other clubs under similar circumstances, they shouldn’t suffer either.

But neither should opposition fans, as much as we may dislike fans of other teams, we need to remember that they are, or the majority are, just normal folk like us who enjoy watching their team play and also spend a lot of money to follow their teams.

Almost all postponed matches are caused by adverse weather conditions, all SPL teams have played at the same stadiums for a long time so they should have contingency plans in place to deal with it.

People within football often state that the fans are the lifeblood of the game, if we truly are then we should be catered for. Although my personal opinion is that TV money really is the lifeblood of the game – that’s a debate for another time though.

If a pitch is not suitable to be played on, tell us before we leave to go to the match or move it to somewhere else and let us make alternative arrangements.

I remember, as a child, going to a game and hearing it was postponed how disappointing it was so there must be other families with young kids who have to put up with this same level of disappointment.

I’m sure most parents will have to quickly think of an alternative thing to do with their kids – of course something that will cost more money.

If fans are truly the lifeblood of the game, then it’s time for the people in power to take us into account and start acting in a more competent manner with regards to match postponements.

I do fully understand that what I have listed above would be difficult to implement and that each match postponment would have to be looked at and individual circumstances have to be taken into account, but I think it’s time to take the fans into consideration.

Please let me know your thoughts on this, or have you been on your way to a match that was postponed mid way through a long and expensive journey?

How about if a club does postpone a match, they should have to put on a bus service for the fans who have already paid out to travel? Or even a subsidised bus service that leaves from Celtic park or some other central point in Glasgow?

I’m afraid I don’t have the answers but I think what the Perth officials have done may well be a good place for us to start.

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