The fans are voting with

their feet. Just as well

there's sectarianism

 

Andrew Sanders

 

The recent return to the sectarianism in football debate, largely as a result of Kevin Rooney's contributions to SR over recent weeks, is, I think, interesting. Certainly, the fact that this debate continues at a time when the national game is in arguably its most worrying state in recent years in noteworthy. I wonder if our readiness to discuss and debate this topic is part of a new moral stance against offensive behaviour, or simply a manifestation of widespread disillusionment at the declining quality of Scottish football?
     The recent comments by Hearts' owner, Vladimir Romanov, that he no longer even looks for the results of the Edinburgh side seem to me to be part of a much wider ranging malaise which has infected football across Scotland.  These comments, although arguably at odds with his view that the club is worth £50million, will not surprise Romanov's detractors who have been consistently critical of his role at Hearts but it is important to look beyond the problems at Tynecastle.
     Hearts are by no means alone in their financial and professional woes.  Hardly a day goes by without a new facet to the ongoing problems at Rangers emerging and yet the Glasgow side remain four points and three goals better off than their closest rival (in more than one sense), Celtic. Examining the rest of the SPL table, one does not need to think too hard of some burden that every club has had to face. From the current third-placed club, Motherwell, who had serious financial problems in the very recent past, to the proud traditions of the club currently second-bottom of the table, Aberdeen, Scottish club football seems to be in a permanent state of disarray. 
     It has been well reported that attendances are plummeting: this season Rangers and Celtic have maintained average crowds of over 45,000, but only Hearts and Aberdeen can boast of consistently attracting five-figure audiences. As recently as the 2008/2009 season, Celtic boasted an average attendance of 57,671. They currently get, on average, 8,000 fewer fans. Oddly, despite the apparent instability of the Romanov regime at Tynecastle, Hearts' attendances are relatively consistent over the same period – a change from 14,398 to 14,101. The same is true of Rangers – a drop of just over 3,000 fans on average.

 

     Clearly the current economic situation has affected supporters throughout the country, but one can't help wondering if our clubs maintain ideas above their station when it comes to ticket pricing. It has been said that the average adult ticket for an SPL match costs £22, clearly significantly cheaper than some tickets for English Premier League matches (a 16 August 2011 article in the Guardian quoted a minimum of £28 to see Manchester United and £51 for a category A game at Arsenal to give two examples), but one has to question the reasoning behind ticket prices in Scotland which exceed average prices for the German Bundesliga. 
     Moreover, the quality of player at SPL clubs continues to diminish. The chances of a player of the calibre of Henrik Larsson or Brian Laudrup spending any significant portion of their career in Scotland seem almost non-existent. Even the much-admired midfield duo who helped bring success to Dundee United in recent seasons, Prince Buaben and Morgaro Gomis, departed for Watford and Birmingham City over the summer. Many readers will need no reminding that the Championship, the old second division in England, is actually the fourth-best supported league (in terms of total supporters) in Europe, ahead of Italy's Serie A. The motivations of such players are often called into question when they join second-tier English sides, but the possibility of improved wages can rarely be ignored by footballers in an increasingly fickle 'industry' where careers can end at the whim of an owner or the swing of an opponents' boot.
     Given the fact that SPL clubs can no longer compete with Championship sides for players, one wonders why our top clubs continue to charge admission prices comparable to English sides? The cost of football, exacerbated by the replacement of home and away kits each season, is on the rise despite the fact that the demand for the product seems to be falling.
     It seems to me, a humble season ticket-holder in years gone by (indeed, my student ticket at Tynecastle in the main stand cost me on average £4 per game, exactly the sort of bargain that I believe Scottish football is crying out for), that our clubs are particularly guilty of making assumptions about the loyalty of fans. This season, with attendances at SPL frequently only breaching five figures for Rangers or Celtic home games, it appears that many fans are voting with their feet.
     This all leads me to wonder: is it the case that, without the debate over sectarianism, we'd have anything to talk about at all?

 

Andrew Sanders is John Moore Newman research fellow in diaspora, conflict and diplomacy at the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin