Spiking Pay Per View Rates: A Repellant for Football Fans, And For Good

There are times in life when the decision you make can horrendously backfire on you and there’s no better point to prove that than with the Premier League’s awful move to charge even more money for fans to watch games.

Although pay-per-view games are not a new concept to anyone, the timing and the cost of it couldn’t have been put out there at a worse time than now and from what has been seen it’s not well received in any quarter of the game right now.

Whilst the charge of £14.95 on face value doesn’t look or seem extortionate once you delve into it there is the feeling of ripping off fans once again without any thought for them.

Already to watch a Premier League team across the season you pay your SKY, BT Sport and Amazon Prime subscriptions amounting to anywhere between £30 - £80 a month and that only gives you the games that are chosen by them to be televised. 

Clubs took season ticket money from fans anticipating they would be inside their stadiums watching games from 1^st October, the government decision to put that back by as much as six months should mean some sort of price reduction or a refund, nothing seen so far. 

The fact that all games were live throughout the restart in June to complete last season and coupled that to the beginning of this current season shows the Premier League have the money to be able to make it happen, but to now decide they will charge an extra fee for games not chosen by the broadcasters is a real kick in the teeth for any football fan of the top level.

Only Leicester City voted against putting this service in action which just goes to show how money orientated it has become, even a £5 charge might have caused a stir given the free nature the clubs provided until now and can afford to still do so.

At a time where the country is really divided by what is happening nationally, football is a massive release for a lot of people at whatever level they follow the game. Worries in life currently go deeper than our national sport, job losses, health worries, mental health declines and football wants another fifteen pounds just so you can forget about everything going on and immerse yourself for ninety minutes, it really doesn’t sit right at all.

There is a call for non-league clubs to unite and now take the time to attract these disillusioned fans into their level of the game, its honest, cheaper and in the current climate we’re all living in there’s probably been no better time for them to get people engaged and to show what you get for your money.

For the Premier League I feel this is the biggest own goal they’ve scored so far, they couldn’t be more disrespectful to the very people they need back inside their grounds. The lack of atmosphere is becoming ever more evident and the longer it goes on the harder it will be to actually entice some of these supporters back, they will be lost for good.

Follow Trevor on Twitter @trevk37