The FA are money-grabbing arses

The FA are money-grabbing arses

          Are you surprised by this statement? Really? Gareth Southgate has spent the entire summer making England fans proud to be English, proud to support their nation after a strong World Cup showing. But the FA has ruined all of that work in the first international break since the tournament. England played Spain at Wembley on Saturday night. Tickets for this game were priced at £55 for an adult (Which is fucking mental) and to top it off, the game was on Sky Sports.

Southgate Celebrates something against Colombia during the World Cup.

          Why? To make the FA some more money. The FA's main source of income is through the TV rights to the national team's games, both mens, womens and youth, and also through the FA Cup, again of the mens, womens and youth game. So they sold the last set of England games to the highest bidder, that being Sky.

          I feel genuinely sorry for Southgate. He's made us love our national team again, but the FA have sold him up the river. £55 for a 8pm kick off at Wembley, plus train fares for the majority of people going to games. Then £45 for a midweek game in Leicester, also on Sky. The cost is ridiculous for one pretty meaningless game and one completely meaningless game.

Rashford scored the only goal of the game when England played at Leicester.

          On a serious note, what would you prefer to see? A half empty stadium at £55 each or a full stadium at £25 each? It's just common sense that we all know is lacking in governing bodies worldwide. The corporate seats are another big issue with me. There is loads of them and they are always empty at Wembley. Why not see those tickets to people who will actually show up? or at the very least, swap the corporate seats to the other side of the ground where they cannot be seen on telly.

          They do all of this to make money, but then they fine clubs and players ridiculously little. For example, when Liverpool were caught tapping up youth players they were fined less than £100,000. Just in perspective, that's around their average weekly wage. What good is that going to do? Seriously? If clubs were fined more realistically compared to their stature then they would make plenty of money in that area.
          I know the fine money at present is given to charity and there is nothing to stop the FA from doing that if they increase the fines to sensible amounts. They'd make more money and at the same time be able to give more away. It's a win-win for all parties, except those breaking the rules and getting fined.

Keane and Vieira tussell during a game.

          An example of where strong fines should have been enforced would be the famous brawl in a Manchester United vs Arsenal fixture, or 'the battle of stamford bridge' where Chelsea ended Tottenham's title hunt. That's to name just two.

Anyway, that's the end of my rant about the FA, until next time...

Craig