Fixtures and flittings

Update: By the season's end Hibs will have endured 16 different kick off times. Here's a fresher look at the situation from 4th April - Hibs: That's Fife

Confirmation that Hibs and Aberdeen will contest the Scottish Cup semi final at 12.15 on Saturday 14th April brought forth a predictable reaction.

Another chance to join the gnashing of teeth over badly chosen kick off times for semi finals. And should we really be playing this game at Hampden anyway?

Such complaints are now traditions, entwined with the venerable trophy.

Agree with them or not, it's a Scottish Cup semi final. (Some) people would go if it was played on a wet Wednesday morning at the Basingstoke Bowl.

The resurfacing of this annual argy-bargy did get me thinking though: Hibs face five different kick off times in their next five games.

At the end of that run they will, by my reckoning, have kicked off at 13 different times this season.

13.

Unlucky for some.

Here's the dirty baker's dozen:

• Tuesday - 7.45 pm
• Wednesday - 7.15 pm
• Wednesday - 7.45 pm
• Friday - 7.45 pm
• Saturday - 12.15 pm
• Saturday - 12.30 pm
• Saturday - 1.30 pm
• Saturday - 3 pm
• Sunday - 12 pm
• Sunday - 12.15 pm
• Sunday - 12.30 pm
• Sunday - 3 pm
• Sunday - 3.45 pm

I'm sure supporters of other SPL clubs will have similar tales of woe.

There are many reasons why crowds at Easter Road have been dwindling in recent seasons.

Build all the nice facilities your prudent housekeeping will stretch to but you still need to give people something half decent to watch when they're there.

Hibs have failed the fit and proper person test for football's crucial raison d'etre: they've been a bit rubbish at playing football.

But the scheduling can't help.

Supporting a football team can be a labour of love and it can be a financial drain.

It can also be a habit. A habit that, once broken, might never return.

So why are we making it so difficult for supporters to support their clubs?

Lives are getting busier. There's a world of competition for the leisure time of a populace that is quite unrecognisable to the one that powered Scottish football's post Second World War boom.

Yet the scheduling of home games in the SPL is all over the place. Away games have become a test of endurance for those with time and cash to spare.

That can't be right.

Football, we're told, is a business now. Businesses shouldn't treat consumers like this and expect to thrive.

TV is the major culprit. I think most of us now accept that we can't roll back the influence of the broadcasters.

But even here Scotland looks to be losing out. We don't have the consistency of coverage that we need to build our brand.

Treated like filler, thought of as filler. And given no platform to grow.

We're the Diagnosis Murder of TV football. We might never be a Sherlock or a Downton Abbey. But it would be nice to try and prove ourselves as a Countryfile or a One Show.

Instead we've got TV deals that don't really deliver the way it should but which dictates a schedule that sickens fans.

So, as the fans lose out, Scottish football proudly straddles the worst of both worlds.

That has to change.

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SPL: 2011/12 Fixture List Farce

Football fixtures day.

The day the SPL fixture list for 2011/12 is announced. The SFL schedule is coming out as well.

Who'll try to party poop as Rangers, Dunfermline, Livingston and Arbroath unfurl their championship flags?

When will the derbies of Edinburgh and Glasgow be scheduled?

What's the first away trip you fancy? When's the much anticipated trip to East End Park for a bridie (the football at East End Park is forever a secondary concern)?

It's a day people look forward to. We move, with the fixture list in our sweaty grasp, a step away from the phoney war of summer and a step closer to actually playing football again.

Yet I won't be reporting the fixtures as they appear today.

If you have been brave, if you've been loyal, if you've stuck with me throughout the torrent of rubbish I have subjected my readers to over the last season, then you might remember a football fixture farrago from this time last year.

As I wrote about it at the time I'm loathe to revisit an old moan.

Actually I'm not.

I'm delighted to revisit it. Because I think it shows just what a grubby, greedy, desperate bunch the people who run our game are. And it really pissed me off then and continues to piss me off now.

Last year I wrote about the fixture list when it was released. I had time on my hands, the opportunity was there, I wrote and I posted. And thought no more of it.

I didn't reproduce every single fixture that was announced. I listed the first couple of weeks, brought attention to a couple of tasty looking dates and signposted readers through to the relevant league bodies to get the lists in full.

That was all.

Then I received an email from a company called Net Result acting on behalf of Data Co Limited who in turn act on behalf of the SPL and the SFL:

In order to display the Fixture Lists you must obtain the necessary licence from the Press Association.

The Leagues have appointed the Press Association as their official agent for the licensing and distribution of the Fixtures List. If you have inadvertently infringed our clients' copyright please take immediate steps to contact the Press Association to obtain the appropriate licence. Please confirm to us by e-mail that you are now seeking an appropriate licence. Because of the time sensitive nature of the Fixture Lists you are required to remove them immediately from your site pending the granting of a licence.

We wish to make you aware that we have a good faith belief that your present use is an infringement of the Leagues' legal rights and that all such unauthorised use must cease immediately. Please confirm by return your agreement to this and give your undertaking to cease all such infringements on any and all of your web sites. Pending your response the Leagues' rights are fully reserved.

It would cost over five grand for the right to display the SPL and SFL fixtures on this blog. A real bargain.

That's a standard rate that applies if you have 100 million readers or if you have five readers. It applies if you make millions from your website or if you make bugger all.

Don't think you can get round it with a Lilliputian-like response of made up names. You can't. Others have tried it and the league's hounds have sniffed them out.

I'm not the only person to have been contacted. I probably won't be the last - although their success rate in hunting down the infringers seems somewhat sporadic.

Does this matter? Yes, I think it does.

There are certain events that you don't want publicity for. If I'm 16 and I've got a 'free hoose' then I probably don't want the scheduling of the party I plan to hold to be spread around the internet.

If I'm organising a major sporting event where success depends on people actually showing up then I would like to spread as much information about that event as possible.

I would want publicity through as many channels as I could find. I'd want that information out there and I'd want people to reproduce it, write about it, celebrate it.

I'd not charge them for the privilege.

But I'm not someone entrusted with ensuring the survival of Scottish football clubs. It folllows that I don't know anything.

On the 27th November last year 2280 watched an SPL game between Hamilton and St Mirren.

Clearly with attendances that healthy there is no way in the world you'd want as many people as possible to find out when the games are on.

I actually considered jacking in this blogging lark I was so disgusted when I got the email last year.

I persevered. I probably infringed again over the course of the season - "He's previewing the games? Heaven help us, people might actually discover football in Scotland still exists, get a cease and desist communication to him as soon as possible!" - but I didn't hear anymore.

It strikes me that to actually reinvigorate the game, actually do something about how crap it can be rather than just talk about doing something, then a lot of people are going to have to stop behaving like arseholes.

That takes self awareness.

There is none.

The attitude to their preciously guarded fixture list is indicative of their general attitude to the game:

"It's ours. We own it. We'll sell it. We'll make money from it. The fans? F*ck the fans. Why would we want them to know when games are being played?"

The way football is discussed, written about, celebrated, slagged, enjoyed and recorded is changing. The authorities aren't changing with it.

I'll respect their edicts on how we find out about fixture lists. But in sticking with their regulations they are absolutely proving that they're the wrong people to change our game for the better.

> Heard from Net Result over this? Get in touch and share your experiences. The rules apply to the SPL, SFL and the English leagues.

> A bit more background from last season

SPL Fixtures: A Mirthless Farce

Hibs play Inverness at Easter Road today.

I hope the fans enjoy it. They'll need the memories to sustain them, the next time they see their heroes in Leith will be when Hearts come calling at the start of April.

A whole calendar month without a home fixture.

As we hopefully usher in some milder weather, as the season stretches towards the business end of the split, Hibs are banished from their own backyard.

There are cup games to be played, international fixtures to cram in. But Hibs have three games in March.

That not one of those is at home seems to me to be madness.

This is football making it hard for the fans to attend. We constantly hear that football now has to compete for our attention. By divesting the ritual of going to games from all semblance of routine or habit the SPL is failing in its duty to attract that attention.

"It's the computer." Utter rot. "It's TV." Pure codswallop.

It is a failure from the authorities to listen to their "customers," a failure that suggests they can't be trusted not to further damage the game as they rush headlong into their ill defined revolution.

Alternate home and away games can be easily planned. And they can be planned to allow for teams sharing cities and for TV schedules.

As an excercise in logistics this is not up there with planning the Normandy landings. It's a simple step that could do the game a lot of good and make it easier for fans to support their team. Which seems to be exactly the kind of step the SPL do not like to take.

As Hibs fans who don't travel to away games are dragged along Princes Street over the next few weeks they might ponder the way the SPL run the game. They might think about quality of football they pay the privilege to see when the whim of a fixture spewing computer gifts them that chance.

And perhaps they'll come to the sorry conclusion that the SPL is pulling off the sorry feat of being an army of donkeys led by donkeys.

> Other clubs may be in the same boat but it was the Hibs situation that caught my eye. There are other considerations.

Pubs, snack shops and sundry other businesses that contribute to the match going experience are put under tremendous strain by a fixture list designed as an after thought at a chimpanzee tea party.

No point complaining though. It will fall on deaf ears. Football leadership in this country is an arrogant cabal of the unqualified and the uncaring.

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SPL 2010/2011 fixtures

SORRY FOLKS. THIS BLOG POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO TELL YOU ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ON THE STRICT INSTRUCTION OF NET RESULT ON BEHALF OF DATA CO LIMITED ON BEHALF OF THE SPL.

TO EVEN SHOW THE FIRST WEEK OF FIXTURES WITH LINKS TO THE FULL FIXTURE LIST ON THE SPL SITE WOULD COST ME OVER £4000. THIS IS MODERN FOOTBALL:

In order to display the Fixture Lists you must obtain the necessary licence from the Press Association. The League Logo can only be used with permission from theLeague concerned. The League Logo needs to be removed until permission is granted.

The Leagues have appointed the Press Association as their official agent for the licensing and distribution of the Fixtures List.

If you haveinadvertently infringed our clients' copyright please take immediate steps to contact the Press Association (Email: fixtures@pressassociation.com) to obtain the appropriate licence. Please confirm to us by e-mail that you are now seeking an appropriate licence. Because of the time sensitive nature of the Fixture Lists you are required to remove them immediately from your site
pending the granting of a licence.

We wish to make you aware that we have a good faith belief that your present use is an infringement of the Leagues' legal rights and that all such unauthorised use must cease immediately. Please confirm by return your agreement to this and give your undertaking to cease all such infringementson any and all of your web sites. Pending your response the Leagues' rights are fully reserved.

More information here.

Is the World Cup too far away to properly dullen the senses with its succession of awful football matches?

Fear not, the SPL is on its way back.

The fixture list was announced this morning.

Yet again ignoring my advice about allowing teams to play home and away on alternate weekends. I'm beginning to get a complex.

We kick off on 14 August. (I assume I am I allowed to mention this date but I'm awaiting confirmation)

What's in store? The Co-op Cup

A midweek prediction special as Scottish football's least revered competition reaches the quarter final stage.

Dundee v Rangers

Rangers rediscovered some vim on Saturday but, crucially, still couldn't overcome Hibs. This is a poor Rangers side further distracted by off the field disasters. Quite a contrast to Dundee who are flying high and luxuriating in new found riches. Walter Smith will be keen to give Jocky Scott's dark blues due respect but he's also got a small squad struggling to cope with injuries and further domestic and European tests looming. So we can expect a weakened Rangers team coming up against a Dundee team full of confidence and momentum. A shock is not guaranteed but it's a distinct possibility. Home win.

St Johnstone v Dundee United

United go into the Tayside derby on the back of a convincing performance in the "New Firm" game at the weekend while St Johnstone were well beaten by a Kevin Kyle inspired Kilmarnock. The Saints have a strong cup record in recent seasons while United and boss Craig Levein are desperate to land some silverware and will fancy getting the job done this season with both Rangers and Celtic faltering. St Johnsone will try and play their usual game but United are, as ever, likely to be organised and physically stronger. Away win.

St Mirren v Motherwell

After sharing six goals and some heady attacking play on Saturday Motherwell make the trip back to Paisley tonight. I had backed Motherwell on Saturday and was perhaps guilty of underestimating St Mirren's apparent rebirth as free scoring, attacking force. I'm still impressed by Motherwell this season though and pulling themselves back into the game on Saturday is proof of a certain resilience. I'm going for the away win but I think it could be an extra time affair.

Celtic v Hearts (BBC on Wednesday)

Celtic are back atop the league following a 2-1 boreathon against Hamilton on Sunday. Hearts were held to a goalless draw at home to Falkirk on Saturday. Current form does not bode well for a scintillating game on Wednesday night. Hearts are in that horrible place where a lack of goals is making the players tetchy and the crowd restless. Celtic are in that horrible place where the manager doesn't like his players, the players don't like the manager and the fans are confused but feel they shouldn't like somebody. You would predict are nervy, tense and low scoring match but Celtic cut loose against Falkirk in the last round and might just do the same here. Close or not this is a home win.