The end of the beautiful game as we know it?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
The decision by the government to prevent fans from attending football matches in the UK has left many lower league clubs facing an uncertain future. What's it like to play for a National League and just how important are local clubs to their towns?
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Guests:
Gregor Robertson, Times sport columnist and co-host of the Game podcast.
Host: David Aaronovitch .
Clips used: GTFC Official.
'Blue Lobster' by Daniel Birch is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (looped from original).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Every weekend in the old pre-pandemic days, the one place in city or town where thousands of citizens were gathered together was the football stadium. |
| 0:17.0 | This is one thing that several thousand people gather in one place every week or every other week |
| 0:28.1 | and can congregate with a common purpose and a shared history. |
| 0:39.0 | From the exalted floodlit palaces of the premiership |
| 0:46.5 | to the rickety open stands of the Vanarama League, football in England and Wales was like a pyramid, each tier resting on the activity below it. But even before the coming of the virus that structure was crumbling and now at the bottom |
| 0:56.6 | deprived of fans and finance it's threatening to collapse. |
| 1:00.9 | Football is not in a good state of health before coronavirus and coronavirus |
| 1:06.2 | is merely served to illuminate that very fact. |
| 1:09.2 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times. I am David Aronovich. Today, is this the end of the |
| 1:16.4 | beautiful game as we know it? I've been a spurs season ticket holder for 26 years now and a paying fan for what seems like a hundred. |
| 1:30.0 | We have a fabulous new stadium which of course we haven't been in since March. |
| 1:35.0 | But till then our rituals were much the same as those of fans of Aldershot Town or Fleetwood. |
| 1:41.0 | Travel in Hope, shout a bit. |
| 1:43.2 | Appreciate the effort and the skill, |
| 1:47.5 | chat with our fellow fans and travel back in exultation or glue. |
| 1:52.0 | Now we're under pressure, three on three. |
| 1:54.0 | Great ball through the middle. |
| 1:56.0 | What a good tackle. |
| 1:57.0 | My club is one of the biggest, and TV money will keep it afloat. |
| 2:00.0 | For the smaller clubs dependent on ticket money, this is an existential crisis. |
| 2:06.0 | And if a local club goes under, it's a bigger deal than many realize. My last game for Grimsby was at Wembley. I was there for two |
| 2:18.2 | seasons and the first season we reached the playoff final. Gror Robertson now writes for the times, |
... |
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