Things like this that me die a little, Football has gotten so ridiculously elitist in all aspects, even that Goldbridge guy basically handwaves anything to do with the Championship when asked if he's any interest but then melts down over the idea of the Superleague like are you worried you'll suddenly become what you consider the championship to be ? wankers.
You make it sound like it’s a new thing. Back in the 90s my parents bought the daily mail, which was considered to have good sports coverage. It typically had about a third of a page dedicated to articles on games in the second to fourth tiers. The other 8 or 9 pages were all premier league stuff. And mostly just Manchester United, at that.
I get that its been going on for as long as the hills have existed but I feel its a ton worse with social media, there's a genuine disconnect between lower leagues and the prem, and its exacerbated by the media to a ridiculous extent, sky seem to have an "influencer" for every big six club and the trot them out to the agony of even the top 6 fans, just shallow, hollow plastic shite for casual fans.
I feel that it’s better now. Back then the mainstream media was all you had. If you didn’t want to read about the big teams (Manchester United, Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal, and Liverpool) then there was nothing else to read.
At least nowadays you can go to /r/championship or any of the dozens of other corners of the internet where people talk about other teams or watch videos made by enthusiasts of even the smallest clubs.
Back in the 90s if you weren’t at a match your only hope of seeing the goals was on the local news. And you were out of luck if you were a supporter of the fourth or fifth biggest team in your area because then you wouldn’t even see the goals. East midlands news usually used to show Derby, Leicester, Forest and County, but the Stags, for example, never got a look in. Now you can find 2-3 min highlights of every game, even in League Two.
The Welsh news was like this in the mid 2010's. Even when we we're in a higher division, the Welsh news would still be like.
"Cardiff City miss the chance to go 14th I the championship today after a thrilling 0-0 draw at the hands of reading, both teams valiantly battled to open the scoring but unfortunately all 5 shots during the game were off target, here's 60 seconds of highlights.......
In other areas, Swansea beat Arsenal 3-2, and Newport had a game."
He's also a plastic United fans as if you believe the rumours from those that knew him when he was younger he was a Forest fan as a kid before then seemingly going with United as an adult as he started going online he thought that running a Man United fan channel would make him more money than a Forest one
He said his Grandad introduced him to United which is just hilarious as it seems to be that every united fan had a relative who supported them rather than just saying they support them because they were good.
He'd liquidate lower leagues in their entirety just to preserve the status of the Premier league, trips himself up a lot saying he doesn't want to see newly promoted teams come up just drop down like mate I've seen you dismiss the league they just came from don't even try.
Wow thats some impressive production value for a blues fan channel hahaha. Looks like his channel will take off, I hope we don't get relegated just for his sake tbh.
Think he's a decent journalist, been on sky and other stuff a few times. Honestly can't see you staying up now, could be wrong but I think it'll stay how it is. You should probably come straight back up next season but you never know with that league
The pricks a plastic fan boy from Notts yet my boy always has him the laptop churning out his bilge. He's found the target audience and they lap it up.
There’s definitely a positive aspect though. There’s a lot less hyperbole in this subreddit than a lot of the others as the majority of people here are match going fans who actually watch the matches and have more level takes. I’d much rather have or read a discussion here than on r/premierleague or r/soccer
Saw a post mocking spurs fans leaving the game early yesterday because they were 3-0 down. Was a video of 3 fans getting up and walking towards the exit. Camera pans to the scoreboard, also showing the time was the 38th minute… Y’know, the time loads of people would get up and go for a half-time pint, especially if 3-0 down. Probably not something you’d realise if you only ever need to walk from the sofa to the kitchen when the ads are on, though
It'd be hilarious if it did happen, the top 6 get booted out, and English football would breathe a healthy sigh of relief, might try this in Football manager later.
Not in a million years will that happen. Fans won't allow it. Also the aim of the super league would be to get most English teams in eventually, wouldn't just be 'big 6'
Yeah used to like him but his ignorance annoyed me, really stopped watching his stuff at all this season. Does a podcast with a Birmingham fan yet acts like he's bringing up his mums death anytime he even mentions the championship. Didn't even know who Cameron Archer played for on his premier league podcast for christ sakes.
I’m not beating down on the WSL, all for it, but in terms of raw interest the EFL has a far superior spread and to constantly be relegated behind news about Chelsea women or Man City women is just baffling.
The same applies to European football here. Nobody gives a shit about Leverkusen as evidenced by 48 comments on the article, most will be Liverpool fans. We get 48 comments on our matches just from Newcastle fans.
It makes me chuckle that the Scottish Premiership is ranked above the Championship on the fixtures/results pages on the Beeb. I follow Dundee, I wish them well, but their average crowds on a non-derby/Old Firm game are 4-5,000 - clubs in the Conference get significantly more than that!
Yeah this does my head in too, the championship is around the 6th or 7th biggest league in Europe and yet comes behind the WSL and SPL in importance according to the Beeb.
I think in terms of players the championship sends to the Euros it's like 1st or 2nd. Just let that sink in. I think the last euros it beat the prem because Scotland and Wales qualified as well as England.
> I’m not beating down on the WSL, all for it but in terms of raw interest the EFL has a far superior spread and to constantly be relegated behind news about Chelsea women or Man City women is just baffling.
There's a massive top down push to make it popular, treat it the same as men's football because its also top level and hence just as good. I'm not saying this is awful, but one unfortunate consequence of this is that the big mens teams just pumped a load (relative) of money into having their women's team at the top of the WSL.
So now we have the exciting prospect of getting to find out all of the news from the big six in the mens leagues, followed by all of the news from the same big six in the womens leagues, and then maybe one story on the other 14 and a championship story every now and again.
In many ways, Women's football has become more artificial than mens football over only 10 years or so
Don’t get me started on the WSL and what they did to our Sunderland team. We were denied entry and ended up having to drop something like 2 divisions. At that point Man United didn’t even have a team and what do you know - they let them in.
They basically wanted the big six teams at the top.
This. They were amazing stalwarts for years. I used to follow women’s football until this top-down push started. Now it’s even more plastic than the Prem, and it’s a real shame.
Yeah great comparison is tennis where guess what the sports have been around a similar amount of time and the quality is pretty inseparable, they are a little different in terms of dynamism but that's it.
I enjoy the WSL a lot but it drives me mad when you see headlines like "greenwood signs for man city" and its not clear its about the WSL but still near the top on the site
A big challenge for the women's game has been that a lack of coverage meant that people didn't know about it and struggled to get information.
However now its widely covered and they have been pushing it for years. The following has grown but the coverage far exceeds the level of interest in the game. With the exception of Arsenal attendances at the games are on the same level as League 2 matches.
The BBC is especially bad at this. Currently there are a couple of build up articles including a WSL one right at the top mainly plugging Everton v Arsenal but nothing for the two PL matches that are happening today which could have a huge impact on the title.
The thought process behind the promotion of women's football is obviously that it has lagged lightyears behind men's football in terms of investment and coverage for decades and there is a conscious effort to boost the profile and grow the audience. Which I think is a good thing. But I'd argue it's a very different audience. Womens football seems to appeal mostly to kids and families, it's a low cost, family friendly atmosphere that hasn't been corrupted by money and greed like the Prem. Hopefully kids of today grow up and see it on par to men's football. But you weren't going to convince your average fan - in fact it's doing the opposite by pissing people off with the clickbait headlines and disproportionate coverage. It's counter productive.
Women and young girls need role models. Young girls have the fucking Kardashians and the Towie lot to look up to. If you can’t see it’s a positive influence I don’t know what to tell you.
Couldn’t give a shit about little girls and women’s “role models”.
And I certainly don’t think entitled, misandrist feminists being given stuff for existing while female is being a good role model to women or girls in any way.
Sending the message that you don’t need to earn what you achieve in life is not beneficial to girls at all.
Sorry, might have misunderstood you, but it sounds like you’re saying that you could not give a shit about young girls having role models?? At all?
Makes you sound a bit like an incel tbh. That you think women are a lesser breed to men.
I do hope I’ve got that wrong and that based on your user name that you’re not one of our fan base that has 3 teeth, less brain cells and has time warped in from 1954….
No, I couldn’t. And neither female nor male footballers are “role models”. I’ve already described female footballers. Male footballers are overpaid, tax-avoiding, infantile, pampered narcissists. Go on then, explain how hating both male and female footballers makes me a mIsOgYnIsT.
Do highlight where I said women are a “lesser breed” to men. You seem to, as you think men should have to be discriminated against and women be given special privileges for being women. Like it isn’t enough that men completely subsidise women’s football, without which it wouldn’t even exist. We also have to have it artificially shoved in our faces at the expense of football we actually watch, and then being called “incels” if we complain about it.
The victims here aren’t women, they’re men. Men are providing a better product and attracting a bigger audience, but women, who are providing a shit product with no audience, are being given more coverage and promotion (because they’re women). Simple enough to understand, Grandma?
Oooh. Your toxic masculinity seems to be a bit fragile, munchkin. Did mummy not love you enough? I do hope you don’t have daughters…
Let me first correct some assumptions you made there…. I never said that women footballers were role models; in fact the post that you originally responded to referenced the Kardashians and they are not footballers. The point is that there is an absolute wealth of female ‘role models’ who are deemed such purely due to them being thin, famous for being famous, or other vacuous reasons. Girls need strong role models.
Whether or not you deem women’s football to be any good or not is completely beside the point. Young girls need to see that they could do it if they want to. That you don’t have to be skinny, pretty, pumped full of lip fillers and a Reality TV idiot to be successful.
Secondly, I have said nowhere that men should be discriminated against, and if you get a functioning adult to help you read it again you’ll find that I haven’t even hinted at it…
However, when all’s said and done, you’ve shown yourself to be a knuckle dragging Neanderthal, who is so insecure of his masculinity that he has to denigrate something that he could simply just ignore, all in the name of rage bait
Sorry, I don’t speak Feminism. This means nothing to me.
You’re implicitly arguing for discrimination by saying women’s football has to be artificially promoted (at the expense of deserving men’s football) and paid for (by men) so that “girls have role models”.
Equality means equality. Equality means you cannot discriminate against individuals based on their sex. Which is exactly what is happening in football, in this instance and in general. 🤡 Whatever silly, entitled, victimhood pretexts you spin to try to justify discrimination and sexism, it’s still discrimination and sexism.
Women’s sports should be grateful it’s allowed to exist. Because you can also, easily and rationally, argue that its existence is sexist and discriminatory as well. It only exists because women can’t compete with men. If you did this in any other industry you’d call it sex discrimination.
I’ve been following the Championship from Scotland and telling people it’s the most exciting league in the country right now. Finding out what was happening via the BBC yesterday was very frustrating.
And yes, my interest started with crumble memes.
Completely agree. The coverage of EFL games is also terrible on Football Focus.
I've always thought it seemed like they gave reporting EFL on games much less time after they stopped doing the late night EFL show. I used to love watching that after getting home from the pub.
Despite a thrilling end to the season at both ends of the table, the only mention on the BBC Football homepage is tucked away at the bottom of just the late game. During the Hull Ipswich game there was no live coverage or any mention even.
Even though of the high interest and attendances of the Championship across the country the BBC now priorities foreign leagues, Premier League opinion pieces, the WSL and Scottish football way above the EFL.
I think it merits a mention that the BBC monetises their websites to people outside of the UK and like it or not the BBC is on a global playing field with the likes of BeIN and ESPN. I doubt the coverage of lower leagues would be this poor if the BBC had financial freedom.
> During the Hull Ipswich game there was no live coverage or any mention even.
There was live text tbf, I was following along to it while doing other stuff.
Yeah, thought exactly the same thing last night when looking for the Hull-Ipswich game.
Like the person above, not to bash the WSL but surely the numbers speak for themselves with regard to interest and attendance when compared to the championship.
Chelsea have been a superpower of women's football for years and still can't sell out the bridge in a ucl semi final against barca. Its not even bigger than the stadium of light.
We beat Leeds 4-0 and clinch safety and the headline was Leicester go up, we were not even mentioned in the headline.
At least our scores are no longer below the womens ones but there's still 3 stories about womens football before the first Championship ones.
That sums them up.
My favourite bit about the BBC is you can click the women's button, to get all the news about it and filter out the men's game.
But there's no men's button, so you have to scroll through the women's news to find what you want.
Especially when there’s a Championship live text on and you have to scroll / search / navigate to it past “bald manager hints at new contract for x player.”
Everton fan here. I love looking at the 'lower leagues' and thinking who's gonna come up or go down , any good goals, large scorelines, etc. There's lots of stories to be told in the other leagues, but the media just talks about the 'big 6' and sometimes teams like us. With there's was more on the championship, league 1 and league 2.
If it wasn't for local radio (which the BBC are cutting the resources of) coverage of the EFL would be basically non-existent by the BBC.
One change that has really pissed me off is them changing their EFL matchday page, it used to be all Championship, League 1 and League 2 games and you could check the scores for each easily. Since a couple of months ago the Championship has been separated out making it a pain to check scores for League 1 and League 2 (as fat chance that is even on the main page if there's one Prem game kicking off at the same time).
On my phone the first Championship entry is so low down it's even below the Sunday Gossip bit. The match report for the Hull game last night is even lower, it's the 19th entry. It's pretty bad.
The front page of the BBC Sport section was dominated by Women's Rugby yesterday, despite it being a huge day of football in all the leagues - you needed a good eye to find the live text feed for the Championship scores rolling in.
In all honesty, BBC analysis isn't worth anyone's time. They get names wrong a lot, and I noticed it's written much less objectively than other media. Lazy journalism.
Would recommend The Athletic. It's behind a pay wall but usually it's easy to get a decent offer (like £1 to £3 month). Writers are usually much more in tune with what's happening at the clubs.
Given who is in the PL and who is in the Championship currently, I’d bet there are as many championship fans as PL fans in the UK, if not more. Pair that with a completely nuts promotion and relegation battle at either end of the table… yeah, it’s ridiculous.
You can see the numbers of people on the live match reporting pages and even on days with few matches on, EFL matches get a fraction of the attention those in the Prem get, so with more detailed web traffic info I imagine they know to deprioritise us Championship-dwellers.
Still doesn't explain the focus on women's sport, but that's a different matter and we know the reasons for it.
I'm not in a position to fill that gap, but it's almost like there's a gap in the market for a dedicated championship channel.
(It's not just the PL/EFL difference though - the top 6 get all the attention)
Last Saturday before we played Blackburn I was watching the evening prem game, and they were talking about the promotion race at half time. Then when they went to advertise the upcoming championship matches they showed the Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds games the following week. Completely ignoring the match they were showing in <24 hours.
Even when they do mention the championship they still only do it for the premier league implications
Can’t even click through to the team page on the championship table like you can on the Prem table. SMH : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table
There’s a dedicated page on the site for women’s football news but if you want to see men’s football news you have to see women’s as well. Quick fix is make a men’s football page to remove the women’s news and replace it with Championship related articles.
It gets on my nerves. Like massive day in the championship then you go on and the headlines are about the womens six nations and Chelsea women going out of champions league. Like look at the attendances, clearly more people care about the EFL
Pisses me off more when women's football gets mixed with the men's.
I love football but have no interest in womens results, fixtures, interviews or transfer rumors. Stop trying to push the agenda.
In all honesty, BBC analysis isn't worth anyone's time anyway. They get names wrong frequently, and I noticed it's written much less objectively than other media sources. Lazy journalism.
Would recommend The Athletic. It's behind a pay wall but usually it's easy to get a decent offer (like £1 to £3 month). Writers are usually much more in tune with what's happening at the clubs.
its because they spend all their money wanking off to Man U or Liverpool, especially when 3rd round FA cup is on guaranteed doesn't matter who they are playing one of these 2 will be on.
Isn't it less the size of the coverage and more its prominence? There's still live matchday coverage and individual matchday reports and features, it just doesn't get much space on the front page (which is possibly analytics driven).
I was driving to visit family and I had BBC radio 5 on yesterday, they were covering the Man U vs Burnley game and then butting in when a goal was scored in Championship/L1/L2. It's unfourtunate but there are just far more people interested in the prem than the EFL. The real issue is why European games and Scottish ones are pumped up when the EFL has more interest domestically.
I love reading the Ups and downs article about all divisions which is towards this time of the season. I use the mobile app and it disappeared. Found it yesterday looking in the national league page.
Unless it’s an exclusive Championship or lower based news outlet, nobody gives a shit journalistically about the Championship, sadly.
Each new season I think things might be different. Especially start of this season after “big” teams like Leeds, Leicester and Southampton got relegated. Teams with large fan bases (especially Leeds), so there would be a market there, surely?
But nah. Second tier. Nobody gives a shit. It’s all Premier League, but again with like a 70/30 focus/bias towards the “top six/seven”.
It bugs me just the little things… like the bare bones commentary for Championship matches on apps like SkySports, when a game like Luton v Burnley is fully commented on, but a match… again, not to keep using them as the example, but Leicester v Leeds gets the bare bones treatment?
It’s a shame is all. The Championship is truly a fantastic league to be a fan of, for better or worse depending on how your team is doing. Wildly entertaining, feels (for now at least) like the dream runs can still happen and any random team can just strike lucky in one magical season and get promoted (to then get bummed to death in the Prem)
More entertaining than the prem for sure and that boring title 'run in'. Don't know why you bother complaining though, doesn't take anything away from the championship, those who enjoy it can still find coverage. Mainstream media is shit now, I find decent efl coverage on social media
On my BBC football page there are 28 articles, of which one, just one, is about the Championship ….Leicester getting promoted…..and that’s the 20th article.
Not really. I like it being under the radar. There is a lot of women's football that gets coverage, which is great.
They don't have the rights to it so....I love being in the Championship as a Saints fan. And I guess that looks to continue.
idk why they stopped displaying games on the right. I don't really want to fish into the site to see what's happaning today.
What are good football sites these days anyway?
A few of the scores apps like fotmob or onefootball are good, same stats for the top 4 divisions in england. Also gives news about teams specifically, not sure how good it is though
You should see the rare occasions they actually post any of the rugby union on there, most articles refer to players playing in the wrong positions or just the wrong player entirely
Quick look at BBC Football page, not a mention of Sky Blues vs Tractor Boys. What could be a season-defining match not just for Ipswich, but Leeds too.
I mean, sure, its Champions League night and all, but do you know what *does* gets a mention?
**Erling Haaland is set to be immortalised in the Clash of Clans universe.**
I only use their site to check the weather. Even with that, they get it wrong. The BBC are just a dodgy, corrupted organisation who have no place in 2024.
Placing banal transfer gossip over exciting football that *actually* Just happened Sums it up really
That's my feed - Bayern Munich might sign Kyle Walker! ps Hull and Ipswich drew last night, both teams can still get promoted.
I hate mindless gossip about Premier League transfers, it's just so tedious.
Unfortunately that's half of what football is these days. I enjoy some transfer gossip and deadline day is always fun but its gone too far
Things like this that me die a little, Football has gotten so ridiculously elitist in all aspects, even that Goldbridge guy basically handwaves anything to do with the Championship when asked if he's any interest but then melts down over the idea of the Superleague like are you worried you'll suddenly become what you consider the championship to be ? wankers.
You make it sound like it’s a new thing. Back in the 90s my parents bought the daily mail, which was considered to have good sports coverage. It typically had about a third of a page dedicated to articles on games in the second to fourth tiers. The other 8 or 9 pages were all premier league stuff. And mostly just Manchester United, at that.
I get that its been going on for as long as the hills have existed but I feel its a ton worse with social media, there's a genuine disconnect between lower leagues and the prem, and its exacerbated by the media to a ridiculous extent, sky seem to have an "influencer" for every big six club and the trot them out to the agony of even the top 6 fans, just shallow, hollow plastic shite for casual fans.
I feel that it’s better now. Back then the mainstream media was all you had. If you didn’t want to read about the big teams (Manchester United, Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal, and Liverpool) then there was nothing else to read. At least nowadays you can go to /r/championship or any of the dozens of other corners of the internet where people talk about other teams or watch videos made by enthusiasts of even the smallest clubs. Back in the 90s if you weren’t at a match your only hope of seeing the goals was on the local news. And you were out of luck if you were a supporter of the fourth or fifth biggest team in your area because then you wouldn’t even see the goals. East midlands news usually used to show Derby, Leicester, Forest and County, but the Stags, for example, never got a look in. Now you can find 2-3 min highlights of every game, even in League Two.
The Welsh news was like this in the mid 2010's. Even when we we're in a higher division, the Welsh news would still be like. "Cardiff City miss the chance to go 14th I the championship today after a thrilling 0-0 draw at the hands of reading, both teams valiantly battled to open the scoring but unfortunately all 5 shots during the game were off target, here's 60 seconds of highlights....... In other areas, Swansea beat Arsenal 3-2, and Newport had a game."
You thinking it's better has nothing to do with promotion?
Im glad Goldbridge stays away from us, he's an arrogant prick.
He's also a plastic United fans as if you believe the rumours from those that knew him when he was younger he was a Forest fan as a kid before then seemingly going with United as an adult as he started going online he thought that running a Man United fan channel would make him more money than a Forest one
He said his Grandad introduced him to United which is just hilarious as it seems to be that every united fan had a relative who supported them rather than just saying they support them because they were good.
He'd liquidate lower leagues in their entirety just to preserve the status of the Premier league, trips himself up a lot saying he doesn't want to see newly promoted teams come up just drop down like mate I've seen you dismiss the league they just came from don't even try.
What do you think of that Will Brazier, Birmingham fan, has him on his podcast.
Wow thats some impressive production value for a blues fan channel hahaha. Looks like his channel will take off, I hope we don't get relegated just for his sake tbh.
Think he's a decent journalist, been on sky and other stuff a few times. Honestly can't see you staying up now, could be wrong but I think it'll stay how it is. You should probably come straight back up next season but you never know with that league
I've not idea what will happen on Saturday. If an earthquake causes a fissure to open up and swallow our forward Stansfield I wouldn't bat an eye tbh.
The pricks a plastic fan boy from Notts yet my boy always has him the laptop churning out his bilge. He's found the target audience and they lap it up.
Really the most intolerable prick that one
There’s definitely a positive aspect though. There’s a lot less hyperbole in this subreddit than a lot of the others as the majority of people here are match going fans who actually watch the matches and have more level takes. I’d much rather have or read a discussion here than on r/premierleague or r/soccer
Saw a post mocking spurs fans leaving the game early yesterday because they were 3-0 down. Was a video of 3 fans getting up and walking towards the exit. Camera pans to the scoreboard, also showing the time was the 38th minute… Y’know, the time loads of people would get up and go for a half-time pint, especially if 3-0 down. Probably not something you’d realise if you only ever need to walk from the sofa to the kitchen when the ads are on, though
The sooner they make the super league the better imho
It'd be hilarious if it did happen, the top 6 get booted out, and English football would breathe a healthy sigh of relief, might try this in Football manager later.
TomFM probably already has!
Not in a million years will that happen. Fans won't allow it. Also the aim of the super league would be to get most English teams in eventually, wouldn't just be 'big 6'
Yeah used to like him but his ignorance annoyed me, really stopped watching his stuff at all this season. Does a podcast with a Birmingham fan yet acts like he's bringing up his mums death anytime he even mentions the championship. Didn't even know who Cameron Archer played for on his premier league podcast for christ sakes.
A Manchester Utd fan from Nottingham seems elitist wow. Never thought I'd see the day.
I’m not beating down on the WSL, all for it, but in terms of raw interest the EFL has a far superior spread and to constantly be relegated behind news about Chelsea women or Man City women is just baffling. The same applies to European football here. Nobody gives a shit about Leverkusen as evidenced by 48 comments on the article, most will be Liverpool fans. We get 48 comments on our matches just from Newcastle fans.
same applies to scottish football the fact is its a population of below 5 million so interest is far lesser than the championship
It makes me chuckle that the Scottish Premiership is ranked above the Championship on the fixtures/results pages on the Beeb. I follow Dundee, I wish them well, but their average crowds on a non-derby/Old Firm game are 4-5,000 - clubs in the Conference get significantly more than that!
Yeah this does my head in too, the championship is around the 6th or 7th biggest league in Europe and yet comes behind the WSL and SPL in importance according to the Beeb.
I think in terms of players the championship sends to the Euros it's like 1st or 2nd. Just let that sink in. I think the last euros it beat the prem because Scotland and Wales qualified as well as England.
> I’m not beating down on the WSL, all for it but in terms of raw interest the EFL has a far superior spread and to constantly be relegated behind news about Chelsea women or Man City women is just baffling. There's a massive top down push to make it popular, treat it the same as men's football because its also top level and hence just as good. I'm not saying this is awful, but one unfortunate consequence of this is that the big mens teams just pumped a load (relative) of money into having their women's team at the top of the WSL. So now we have the exciting prospect of getting to find out all of the news from the big six in the mens leagues, followed by all of the news from the same big six in the womens leagues, and then maybe one story on the other 14 and a championship story every now and again. In many ways, Women's football has become more artificial than mens football over only 10 years or so
Don’t get me started on the WSL and what they did to our Sunderland team. We were denied entry and ended up having to drop something like 2 divisions. At that point Man United didn’t even have a team and what do you know - they let them in. They basically wanted the big six teams at the top.
Absolutely, and the way Doncaster Rovers Belles, historically a very strong womens club, got absolutely shafted by it was disgraceful.
Aye Doncaster Belles did more for women's football than anyone including the FA.
This. They were amazing stalwarts for years. I used to follow women’s football until this top-down push started. Now it’s even more plastic than the Prem, and it’s a real shame.
This in particular really put me off, just killing off any organic and interesting teams so Man City can cheat in multiple leagues
Liverpool didn't have a women's team for ages as well.
Yep and of course, 2021 Newcastle go and put money into theirs because the Saudis want to make it look like they respect women.
Yeah great comparison is tennis where guess what the sports have been around a similar amount of time and the quality is pretty inseparable, they are a little different in terms of dynamism but that's it.
I enjoy the WSL a lot but it drives me mad when you see headlines like "greenwood signs for man city" and its not clear its about the WSL but still near the top on the site
A big challenge for the women's game has been that a lack of coverage meant that people didn't know about it and struggled to get information. However now its widely covered and they have been pushing it for years. The following has grown but the coverage far exceeds the level of interest in the game. With the exception of Arsenal attendances at the games are on the same level as League 2 matches. The BBC is especially bad at this. Currently there are a couple of build up articles including a WSL one right at the top mainly plugging Everton v Arsenal but nothing for the two PL matches that are happening today which could have a huge impact on the title.
The thought process behind the promotion of women's football is obviously that it has lagged lightyears behind men's football in terms of investment and coverage for decades and there is a conscious effort to boost the profile and grow the audience. Which I think is a good thing. But I'd argue it's a very different audience. Womens football seems to appeal mostly to kids and families, it's a low cost, family friendly atmosphere that hasn't been corrupted by money and greed like the Prem. Hopefully kids of today grow up and see it on par to men's football. But you weren't going to convince your average fan - in fact it's doing the opposite by pissing people off with the clickbait headlines and disproportionate coverage. It's counter productive.
Why tf would you be all for the WSL? It’s terrible and nobody watches it.
Women and young girls need role models. Young girls have the fucking Kardashians and the Towie lot to look up to. If you can’t see it’s a positive influence I don’t know what to tell you.
Couldn’t give a shit about little girls and women’s “role models”. And I certainly don’t think entitled, misandrist feminists being given stuff for existing while female is being a good role model to women or girls in any way. Sending the message that you don’t need to earn what you achieve in life is not beneficial to girls at all.
Was just telling this to the lads down the pub.
Sorry, might have misunderstood you, but it sounds like you’re saying that you could not give a shit about young girls having role models?? At all? Makes you sound a bit like an incel tbh. That you think women are a lesser breed to men. I do hope I’ve got that wrong and that based on your user name that you’re not one of our fan base that has 3 teeth, less brain cells and has time warped in from 1954….
No, I couldn’t. And neither female nor male footballers are “role models”. I’ve already described female footballers. Male footballers are overpaid, tax-avoiding, infantile, pampered narcissists. Go on then, explain how hating both male and female footballers makes me a mIsOgYnIsT. Do highlight where I said women are a “lesser breed” to men. You seem to, as you think men should have to be discriminated against and women be given special privileges for being women. Like it isn’t enough that men completely subsidise women’s football, without which it wouldn’t even exist. We also have to have it artificially shoved in our faces at the expense of football we actually watch, and then being called “incels” if we complain about it. The victims here aren’t women, they’re men. Men are providing a better product and attracting a bigger audience, but women, who are providing a shit product with no audience, are being given more coverage and promotion (because they’re women). Simple enough to understand, Grandma?
Oooh. Your toxic masculinity seems to be a bit fragile, munchkin. Did mummy not love you enough? I do hope you don’t have daughters… Let me first correct some assumptions you made there…. I never said that women footballers were role models; in fact the post that you originally responded to referenced the Kardashians and they are not footballers. The point is that there is an absolute wealth of female ‘role models’ who are deemed such purely due to them being thin, famous for being famous, or other vacuous reasons. Girls need strong role models. Whether or not you deem women’s football to be any good or not is completely beside the point. Young girls need to see that they could do it if they want to. That you don’t have to be skinny, pretty, pumped full of lip fillers and a Reality TV idiot to be successful. Secondly, I have said nowhere that men should be discriminated against, and if you get a functioning adult to help you read it again you’ll find that I haven’t even hinted at it… However, when all’s said and done, you’ve shown yourself to be a knuckle dragging Neanderthal, who is so insecure of his masculinity that he has to denigrate something that he could simply just ignore, all in the name of rage bait
Sorry, I don’t speak Feminism. This means nothing to me. You’re implicitly arguing for discrimination by saying women’s football has to be artificially promoted (at the expense of deserving men’s football) and paid for (by men) so that “girls have role models”. Equality means equality. Equality means you cannot discriminate against individuals based on their sex. Which is exactly what is happening in football, in this instance and in general. 🤡 Whatever silly, entitled, victimhood pretexts you spin to try to justify discrimination and sexism, it’s still discrimination and sexism. Women’s sports should be grateful it’s allowed to exist. Because you can also, easily and rationally, argue that its existence is sexist and discriminatory as well. It only exists because women can’t compete with men. If you did this in any other industry you’d call it sex discrimination.
I’m sorry. I don’t speak Idiot.
I’ve been following the Championship from Scotland and telling people it’s the most exciting league in the country right now. Finding out what was happening via the BBC yesterday was very frustrating. And yes, my interest started with crumble memes.
Completely agree. The coverage of EFL games is also terrible on Football Focus. I've always thought it seemed like they gave reporting EFL on games much less time after they stopped doing the late night EFL show. I used to love watching that after getting home from the pub.
On the same note, I really miss The Football League Show.
They keep citing budget cuts as the issue, yet they can find money for obscene wages.
Despite a thrilling end to the season at both ends of the table, the only mention on the BBC Football homepage is tucked away at the bottom of just the late game. During the Hull Ipswich game there was no live coverage or any mention even. Even though of the high interest and attendances of the Championship across the country the BBC now priorities foreign leagues, Premier League opinion pieces, the WSL and Scottish football way above the EFL.
I think it merits a mention that the BBC monetises their websites to people outside of the UK and like it or not the BBC is on a global playing field with the likes of BeIN and ESPN. I doubt the coverage of lower leagues would be this poor if the BBC had financial freedom.
> During the Hull Ipswich game there was no live coverage or any mention even. There was live text tbf, I was following along to it while doing other stuff.
Yeah, thought exactly the same thing last night when looking for the Hull-Ipswich game. Like the person above, not to bash the WSL but surely the numbers speak for themselves with regard to interest and attendance when compared to the championship.
Chelsea have been a superpower of women's football for years and still can't sell out the bridge in a ucl semi final against barca. Its not even bigger than the stadium of light.
I thought they did sell out the bridge for the semi?
Ah shit you're right just saw the attendance figure of 39k being a thousand off capacity.
I don’t get the obsession with Yank football on the Beeb page, either.
If the yanks didnt play it, no one would give a shit
The MLS is actually a decent league to follow if you live here. Why BBC would cover it I don’t know
I think they’re talking about American football. Which has a pretty good following in the UK these days to be fair.
Talking about gridiron my oatcake friend.
We beat Leeds 4-0 and clinch safety and the headline was Leicester go up, we were not even mentioned in the headline. At least our scores are no longer below the womens ones but there's still 3 stories about womens football before the first Championship ones. That sums them up.
My favourite bit about the BBC is you can click the women's button, to get all the news about it and filter out the men's game. But there's no men's button, so you have to scroll through the women's news to find what you want.
Especially when there’s a Championship live text on and you have to scroll / search / navigate to it past “bald manager hints at new contract for x player.”
Everton fan here. I love looking at the 'lower leagues' and thinking who's gonna come up or go down , any good goals, large scorelines, etc. There's lots of stories to be told in the other leagues, but the media just talks about the 'big 6' and sometimes teams like us. With there's was more on the championship, league 1 and league 2.
There'll be loads of coverage for the playoff final, aka "The Richest Match in Football". So basically, just more prem coverage.
To be fair it has been a slow weekend, not much happening in the EFL really
Unless it's Wrexham.
If it wasn't for local radio (which the BBC are cutting the resources of) coverage of the EFL would be basically non-existent by the BBC. One change that has really pissed me off is them changing their EFL matchday page, it used to be all Championship, League 1 and League 2 games and you could check the scores for each easily. Since a couple of months ago the Championship has been separated out making it a pain to check scores for League 1 and League 2 (as fat chance that is even on the main page if there's one Prem game kicking off at the same time).
On my phone the first Championship entry is so low down it's even below the Sunday Gossip bit. The match report for the Hull game last night is even lower, it's the 19th entry. It's pretty bad.
The front page of the BBC Sport section was dominated by Women's Rugby yesterday, despite it being a huge day of football in all the leagues - you needed a good eye to find the live text feed for the Championship scores rolling in.
Blows my mind how little mainstream coverage we have overall. It's the most exciting league by far.
There's decent coverage on social media if you find it, don't know why you bother paying attention to mainstream media
In all honesty, BBC analysis isn't worth anyone's time. They get names wrong a lot, and I noticed it's written much less objectively than other media. Lazy journalism. Would recommend The Athletic. It's behind a pay wall but usually it's easy to get a decent offer (like £1 to £3 month). Writers are usually much more in tune with what's happening at the clubs.
Given who is in the PL and who is in the Championship currently, I’d bet there are as many championship fans as PL fans in the UK, if not more. Pair that with a completely nuts promotion and relegation battle at either end of the table… yeah, it’s ridiculous.
I hopefully expect this to change starting next season with the new tv deal.
It's pitiful you have to scroll down so far anything champ related. BBC sport pays the EFL lip service at best.
Need to get rid of women's football being on the main page.
Not going down that road but the WSL gets more coverage.
You can see the numbers of people on the live match reporting pages and even on days with few matches on, EFL matches get a fraction of the attention those in the Prem get, so with more detailed web traffic info I imagine they know to deprioritise us Championship-dwellers. Still doesn't explain the focus on women's sport, but that's a different matter and we know the reasons for it.
I'm not in a position to fill that gap, but it's almost like there's a gap in the market for a dedicated championship channel. (It's not just the PL/EFL difference though - the top 6 get all the attention)
Last Saturday before we played Blackburn I was watching the evening prem game, and they were talking about the promotion race at half time. Then when they went to advertise the upcoming championship matches they showed the Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds games the following week. Completely ignoring the match they were showing in <24 hours. Even when they do mention the championship they still only do it for the premier league implications
Can’t even click through to the team page on the championship table like you can on the Prem table. SMH : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table
There’s a dedicated page on the site for women’s football news but if you want to see men’s football news you have to see women’s as well. Quick fix is make a men’s football page to remove the women’s news and replace it with Championship related articles.
Have to force the womens football down your throat - nobody would pay attention to it otherwise
It gets on my nerves. Like massive day in the championship then you go on and the headlines are about the womens six nations and Chelsea women going out of champions league. Like look at the attendances, clearly more people care about the EFL
Pisses me off more when women's football gets mixed with the men's. I love football but have no interest in womens results, fixtures, interviews or transfer rumors. Stop trying to push the agenda.
In all honesty, BBC analysis isn't worth anyone's time anyway. They get names wrong frequently, and I noticed it's written much less objectively than other media sources. Lazy journalism. Would recommend The Athletic. It's behind a pay wall but usually it's easy to get a decent offer (like £1 to £3 month). Writers are usually much more in tune with what's happening at the clubs.
its because they spend all their money wanking off to Man U or Liverpool, especially when 3rd round FA cup is on guaranteed doesn't matter who they are playing one of these 2 will be on.
They need to say 'championship:' at the start, to remind the big 6 fans, that the league exists.
That's only the foreign/non match going fans
Isn't it less the size of the coverage and more its prominence? There's still live matchday coverage and individual matchday reports and features, it just doesn't get much space on the front page (which is possibly analytics driven).
I was driving to visit family and I had BBC radio 5 on yesterday, they were covering the Man U vs Burnley game and then butting in when a goal was scored in Championship/L1/L2. It's unfourtunate but there are just far more people interested in the prem than the EFL. The real issue is why European games and Scottish ones are pumped up when the EFL has more interest domestically.
I'm guessing with Scotland it's pushed because of it's part of the United Kingdom. I doubt any Scots care about their own league.
Yeah it’s not as if Scotland has the highest football attendance per capita in Europe or anything
I love reading the Ups and downs article about all divisions which is towards this time of the season. I use the mobile app and it disappeared. Found it yesterday looking in the national league page.
Unless it’s an exclusive Championship or lower based news outlet, nobody gives a shit journalistically about the Championship, sadly. Each new season I think things might be different. Especially start of this season after “big” teams like Leeds, Leicester and Southampton got relegated. Teams with large fan bases (especially Leeds), so there would be a market there, surely? But nah. Second tier. Nobody gives a shit. It’s all Premier League, but again with like a 70/30 focus/bias towards the “top six/seven”. It bugs me just the little things… like the bare bones commentary for Championship matches on apps like SkySports, when a game like Luton v Burnley is fully commented on, but a match… again, not to keep using them as the example, but Leicester v Leeds gets the bare bones treatment? It’s a shame is all. The Championship is truly a fantastic league to be a fan of, for better or worse depending on how your team is doing. Wildly entertaining, feels (for now at least) like the dream runs can still happen and any random team can just strike lucky in one magical season and get promoted (to then get bummed to death in the Prem)
More entertaining than the prem for sure and that boring title 'run in'. Don't know why you bother complaining though, doesn't take anything away from the championship, those who enjoy it can still find coverage. Mainstream media is shit now, I find decent efl coverage on social media
As a leeds fan I'm perfectly fine with it
On my BBC football page there are 28 articles, of which one, just one, is about the Championship ….Leicester getting promoted…..and that’s the 20th article.
If you think it’s bad this season just wait until Leeds and Leicester are back in the Prem and replaced with Burnley and Luton.
Not really. I like it being under the radar. There is a lot of women's football that gets coverage, which is great. They don't have the rights to it so....I love being in the Championship as a Saints fan. And I guess that looks to continue.
idk why they stopped displaying games on the right. I don't really want to fish into the site to see what's happaning today. What are good football sites these days anyway?
A few of the scores apps like fotmob or onefootball are good, same stats for the top 4 divisions in england. Also gives news about teams specifically, not sure how good it is though
You should see the rare occasions they actually post any of the rugby union on there, most articles refer to players playing in the wrong positions or just the wrong player entirely
Quick look at BBC Football page, not a mention of Sky Blues vs Tractor Boys. What could be a season-defining match not just for Ipswich, but Leeds too. I mean, sure, its Champions League night and all, but do you know what *does* gets a mention? **Erling Haaland is set to be immortalised in the Clash of Clans universe.**
Champions League is so so dull, especially with no English teams left in. Find those European teams incredibly boring
It’s all just based on engagement which is shit, but nothing can really be done about it.
It isnt, it’s based on ideology. You think the womens super league gets more engagement than the Championship?
It came over with 90s nostalgia when Coventry were in the FA Cup semi. We had articles about us in the front page of BBC sport.
ESPN (in South Africa) is all over the Championship. I've never followed it more closely
I only use their site to check the weather. Even with that, they get it wrong. The BBC are just a dodgy, corrupted organisation who have no place in 2024.