After Arsenal drew at Burnley, Arsene Wenger blamed the fixtures computer for the congestion it had produced. This is a new entry in the Big Book of Managers’ Excuses, but there is a more serious issue. Football attendances have held up well in the recession, but during these midweek fixtures five Barclays Premier League clubs recorded their lowest league attendances for between two and five seasons in midweek. Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers took a hit at the turnstiles as they staged their second home matches in four or five days.
After Arsenal drew at Burnley, Arsene Wenger blamed the fixtures computer for the congestion it had produced. This is a new entry in the Big Book of Managers’ Excuses, but there is a more serious issue. Football attendances have held up well in the recession, but during these midweek fixtures five Barclays Premier League clubs recorded their lowest league attendances for between two and five seasons in midweek. Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers took a hit at the turnstiles as they staged their second home matches in four or five days. It was the Premiership’s first midweek round of matches pre-Christmas in December since 1993. The chairman of the Football Supporters’ Federation, Malcolm Clarke, commented that to ask fans without season tickets to fork out for two games just before Christmas was a pretty high outlay.
Clarke acknowledged that the fixture compilers have a tough job, especially this season, when an earlier finish to the campaign was needed to give England time to prepare for the World Cup in South Africa. But he was surprised that clubs had been required to pay two games at home in quick succession. He commented, ‘I can’t believe that it’s not possible to programme to computer to avoid that problem. I know the fixtures working party have lots of difficulties but it’s something they should look at in future years.’ The FSF is represented on the working party.
Liverpool’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bill Shankly’s appointment as manager could not prevent their lowest crowd at Anfield (41,106) since March 2005 to see them play Wigan. Manchester United’s figure of 73,709 for the visit of what turned out to be the Wolves reserve team was the lowest in the league since Old Trafford was expanded in 2006, although not that far behind their average of 74,901 this season. Chelsea attracted 40,137 to see bottom club Portsmouth, compared with an average this season of 41,337. Sunderland attracted 34,821 to see high flying Villa, their lowest in the league since March 2007, and 5,000 below their average of 39,836. Bolton Wanderers had a miserable 17,849 for the visit of West Ham, although their average is only 21,521. Some might say that reflects the discontent of fans with manager with Gary Megson, but someone remarked to me this week that Bolton was a small town outside Manchester that happened to have a very nice stadium. Ouch!