Rebels kick off boycott

13/12/2007

FC United have urged their supporters to boycott the crunch promotion clash at Curzon Ashton on December 29 after a row with the UniBond League.

The league's management committee has insisted that the fixture between the teams currently top and fifth in the first division north, be switched to a 12.45pm kick-off.

The move is to enable the transmitting of the match by the league's own broadband television broadcaster NPLTV, which claims an average of 15,000 viewers globally a week.

Both clubs opposed the idea of the kick-off time being switched but the league says that the commercial advantages of the £100,000 paid for TV rights by Invision outweigh the concerns of the two clubs involved.

FC claim that the switch is against one of the founding principles of the club, which is that TV companies should not be allowed to dictate kick-off times.

The upshot is that a festive fixture which might reasonably have drawn a crowd of over 2,000 will probably now only get a three-figure attendance.

A statement put out by the club said: "The board of FC United is asking supporters to show their opposition to the league's decision by not going to the game against Curzon.

Switch

"It is regrettable that Curzon may suffer financially from the consequence of this change to the kick-off time, especially given their support in opposing the switch.

"However, the board feels that it is important that a message is sent to the league that the views of the match-going fan must take precedence and those fans should not be inconvenienced in favour of a potential internet audience.

"Curzon secretary Graham Shuttleworth said: "We were asked our views on a 12.45 kick -off and our response was that we wished to stay at three o'clock.

"We are opposed to it but are also mindful that within the UniBond League there is NPLTV, and that the league's management committee has the right to vary times and dates of fixtures.

"FC insist that they were given assurances that no fixtures would be switched for TV purposes without the agreement of both clubs, and that only midweek games would be shown live, with Saturday games being shown in a highlights package.

The league say this is the first Saturday game to be televised live this season.

Assistant league secretary Alan Allcock stated: "The only assurance given was that we would never change the date of a fixture to accommodate televising of a game."