Funny how we constantly moan about the weather. It’s too hot, it’s too cold, we’re never satisfied. It’s normally the subject that gets talked about the most on social media too. I was really looking forward to the storm and rain on Wednesday, as it was finally going to clear the air. But what happened? It got hotter! It’s just a shame that most of the UK can’t enjoy it as the quarantine has definitely put a stop to people flying here. The ones that can come, which is not many, are coming because they have the time to quarantine on their return. Scottish children have now returned to school and the English with children that are here will have to return this weekend to cover their quarantine before they go back to school. In fact I had a friend who flew over this week and the crew outnumbered the passengers. It’s true that the UK is having an Indian summer but let’s be honest 35c in Birmingham isn’t the same as 35c here. No offence to my Brummie friends but it’s true, the UK isn’t built for heat.As I write this France, Malta and the Netherlands have been added to the quarantine list. Let’s face it most people need a 14 day quarantine coming back from the Netherlands!
It’s true that the cases of Covid 19 have risen here but you can put that down to more testing than ever before and we would have to be naive to think that when you open your borders that more cases wouldn’t come. The important thing is that the number of deaths is being maintained at a low number despite the rise in cases. There have definitely been lessons learnt in treating the virus here in our hospitals and around the World. We just have to keep doing what we were doing before, during and straight after lockdown. We mustn’t get complacent as this island has coped really well as far as the virus is concerned and it’s important to keep it that way.
One thing that doesn’t seem to have suffered too much since things started to re-open is football. I’m not talking at the lower end because I know there is a struggle for a lot of clubs. But at the top end there doesn’t seem to be too much trouble. During and after the lockdown there was a lot of talk of Premier League Clubs suffering with no crowd income. They came back to secure their TV money and it looks like transfer fees and wages haven’t changed too much. Let’s face it what footballers earn at the top end is obscene but you have to say that if you were offered similar money for kicking a ball (or not in Gareth Bales case) then you wouldn’t turn it down. But right now in what is becoming a serious problem in the UK with recession biting deep you’d think football would consider the fans in the working mans game.
There are plenty of examples of clubs in the Premier League not taking any notice. My own team Arsenal offering apparently £250,000 a week to Pierre Emerick Aubameyang whilst laying off 55 members of staff didn’t go down too well. Manchester United claimed they wouldn’t be held to ransom by Borussia Dortmund over Jadon Sancho and that they couldn’t give them the money they wanted due to the pandemic. Yet when their new kit came out there was no reduction for the fans.
Manchester City after surprisingly getting off their financial fair play ban have just spent £41m and £21m on Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres respectively.
Chelsea after a transfer ban from FIFA for breaching the regulations relating to the international transfer and registration of players under the age of 18. The total figure was 29 players by the way. Now the ban has been lifted they’ve spent £38m on Hakim Ziyech and £47.5m on Timo Werner.
Just a few examples of football at the top level seemingly not worrying about post pandemic Britain. Fans always seem to take the brunt of what decisions their clubs make financially. An interesting thought and I have to admit I don’t know if it’s true but with no one going to football I wonder if Sky & BT have put their price of commercials up as tv watching is most definitely up. Also the same with the clubs and advertising at the grounds as Sky Sports recorded their best ever audience of 5.5m for Everton against Liverpool. This eclipsed their previous best way back in 2012 of 4.2m for a game between Manchester City and Manchester United. Sky’s record number was beaten by the BBC who recorded 5.7m for Southampton against Manchester City.
The FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea was the most watched match of the 2019-20 season, television viewing figures have revealed.
The Wembley final, which Arsenal won 2-1, was watched by 8.2million people at its peak on the BBC and had an audience share of 46.1%. It means that nearly half of the UK population who own televisions tuned in to watch the final on terrestrial television.
The viewing figures for the FA Cup final is small in comparison to the most-watched football match of all time, the 1966 World Cup final between England and West Germany, which attracted 32.3 million people.
You’re not telling me that broadcasters(apart from the BBC) and clubs haven’t jumped on this and put their advertising packages up?
This pandemic also doesn’t seem to have affected the price of kids football boots either judging by what I saw in a couple of sports shops I visited this week. It doesn’t get any easier with two growing sons, one of which is a goalkeeper who needs gloves too. Why don’t they ever go for the ones on offer? Oh, and the colours? What happened to good a good old pair of black boots? My youngest chose bright orange and lemon! I would have been laughed out of the dressing room in my day. “Shut up old man say the kids, they’re Sic!” I won’t bore you with the meaning.
Suffice to say that apart from Pirates not being able to open, the other thing I’ve missed in and post lockdown is my kids football. That’s all changing on Monday when my eldest starts pre-season training. I’d be out there with him if I could run but watching from the stands will do. Dad Taxi is back on the road.
Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
Dad Taxi Mallorca 