SPORT - Now More Than Ever, Local Football Without Fans is Nothing
The Irish League has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance in recent years, with media coverage and investment in the game skyrocketing, resulting in some of the most exciting title races in living memory over the course of the last few campaigns. As a result, overall attendance figures at league games have steadily risen.
The pandemic has, as expected, meant that these figures have dramatically decreased. Last season, when the decision was taken to curtail the season after thirty-one games, figures dropped to 221,733. In the current campaign, with just 200 home fans permitted to attend games between October and December, that number has fallen to just 19,783 and is likely to remain at that given the latest lockdown restrictions have forced games to be played exclusively behind closed doors for the foreseeable future.
Writer, Lauren, is an avid Irish League follower
Whilst the absence of fans has been keenly felt by clubs across the globe, it is not unjust to highlight the particular impact it has had upon our local game. Many clubs in the league are semi-professional outfits. The ones who have made the jump to three-quarters professional or the leap to becoming fully professional, are able to do so as a result of having the backing of wealthy owners, or for generating a considerable amount through consistently qualifying to play in the early rounds of the Champions League and Europa League.
For the rest of the league, matchdays are their main, and until recently, most consistent revenue stream (as well as acting as a sizeable chunk of income for those bigger clubs). Ticket sales get fans through the turnstiles, who then purchase merchandise in the club shop as well as food and drink at stalls and in social clubs. Many supporters are season ticket holders and club members, guaranteeing a fairly settled income each year for clubs, until now.
Given the reduced numbers of supports permitted at each game, many clubs have scrapped or significantly lowered the number of season tickets available. Couple that with the absence of away fans and you are presented with a dire situation of clubs losing reliable and sizeable chunks of their income. It would not be unrealistic to suggest that a few clubs may have ceased to exist by now had NIFL (Northern Irish Football League) not intervened to make available emergency funds to all twelve Premiership clubs. The sums afforded to each may keep them afloat for now, but the longer fans are ostracised from attending games, the closer some clubs will come to drowning, given that players, coaches, and support staff still have to be paid each week.
It is not just off the pitch where the lack of fans has had a detrimental impact, it is on the pitch too as it undoubtedly affects players psychologically. Whilst an average attendance may only be around 1,000 on a cold, wet Saturday afternoon or chilly Tuesday evening, it often feels closer to 20,000. Many clubs in the Irish League are known for having a loyal fan base who dedicate large portions of their life to following their team across the province and beyond, regularly creating a raucous and often hostile, atmosphere. Without fans spurring them on, players and teams are less likely to throw the kitchen sink at their opponents to win the game.
The Irish League has never been known for being a supremely technical and tactical league, and although the quality and speed of the game has improved in recent years, with no spectators the game seems to be regressing.
Whilst it may be difficult for players, it is even more arduous for fans themselves, who have been ousted from their second home for the best part of seven months now. Given the modest size of most Irish League stadiums (with Linfield's Windsor Park the only exception) the matchday experience is so authentic that in most grounds you are practically pitch side and can hear everything the players are saying.
Football is more than just a game for Lauren
As an avid Irish League fan, I think I speak on behalf of all supporters in saying I miss everything that a matchday entailed. I’m counting down the days until I have to wrap up just to brave a blustery ninety minutes at the Oval. I can’t wait to be red in the face with exasperation after berating another awful refereeing decision that didn’t go my team’s way. I feel lost without hearing the shouts from the same disillusioned fans every week calling for the manager to be sacked, the bubbling contempt felt for the opposition when they score and walking out of the ground ranting and raving about the game with fellow supporters. Most of all, I miss the cathartic collective cheering, that euphoric feeling when the stadium erupts after my team has scored, which in a split second, makes the long trip, cold conditions and sometimes awful standard of play, worthwhile.
For many going to watch their club every week is about more than just watching their team. Following a local club is a way of life for many, which provides a structure or routine to their week. Many count down the days until matchday and the chance to go to their stadium, their ground, where they can be surrounded by like-minded people and be distracted from everything which may be going wrong in their lives for a few hours. Going to a football game is as great a social activity as it is a sporting one. It gives people the chance to see friends and family on a weekly basis and not all chat at a game is football related. It often provides an opportunity for people to catch up and talk about everything that is affecting them in life.
For me, it offers a chance to escape the deadlines and heavy workloads of the academic year for a short period to spend some quality time with family, bonding over the one thing that brings us together, (although given their form more recently divides us but that is beside the point) our local club.
My dad started bringing my brother and I to games from a young age and so I have grown up with the league, and with going to games. I do worry for the next generation of young fans coming through, that they won’t be able to have that authentic experience of going to games and being completely engrossed in the culture of the club and of the league. The longer fans are locked out of stadiums the less many are to return, having grown disillusioned with becoming ‘armchair fans.’ Whilst through the years the odd game has been televised, it is still a rare commodity to see local games on our screens.
It has become much more frequent this season as clubs look to find a way, during difficult period, to enable loyal fans to continue watching their team. Their answer so far has been to provide live streams of games for a small fee of £7.50. Yet watching the Irish league on TV doesn’t sit right with me. You do it as you desperately want to watch it, but it doesn’t replicate the true experience of seeing the game live.
The Irish League is not the Premier League and that was okay, as local fans had accepted and embraced the fact that it never has and never will or should be. Many fans appreciated the authentic product of the local game when they were able to attend matches. Now that has been taken away.
Having no fans at games is an issue which pales into insignificance in the grand scheme of things, given the critical situation we find ourselves in but for many, football is more than a game and the inability to have spectators at games from a financial and emotional standpoint has undoubtedly had a detrimental impact on the sport. Will the damage be irreparable? Only time will tell but there is no doubt that the Irish League is suffering gravely from the lack of spectators and it merely puts into perspective just how important supporters are to the holistic matchday experience.
Lauren McCann is an English and Spanish student at QUB. Listen to her on The Sporty Scoop every Wednesday