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Has football jumped the shark?

There are three Premiership games today, involving three of the biggest "pulls" in football: Spurs, Liverpool and Man United.

Yet, a dispassionate, honest look at today's sporting fixtures shows that football isn't even in the day's top-three most-important sports.

A resurgent GB has fought its way to the Davis Cup Final, the world's top team tennis event. Britain's Lewis Hamilton has been battling Germany's Sebastien Vettel in the F1 GP in Singapore. While the Rugby World Cup continues to focus the attention of sports fans across the Commonwealth and beyond.

The Premier League is - at best - the fourth most important sporting event today. Is this a portent of football's fading relevance?
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Comments

  • I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.
  • Well I've watched one of the four today and it's football
    Although I missed the tennis
    Motor racing and rugby not for me
  • First of all , Anyone who cites Formula one as more interesting as football had completely ruined their arguememt from the start.
    Secondly when Comparing football to the Rugby World cup, arguably the event that appeals second most to the British public ( Ironically behind the Football world cup) is quite simply wrong.
    And really the only reason for people watching the Tennis is due to Britain overachieving.
    If we put an England World cup game on it would smash the views accumilated on all 3 sports above, so I find this arguement a bit weird.
  • Substitute the football for an england cup semi final and compare it to a Murray 2'nd round match in a 250 series tournament and am pretty sure football would come out on top.
  • edited September 2015
    Chizz said:


    The Premier League is - at best - the fourth most important sporting event today. Is this a portent of football's fading relevance?

    Nope. Even if your 4th place is correct ( and I personally don't think it is) - the football is played every week over appx 10 months every year......how many times will it be competing against a Rugby World Cup or a Davis Cup where 'we' are actually doing well?!?
  • Chizz said:

    There are three Premiership games today, involving three of the biggest "pulls" in football: Spurs, Liverpool and Man United.

    Yet, a dispassionate, honest look at today's sporting fixtures shows that football isn't even in the day's top-three most-important sports.

    A resurgent GB has fought its way to the Davis Cup Final, the world's top team tennis event. Britain's Lewis Hamilton has been battling Germany's Sebastien Vettel in the F1 GP in Singapore. While the Rugby World Cup continues to focus the attention of sports fans across the Commonwealth and beyond.

    The Premier League is - at best - the fourth most important sporting event today. Is this a portent of football's fading relevance?

    I think what you can actually take from it is that it takes the biggest events going in a particular sport just to tear attention away from the Premier League. Plus I genuinely don't think there's an amount of money that you could pay me to make me take interest in F1. I'd rather watch competitive knitting
  • Wasn't even aware that F1 or Tennis was on telly. Have watched about 60 seconds of the Rugby so far. Afraid that is about as much as I can take until I try again in another 4 years. Actually managed about 5 minutes of the Gaelic football final. Currently watching the Southampton v Man U game having watched most of the Spurs game.

    There is as much chance of any of those sports achieving 10% of the world popularity of football as there is of it been discovered that Jeremy Corbyn is in fact the illegitimate son of the Queen and is next in line for the throne.
  • The rugby and tennis are benefiting from the current big tournaments and tennis, in particular, as a result of rare British success. As for F1, I would imagine more people watched the various weekend football offerings on TV than motor racing. So football has a long way to fall before it is usurped as our number one sport despite the grotesque spectacle that the Premier League has evolved to become.
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  • edited September 2015
    I haven't got the slightest clue what 'jumping the shark' means, but comparing football to tennis, rugby and go-kart racing is just mental. Sure, the Premiership has made the top end of football incredibly dull but it's nowhere near as dull as the other three.
  • Singapore GP looked like the new Monaco in terms of dullness. Turned it off after five minutes after realising it was on and have actually quite enjoyed this season so far.

    Davis Cup, genuinely no interest and I've no idea why. I like pretty much all sport but just can't get into Tennis even though it's pretty much made for tv.

    Enjoy and get behind England in the rugby but my lack of understanding of the rules gets on my own nerves as I can't shout at the ref for a making bad decisions.

    Struggle to watch the Prem anymore.

    And let's not forget the Solheim Cup, or maybe we can.
  • Stig said:

    I haven't got the slightest clue what 'jumping the shark' means, but comparing football to golf, rugby and go-kart racing is just mental. Sure, the Premiership has made the top end of football incredibly dull but it's nowhere near as dull as the other three.

    Something to do with Fonsie in a scene from Happy Days apparently.
  • The mighty Pats on right now, and the women's golf had their version of the Ryder Cup, so argueably not in the top 5 sporting events
  • I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.

    It would be interesting to see the relative worldwide viewing figures for those four sports this weekend. There are millions of F1 fans across Europe and Asia who, this weekend, couldn't care less about English football. That's got to be a worry for the Premier League.

    Likewise, this same weekend, the highest attendance have been for rugby matches, not football matches.

    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
  • edited September 2015
    Even Tennis fans do not care that much about the Davis Cup (it's a poor man's Ryder Cup) and F1 is mostly followed by anoraks rather than your usual sport fan (I hardly know anyone who follows both F1 and any other sport). Even the Solheim Cup goes under the radar of most golf fans. I'd say it is premature to be writing football's obituary on this basis.
  • Chizz said:

    I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.


    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
    But it is not. And it never will.
  • Chizz said:

    I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.

    It would be interesting to see the relative worldwide viewing figures for those four sports this weekend. There are millions of F1 fans across Europe and Asia who, this weekend, couldn't care less about English football. That's got to be a worry for the Premier League.

    Likewise, this same weekend, the highest attendance have been for rugby matches, not football matches.

    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
    No because, again, this would be the weekly season losing out to a tournament that runs every four years and is the international pinnacle of the sport. The day the rugby and football World Cups take place at the same time and the rugby draws more viewers would be the time to think about change, but that will never happen
  • Chizz, what the heck? You ok? You're meant to be one of the sane ones ffs
  • edited September 2015
    Have you ever seen premier league attendances for Rugby? Some weeks they can't match League one.
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  • Laddick01 said:

    First of all , Anyone who cites Formula one as more interesting as football had completely ruined their arguememt from the start.
    Secondly when Comparing football to the Rugby World cup, arguably the event that appeals second most to the British public ( Ironically behind the Football world cup) is quite simply wrong.
    And really the only reason for people watching the Tennis is due to Britain overachieving.
    If we put an England World cup game on it would smash the views accumilated on all 3 sports above, so I find this arguement a bit weird.

    Has anyone suggested F1 is more interesting than football?
  • Have you ever seen premier league attendances for Rugby? Some weeks they can't match League one.

    And yet, in spite of that, today's rugby matches are, like today's tennis and F1, more important than today's football.
  • Chizz said:

    Have you ever seen premier league attendances for Rugby? Some weeks they can't match League one.

    And yet, in spite of that, today's rugby matches are, like today's tennis and F1, more important than today's football.
    More important to who though? If the Bus-Surfing World Cup was on today would that qualify as being more important?
  • Chizz said:

    I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.

    It would be interesting to see the relative worldwide viewing figures for those four sports this weekend. There are millions of F1 fans across Europe and Asia who, this weekend, couldn't care less about English football. That's got to be a worry for the Premier League.

    Likewise, this same weekend, the highest attendance have been for rugby matches, not football matches.

    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
    Worldwide viewing figures won't be in your favour, the Premier League is massive around most countries in the world.

    If you're really expecting the Davis cup to be beating Football in the ratings you'll be disappointed.
  • I wouldn't say any of the PL games today were top draw matches, when compared to Chelsea Arsenal yesterday anyway. And big Rugby matches have always pulled in massive audiences, next Saturday England vs Wales will easily be the top TV audience of the day.

    I watched the Tennis, but has been said, GB in a Davis Cup semi final is hardly a regular occurrence
  • I can't stand Rugby or F1, not for me at all. Tennis I like but I would put something like the Davis Cup in 'general things that confuse you'.

    For me it just seems like a load of random fixtures taking place sporadically throughout the year. The Murrays are one win away from putting team GB into the 2nd round against Spain, that sort of comment I hear throughout the year, means nothing to me.

    I was listening to talksport today. Georgie Bingham banging on about how she's going to have 5 devices when she gets home, rugby, tennis, football, F1, something Sodheim Cup. You're talking out your backside Georgie. You're just saying that because there's a lot of sport on.

    I often am interested in what other sports people follow outside football, we have a few threads on here dedicated to other sports. Me I'm only really football and cricket. I think most people are only 2/3 sports at most. Anymore and I think you can't have a real deep interest.

    Maybe you can, just not for me.

  • Chizz said:

    I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.

    It would be interesting to see the relative worldwide viewing figures for those four sports this weekend. There are millions of F1 fans across Europe and Asia who, this weekend, couldn't care less about English football. That's got to be a worry for the Premier League.

    Likewise, this same weekend, the highest attendance have been for rugby matches, not football matches.

    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
    I am not a rugby fan but surely you would expect the rugby matches to be the highest attended games as it is a World Cup. If people are losing interest in football then it is probably because of the antics that twats like Costa bring to the game.

  • Football in the UK certainly believes its own hysterical hype. The premier league is NOT the best league in the world, no matter how much Sky try to convince us. UK football is a lot like the UK housing market, grotesquely overblown through the incontinent supply of cheap money and in danger of destroying itself.

    As they years have gone by I've become more and more disgusted with football and its incompetent officials, douchebag players and twat pundits. There was wall to wall football on TV today and I didn't watch any of it, instead I've been on NFL, F1, NASCAR and baseball

    Rant over...
  • edited September 2015

    Chizz said:


    The Premier League is - at best - the fourth most important sporting event today. Is this a portent of football's fading relevance?

    Nope. Even if your 4th place is correct ( and I personally don't think it is) - the football is played every week over appx 10 months every year......how many times will it be competing against a Rugby World Cup or a Davis Cup where 'we' are actually doing well?!?
    Do you think the Davis Cup only gets a big worldwide audience when Britain does well?

    The point I am making is that it is becoming clearer to all but the most blinkered that the Premier League is no longer the biggest, most exciting and *most important* sporting contest in the world - if it ever was.

    Today, people all over Europe and Asia were watching the Singapore GP; people all over the Commonwealth were watching the Rugby World Cup; many people around the world were more interested in the tennis than the football; and ask any of our American cousins what the biggest football match today is and you can bet that the majority won't be guessing the Nar-ridge match-up with the Mercy-siders.
  • Chizz said:

    I don't see why the football is less important than the F1. It's rubbish to watch nowadays and a prime example of a sport that has jumped the shark.

    It would be interesting to see the relative worldwide viewing figures for those four sports this weekend. There are millions of F1 fans across Europe and Asia who, this weekend, couldn't care less about English football. That's got to be a worry for the Premier League.

    Likewise, this same weekend, the highest attendance have been for rugby matches, not football matches.

    If football is losing out to other sports in terms of tv and live audiences, does that mean it's time for change?
    Worldwide viewing figures won't be in your favour, the Premier League is massive around most countries in the world.

    If you're really expecting the Davis cup to be beating Football in the ratings you'll be disappointed.
    Is it? Still? Will there be more people watching the Premier League today than the GP? Or the World Cup?

    The point is this - the Premier League's smug presumption that "everyone watches English football" may be increasingly inaccurate.
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