Football and the Media

God bless the media. We, as fans, have never had a greater insight into all things football. They can tell you what’s going on in the training ground and in the changing rooms; they even have access to their home-life. There is a plethora of outlets that make for a one-stop shop for all the latest football news, including a host of apps, websites, social media pages, newspapers, magazines, TV stations and radio programs. There are no better, no more iron-clad and no more ethical ways to find out what is going on with your club or country than through our media. One can expect nothing but the truth, its our most trusted source of information on the beautiful game and those within it. Yeah, right.

Reliability is certainly something to be questioned when it comes to the media, particularly the football media. Either that, or the list of players the likes of Manchester United are monitoring in any one transfer window is bigger than the one I used to create at Christmas (and believe me, I scoured the Argos catalogue from front to back). The crazy thing is, that the overabundance of nonsense articles are eaten up by fans from far and wide; from the outlandish player claims to the ridiculous transfer stories. They’ll even post the most stupidly put together potential elevens based on such, via their social media platforms; where they’ll also present some of the most cringeworthy memes in an attempt to be humorous.

The likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have helped to build players up like ever before. Their popularity has soared and there has never been more avenues for players to make money (which, in turn, has been known to infuriate many from outside the sport); but with the good undoubtedly comes the bad. Hate, in the direction of the clubs; hate, in the direction of players; and hate, in the form of trolls, is engendered through social media. People within the industry, as well as their families in many cases, have never been as accessible, which makes it that much easier to praise and slander in equal (and unequal) measure.

The worst thing to come from the media, at least in the humble opinion of this amateur writer, are the toxic stories that have been known to come out, specifically by some of what I like to call the scum bag newspapers. They’ll dig out stories from years earlier, assassinating characters and potentially ruining weeks or months in a players’ career (and sometimes all of it). Timing is everything and you know when a major tournament comes up that something will come up, an England footballer will be plastered all over the back (and sometimes front) pages for something that they’d done before they’d even got a cap; and you just know that they’d been hanging onto it until that precise moment. The story runners will call it fair game and will be justified by the amount of sales, clicks and comments; but it can’t do anything other than derail a player. The most recent examples have followed the breaking of the coronavirus rules by Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood, where they then dredged up a historic photograph of the latter inhaling helium; which to me was a complete non-story. It can’t be used as an excuse for the national team to fail, but it certainly doesn’t help.

It must be said that there is a massive benefit to the media too, mainly as the spectacle that is football has never been more accessible. Coverage is easier and more widespread these days, although the fact that fixtures are arranged around such is a minor downside, with teams getting less rest than others at times and the quality of play deteriorating. The recent lockdown period has been made a little more bearable thanks to football and the media, and as someone that watches many games from a bar or on my couch, I can hardly complain about something like that. Likeminded fans are able to discuss the sport from different countries, although this can become sour with some, while games like Fantasy Football, Predictors and Last Man Standing are simpler to run. The above is almost enough to forgive all that I’ve talked about, almost.

By Calum Dewsbury