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Episode 397: VAR in the CHAMPIONSHIP?!
87 Plays24 days ago
Southampton – The games sure do come thick and fast! Away to a team that hasn't scored in 7 hours of play... what could possibly go wrong?
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Transcript
Introduction of Greg and Zach
00:00:13
DailySaintsPod
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and as always today joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host Zach. Mate how you doing? You alright?
00:00:23
Zak
Good morning, afternoon, evening. Yeah, too bad, mate. I realized yesterday I made a a mistake in the sense of I thought the game was Tuesday night. It's not. It's Wednesday night.
00:00:34
Zak
I assumed that because I knew Greg was going away for two days. And I was like, we're back Wednesday. It's like, no, mate, that's where i'm going. See ya.
00:00:42
DailySaintsPod
Right. It's all good. It's all good. We...
00:00:44
Zak
That shows you the start to my week, mate. I have no idea what day it what time it is, what hour it is
00:00:52
DailySaintsPod
That is my...
00:00:52
Zak
And I video you, so it's fine.
00:00:53
DailySaintsPod
i was going to say, that's my resting state of being.
00:00:55
DailySaintsPod
Don't worry about it too much. If I didn't have a strictly color-coded calendar to get me through the week, I
00:00:55
Zak
yeah
Controversies and Discussions on VAR
00:01:02
DailySaintsPod
don't know how we'd cope, but there we go.
00:01:02
Zak
but
00:01:04
DailySaintsPod
uh but look we we've got some some stuff to talk about today anyway mate because uh we saw an interesting interesting tweet from mike keegan of uh of the the press uh chief sports reporter of the daily mail and uh It was pointing out that in a discussion with the EFL, a meeting on the implementation of VAR in the EFL, our representatives were quick to point out that it is both killing football and killing passion.
00:01:25
Zak
space Yeah, pretty much.
00:01:40
DailySaintsPod
And good. Yeah, I think that that is not an unpopular opinion, is it?
00:01:53
Zak
Like, I know that... I think that one of the real reasons it's a problem is it doesn't do what it was designed to do, which was to point out clear and obvious errors. And when you're sat waiting for the seven minutes and then there's like 11 minutes added on time where the game will end up being decided in that added time anyway, like, it's just what's the point?
00:02:16
Zak
Celebrating a goal that's then going to be ruled afterwards. Like, the... I feel like a less... they've got it correct 100% the time, which is never going to happen.
00:02:29
Zak
It takes too long as well. <unk>s just There's just so many things about it. And like the fact that they've like trialed it and they're like, it works and this, that, other. And you're like, yeah, it it's entirely dependent on what the other person thinks.
00:02:40
Zak
And, you know, we've already seen like the leaks of when they've made the wrong decision. And then they're like, oh no, but we've already said it now and all that kind of stuff.
00:02:45
DailySaintsPod
every
00:02:48
Zak
It's just like,
00:02:48
DailySaintsPod
Every other week we get some kind of apology for but some farcical decision or some wrong decision or some like subjective call that could go either way that the referee made one way and VAR made the other. And it's just...
00:03:04
DailySaintsPod
I'm just sick of it. Just bin the whole lot off and be done with it. You want to have video assistant referees, then put them to use for non-subjective decisions, right?
00:03:18
DailySaintsPod
If you need to check whose throw in it is or whether it's a goal kicker a corner, have a quick check on the camera. Bish, bash, bosh. Job done.
00:03:26
Zak
Well, yeah, but then and then on top of this, mean,
00:03:27
DailySaintsPod
Anything other than that, bin it off. Yeah.
00:03:31
Zak
It's like even even over this weekend, right? So the weekend has just been, we've we've had controversy. So that was the like Wrexham having a goal ruled out in the FA Cup. And we're like, wow, this is weird.
00:03:43
Zak
We obviously, the goal was ruled out. I don't know if it necessarily, I don't think it went so far the second goal was disallowed, right? I think the flag was really up in our game. But then you've also got like that Bundesliga game. don't know if you heard, Greg, where the ref ran over to to check the monitor.
00:04:00
Zak
somebody, ae quite a quote-unquote masked fan had just unplugged it.
00:04:01
DailySaintsPod
I did see this. Yeah.
00:04:05
Zak
So again, they just had to kind of go with what they did. To be honest, if the decision was always going to be a penalty anyway, the point of sending to the mar
00:04:11
DailySaintsPod
i only I only saw it in the context of one person sharing it with the line, the game's so back. LAUGHTER
00:04:20
Zak
monitor? But that's my point. like that's what That's what opinion is, right? and like I understand that fan opinion shouldn't necessarily rule everything. It's like, it's one of those things where if you're trying to make this an entertainment sport and you're taking like almost, yeah if you know, you've got like a 10-minute decision, which isn't, we really haven't, it hasn't been that extreme, but like we're getting to that point with some some decisions, right?
00:04:48
Zak
We're talking about big chunks of the game. And then we discussed it the other day where like,
00:04:50
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:52
Zak
you've got people going down in the dark arts of football and how frustrating is because it changes the the pace of the game, the momentum, the the energy levels. And like, I think that's what it is. Like, and it it does that for everyone in the stadium. They're like, they're just, it's just so, it just doesn't seem like it's been hugely helpful.
00:05:12
Zak
And again, like there have been decisions that have gone our way and there have been decisions that haven't gone our way without it in the championship, right? Thinking that the handball against us, that was frustrating.
00:05:23
Zak
But at the same time, like, would I have preferred to one week have a decision go our way and the next week have one not go way without the intervention of VAR?
00:05:24
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:05:33
Zak
Yes. Does that still happen with VAR anyway? Also, yes.
00:05:37
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, 100%.
00:05:38
Zak
What is the point?
00:05:39
DailySaintsPod
i think I think we actively said that at the time as well, even with the frustration of it going against us and the you know the loss it caused. Still rather that than than deal with it. because it's And to be clear, it's some it's not the technology's fault.
00:05:57
DailySaintsPod
it's It's the people that use it, right? right the The ability to show video replays is it works fine. yeah But the problem is that these people that we actively and openly criticise week in, week out for having awful performances as referees are not getting better with that guidance or with that assistance. You're just getting more bad decision makers into the mix, right? And it's just putting them in a position where it's like the blind leading the blind sometimes, it really feels like. And yeah, I...
00:06:31
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, I'm glad that we stood up and spoke out against it because I feel like it would ruin the EFL at all levels.
00:06:40
Zak
Yeah.
00:06:41
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:41
Zak
Well, they're really doing lots of that anyway with other decisions that I'm sure we're going to get onto, just with governance and football in general. But it's just so...
00:06:54
Zak
It's like, who who genuinely thinks that it's been like a good contributing factor, right? like Who is so happy with the way that it works? Who who thinks that... And then they're having to like tweak stupid things, because it's like, again, like, oh, it's meant to be used in a clear and obvious error.
00:07:09
Zak
And they're like, well, this guy's hairline was was like a millimeter offside, so I guess we need to roll that goal as offside. you're like But if you've had to...
00:07:16
DailySaintsPod
It was last week in the Prem, right? It was someone's nose.
00:07:18
Zak
Yeah. as over last week week before. But these's it's my point.
00:07:21
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, literally their nose.
00:07:22
Zak
Obviously, it's not clear and obvious, is it? that' That's exactly how clear and obvious works.
00:07:25
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:07:27
Zak
If you want to have it automatic every single time, just not have semi-automated, just have automatic. And then you just get rid of linos and you have technology replace them. And like it's just you're killing what is the spirit of the game, right?
00:07:40
Zak
that's That's what I think is the biggest problem for me is that It's not helping. And is is it something they realistically need help with? And it's it's been been for years. You know, like talking about going back to to Charlie Austin's infamous interview, right? Saying, oh, we need it. We need it. We need it.
00:07:58
Zak
And like, look how much we got punished for it last season. Like I think back to that Wolves game, mate, where it's like, wow, Adam Armstrong might have impeded it if he got the ball. So we had to rule it off. And you're like, sorry? Sorry?
00:08:10
Zak
So now we bring in hypotheticals into decision making.
00:08:10
DailySaintsPod
raise it's just is is
00:08:15
Zak
It's ridiculous.
00:08:15
DailySaintsPod
it's It's just the grey areas, isn't it? You're introducing it into areas which are potentially you know subjective or grey or this might happen, this might happen. It just leads to... Because you're...
00:08:30
DailySaintsPod
giving the time and the space for them to, you know, think about it and put their points forward on this. The expectation is that the outcome is the right one.
00:08:40
DailySaintsPod
And the, and you know, the the fact of the matter is that in, in these sort of subjective and edge cases, I don't think you'll ever please all of the people with whatever decision you make with that sort of due process. And that's what oh I mean. You need to just do away with that. And you're right. Like automated offside, it's either offside or it isn't goal line technology. Fine. Like say, you want to say, work out whether it's who's throwing or who's goal kick or corner it is,
00:09:09
DailySaintsPod
great, that's exactly the sort of thing it needs to be used for and and isn't used for even that the technologies available, which is daft. and And leave the rest down to the referee, put it in hands the referee. And if the referee is awful and has a bad game, then that's a different discussion entirely, right? The standards of refereeing and the quality is, you know, a topic that we've discussed to death on the show. And the, you know,
00:09:34
Zak
so I'm sure it will come up again.
00:09:35
DailySaintsPod
but
00:09:36
Zak
yeah
00:09:37
DailySaintsPod
inevitably. But I would still rather have a rubbish referee who's in control of the game than subject yourself to to the absolute farce that is VAR in its current state. Because, like say, you put that decision there and give them the time to make it, and...
00:09:57
DailySaintsPod
There's no right answer for a lot of this stuff. Things happen so quickly. at least if if the referee makes the decision in the first five seconds and gives it one way or the other, fine, it what it is.
00:10:02
Zak
Thank
00:10:08
DailySaintsPod
The referee either got it wrong where he didn't. And whether you agree with that or you don't, it doesn't matter. right You don't have the the scrutiny and the playback and the opportunity to go and change it. and then Well, sure, the referee gave it, but then VAR should have turned it over.
00:10:21
DailySaintsPod
It's just... it's just needless. And you're right. The, the celebrating of goal that then gets chalked off horrible or, or not. And you know, it takes away the joy of celebrating it when it does go in.
00:10:34
DailySaintsPod
Cause immediately thinking, Oh, was he though? And it's just, yes.
00:10:38
Zak
Because that's the thing.
00:10:39
DailySaintsPod
is
00:10:39
Zak
is Even if something's eventually like ruled offside or whatever, it's is's quicker. Because you know all of a sudden that the flag's gone up and then and then you know, right?
00:10:46
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:10:47
Zak
there's no There's no appeal in that decision at that point. But yeah, it's the it's the sitting around and waiting for it.
00:10:51
DailySaintsPod
You always train yourself, right? Like the first, whenever anyone scores in any game, whether I'm playing or watching, if when a goal goes in, the first place my eyes dart to is the line, lin know right? It's the flag up. No flag.
00:11:05
DailySaintsPod
Great. Happy days. And that's it. That's the instance of the check before you get excited or you don't. And that's that's it. You don't then have to sit and wait and then wait for the decision to be made while no one in the stadium gets told what's going on or shown anything anyway. And then, you know, the decision feels wrong or was right or whatever, but it doesn't match to the feel in the stadium. And then four and a half minutes later, you get a tweet from the referee, the PGMOL, up on the screen in some areas. And like, well...
00:11:35
DailySaintsPod
Well, that makes me feel brilliant. Yeah. Excellent. Cheers. Good job, guys. Like, it's just...
00:11:39
Zak
Maybe they
00:11:41
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. No. And I'm glad that we we stood up and made that point. And I fully agree with it. And, yeah, i don't want it.
00:11:51
DailySaintsPod
I don't want it in the Premier League if we go back up. I definitely don't want it in the Championship if we stay down.
00:11:58
Zak
but maybe maybe they should...
00:11:58
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. It would just ruin it. It would ruin so many moments.
00:12:02
Zak
We'll be focusing on, you know, some of, we've seen some pretty pretty crazy scenes over the weekend, right? Old Farm Derby.
00:12:09
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:12:10
Zak
You've got the that match in Brazil. I know it's not exactly the EFL, but it's like, that there should be things that they are concentrating on more than constantly trying to, like, what feels like crowbar-var into all competitions.
00:12:20
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:12:26
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:12:28
Zak
when they still have so many problems with it.
00:12:29
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:12:31
Zak
And like, sometimes like wisdom is knowing when to give up on something, not trying to continue to force it.
00:12:35
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:12:37
Zak
And that it doesn't feel like that's going to be the way forward, right?
00:12:38
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:12:41
Zak
Because a long time ago, somebody's clearly made a decision and they don't want it they want to they't want to feel like an idiot for going back on it. And, you know, yes, there might have been people who now no longer advocate for it, who advocated it for it because the implementation has been wrong.
00:12:56
Zak
And I just, I hate that there is a a culture of like, well, we can't go back to what it was because we've done it now. And it's like, but we can though. You can could go back and change it.
00:13:07
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:13:07
Zak
You can get rid of it if you want to. And like, again, like the difference between how enjoyable the championship's been is that we are having to dissect decisions most games. And sometimes, you know, we' we'll have a whinge about the referee.
00:13:17
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:13:19
Zak
We did yesterday, right?
00:13:21
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:13:21
Zak
Sometimes referees will be not great. That's, but but you know, i think it's not...
00:13:25
DailySaintsPod
I'd still rather that 100% of the time.
00:13:26
Zak
Yeah, it's still it's still much preferable, much like, still far more preferable than sort of the stuff we had to go through a lot. We ended up with like two apologies last year.
00:13:37
DailySaintsPod
yeah yeah
00:13:37
Zak
you're just like, it's not about to have happened if it wasn't so ridiculous and also went to a review and that review still had it called off just...
00:13:46
Zak
go back to how it was, man. It was fine. Like, it this wasn't as big a problem as people thought it was.
00:13:48
DailySaintsPod
yeah no
00:13:51
Zak
Like, you know?
00:13:53
DailySaintsPod
Well, listen, mate. Speaking of things that they should or things that they're trying to fix that don't need fixing and where, you know, maybe attention should be focused otherwise.
New Championship Playoff Structure
00:14:07
DailySaintsPod
We've not really talked about it on the show, but it was confirmed last week. that As of next season, there will be a new playoff structure in the championship.
00:14:18
DailySaintsPod
with teams as far down as 8th given the opportunity to to go through in the playoffs and get into the Premier League. So first and second will remain automatically promoted.
00:14:33
DailySaintsPod
Third and fourth effectively win themselves a bye into the semi-finals of the playoffs. Uh, and then fifth plays eight, six plays seventh in one off ties where the side of who finished higher in the league are at home.
00:14:48
DailySaintsPod
and then the winner of those eliminated ties progressed to the semifinals, uh, to play two legs against third and fourth, uh, with the final, of course, being at Wembley.
00:15:01
Zak
out for yawn and how enthralled I am by this idea.
00:15:05
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, I mean, one of our long-standing catchphrases, mottos, mantras, whatever you want to call it on the show is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
00:15:16
DailySaintsPod
That's something that we preach and like to live by more often than not. And what are they thinking here? Yeah.
00:15:27
Zak
I don't know. think it's to try and create more drama. It's to sell more tickets. I would prefer what they've done in the J-League, mate, which is when a game goes to a draw, it goes to a penalty shootout, and whoever wins the penalty shootout gets an extra point, and then you don't have draws.
00:15:41
Zak
But do you know what I mean?
00:15:42
DailySaintsPod
No, I hate
00:15:43
Zak
If you're going to change things up, you need to introduce something more interesting than just, oh, now we've just added the amount of teams that potentially go up.
00:15:51
DailySaintsPod
that. We've added two more matches.
00:15:53
Zak
like right
00:15:53
DailySaintsPod
We've added two more matches.
00:15:54
Zak
You've added normal matches to an already congested fixture list.
00:15:55
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:15:59
Zak
And it's like, oh, but it gives the opportunity for someone who's like an eighth to go up. And it's like, well, clearly what you're what you're doing here is you're targeting all of these like Hollywood-bought teams so that you can get...
00:16:08
DailySaintsPod
But I'm not being funny, mate. We went up in fourth the year before last and got the second lowest points in Premier League history.
00:16:15
DailySaintsPod
how So, I mean, look at the table now. Who who is currently sat in eighth? I don't have that information off the top of my head. We're seventh, so it'll be just below us.
00:16:15
Zak
Yeah, this was going to be bargain point, right?
00:16:29
DailySaintsPod
So that is but us. We're in eighth. All right. Do you know what?
00:16:34
Zak
So us and Derby, right?
00:16:35
DailySaintsPod
No, maybe I'll change mind.
00:16:36
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:16:36
Zak
So you're looking at Derby, okay?
00:16:38
Zak
So so say it say it's Derby and say they go up. and And I think that it raises further questions around the the issues you've got with going up to the Premier League and a massive jump in revenue and then it not working out because of the gulf in differences between the teams.
00:16:54
Zak
And I will say, yeah, there is an outlier this year. That outlier is Sunderland. Leeds look like they're staying because of the fact that Wolves, West Ham, Spurs, everybody else is in pre-field.
00:17:08
Zak
But like for every one year you get a Sunderland that stays up, like Brentford or Forest, you have about three or four years where most of the teams that go up go straight back down.
00:17:15
DailySaintsPod
And
00:17:19
Zak
And when they go back down, you know unless they go straight back up again in this weird yo-yo cycle like we are... you can end up having catastrophic economic consequences.
00:17:29
Zak
One of those, you know, you're looking at Newton right now, struggling League One under Jack Wiltshire, Whereas they were in the Premier League and, you know, you had Ross Barkley paying for one point.
00:17:41
Zak
And it's just so bizarre and so, can be so damaging to like the clubs, to like Clary. And it's like, oh yeah, but you had your little opportunity to go up. And that's kind of how it feels. It's sort of like letting the sort of mid-table clubs, oh, well, you get your opportunity.
00:17:54
Zak
And if you if you take that opportunity, you can have a lot more money for one year or so. And maybe that's genuinely a how I feel, I guess, about promotion entirely, right? Because, again, Ipswich is the only...
00:18:03
DailySaintsPod
But that's the craziest part of it to me, is that we're at a point we've got, what, ten most teams have 10 games left in the season, right? So 30 points available. You know, based off of that, anywhere down to, I mean, 16th place QPR, currently in the league are only 10 points away from playoffs.
00:18:32
DailySaintsPod
We've talked before about how, realistically speaking, that's one three-game week away from turning it around and pushing like up into a spot. like Is that not dramatic enough? like How many more places do you need...
00:18:49
Zak
Believe that, it's also really unsettling for teams because you'll have winners that will start to fire and rehire and get rid of teams that, oh, you should be pushing for playoffs.
00:18:49
DailySaintsPod
It just...
00:19:02
Zak
Oh, well, you missed out by two points. We're going rid of you because you finished night instead of eight. if We already have enough of that anyway. and The fact that the championship is mainly a revolving door of the same 20 managers anyway, apart from apparently us, we don't like to do that.
00:19:16
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:19:17
Zak
It's, you know, a problem in itself. I just don't just don't really see why. Is it to make it more exciting? Like, what is the given stated objective of it? to ba To make better TV, probably.
00:19:29
Zak
To increase the TV revenue.
00:19:30
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Two more games that they can sell to a TV station to pick up and...
00:19:36
DailySaintsPod
build the hype for, I guess, the other games, right?
00:19:36
Zak
That's what it's going to be. It's going to be, oh, the EFL is growing here. We can put these big ticket items at the top of top of the schedule for these days. It'd be really great. It'd be really exciting.
00:19:50
Zak
i don't think they really care. It feels really disingenuous when we went up and they had all of the market hoardings being like, we stepped up and all that stuff. I'm like, you don't.
00:20:03
Zak
what you care about is the fact that we've spent a vast fortune in Wembley Stadium.
00:20:05
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:07
Zak
And I know it's really, really cynical to be like that. And, you know, some people will probably see it. It's a fantastic opportunity for lower teams to go up to the Premier League. and you're right, that's exciting. And then what will happen is that it will be like Luton, where it was like, it was nice they were up here for a little bit, wasn't it?
00:20:21
Zak
They got to have a look around, got to go to some big boy stadiums, and then it's like, and then they'll get financially ruined by it. And, it's...
00:20:27
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:30
DailySaintsPod
You're right. Unless this, they're just, if you're gonna, If you're going to make wholesale changes to like promotion and relegation points anywhere in the pyramid, I just don't think this is the place that is the the weirdest place, right?
00:20:44
Zak
Yeah.
00:20:46
DailySaintsPod
I mean, you look at getting out of the National League into League Two as the example, where they have one automatic place and four teams that play for playoffs or the second automat for the second promotion.
00:20:59
DailySaintsPod
That's crazy. like Why aren't we making an effort to to change that and make that more viable rather than... it just it feels so strange.
00:21:10
DailySaintsPod
And...
00:21:10
Zak
Because again, it's it's all about maximising the money at the top.
00:21:14
Zak
It's not about the actual football. And this is the thing. It's all about saying, oh, there's this new new kid on the block. And again, for for every couple of teams that but do what we did, which is go up, struggle massively, go straight back down,
00:21:27
Zak
you'll get a team like Stundleman that will do well. And then what will probably happen is they'll do well, they'll get all of their players nicked from sort of other bigger clubs, and then they'll go back down in the future. Like, oh, hey-ho, like us also. say And, you know, you you start to maybe question the actual structure of both of the leagues on its own. But...
00:21:47
Zak
in my opinion, strange decision, adding more games to an already congested calendar. I don't think it needs it considering how tight it is at the top anyway. I think if you haven't managed to do it in that amount of games and get into that top six, then, you know, that's on you. And that means if we miss out by a point and we're seventh, that's because we missed out by a point and we're seventh.
00:22:07
Zak
I don't... understand what the appeal is but as we pointed out it isn't for us it isn't for fans it is for is for tv stations to make more money it is for the e efl to make more money
00:22:19
DailySaintsPod
They make decisions for fans. I mean, I don't know. We didn't really talk about it when it came out last week either, but don't know if you saw that next year they've changed the international breaks as well, right? And so they're doing a combined international break system, which actually means no football over the Easter weekend for for the first time since I think it... think in the article i was reading it said it's the first time in non-wartime that a game won't be played over Easter weekend since 1889, which is, you know, great.
00:22:57
Zak
Should
00:22:57
DailySaintsPod
che Cheers, guys. For a national break, everyone loves them, don't they? Yeah.
00:23:04
Zak
have actually had time off to go and actually watch it for the first time in private and usually, yeah, why would
00:23:06
DailySaintsPod
yeah yeah like Why would you put games of football on days that are you know convenient to travel for and that people might want to...
00:23:13
Zak
people are actually off and people are actually able to do stuff.
00:23:14
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:23:16
Zak
Now you've got to suck the lifeblood out of more people to pay for ridiculous amounts of money. Like like i I don't go to as many games I probably would like to, or as many games as I think some people's opinions are that i should do, or someone that runs as like, you know, a podcast.
00:23:31
Zak
And I don't understand that. But again, a lot of it is due to you the financial burden of it and how how expensive it is. And, you know, people are like, well, you should just sort of fight through that. And it's like, yeah, but I also just feel like they don't want us there anyway. Like, it's not, you know, that everything is just about commodifying fans as much as possible.
00:23:52
Zak
And, you know, yeah i so what, I should go to kind of counteract the people will be watching it on TV anyway? Like, the issue is, is that how do you How do you convince people that there's there's more money in the match they experience than not?
00:24:08
Zak
When their answer to everything mainly is just to give you smaller portions of things at significantly higher prices and go, or where else are you going to go And like, you know, it's just frustrating, man.
00:24:18
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:21
DailySaintsPod
And also, like, completely get thrown under the bus at every possibility by, you know, moving fixtures to ridiculous times of day or night, moving them
00:24:23
Zak
It's really frustrating.
Criticism of League and Season Structures
00:24:31
DailySaintsPod
to a midweek and making an 8 o'clock kickoff.
00:24:34
Zak
I'd really like to compare at some point, mate.
00:24:35
DailySaintsPod
Moving Saturday 3 o'clock games to a Friday night. Like, it's just, yeah, no one wants
00:24:40
Zak
But yeah, that pi in itself is frustrating. I would really like to compare the benefits you had at your first season to the benefits you'll end up having potentially next season and see like how much they've stripped back in the last...
00:24:49
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:51
Zak
And it's not just our club, it's other clubs as well.
00:24:52
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:54
Zak
And it's not just... you know you It's more of an environment in general that is becoming unaffordable for most people, right?
00:25:00
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:25:03
DailySaintsPod
Well, you know what, mate? I'll take that piece of homework away and maybe we'll have that discussion one one day next week and go through. Because I don't know if you saw from the the fan advisory board last week that from next season they're they're thinking of replacing discounts entirely from the season ticket package and in replacing it with some kind of of store credits.
00:25:30
DailySaintsPod
So... What that looks like, who knows? But, I mean, it feels like benefit of the doubt until it's truly released, but it feels like another opportunity for them to feel like they're stitching us up, right?
00:25:45
DailySaintsPod
It doesn't feel positive with a... It doesn't feel like a positive vibe. Yeah,
00:25:49
Zak
I'm sure it will come down in price to reflect that though, Greg, right? this is This is, yeah, this again, this is this my, it's not even a moral objection, it's it's a it's a financial objection.
00:25:53
DailySaintsPod
yeah. true
00:26:01
Zak
I would really struggle to justify the season ticket with, you know, the state of my current finances and the fact that every year they seem to just be kind of screw over people as much as possible and
00:26:08
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:26:13
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. it It becomes harder and harder to justify every year, but
00:26:20
Zak
you know, again, it's I'd like to be more realistic than the idea that, like, you don't have to necessarily be able to go to every game and afford it to be a real fan or whatever your idea of any quote-unquote real fan is, because I think there's there's quite a few people that have differing opinions, but I think that
00:26:20
DailySaintsPod
oh that's it.
00:26:30
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:26:37
Zak
just in general like these changes in the league to bring it back to what actually talked about before i massively derailed it's like this isn't really for the experience for the fan experience this isn't for to make our lives better or to make it more exciting to increase revenue that's that's how i see it if i'm wrong and people think that i've got i've completely misconstrued it i'd love to hear it like
00:26:43
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. man
00:26:56
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. huinton
00:27:02
DailySaintsPod
I don't see any other way of doing it. And and obviously people people will come back and say, like oh, but the clubs voted for it. I'm well, yeah, but any club, the clubs are going to vote for anything that's going to give them more of an opportunity to potentially go up to where the money's bigger in the Premier League, right?
00:27:09
Zak
Hey, the club owned by owners who have money who would want to increase in their revenue stream.
00:27:19
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. like i saw I don't remember who it was, but I saw someone say earlier, like if they gave it to club votes, an opportunity all the way down to 17th would go into like one big elimination bracket knockout to get to the Premier League, clubs would probably vote in because it gives them an opportunity.
00:27:20
Zak
That's it.
00:27:39
DailySaintsPod
is it's yeah It's a strange one for me. I feel like be the interests would have been better served looking out elsewhere and fixing other problems.
00:27:52
DailySaintsPod
But but hey, ho here we are. It's potentially what we have to ha that's that's where we are that's potentially what we'll we'll have to contend with next season if we if we don't get promoted this year.
00:27:55
Zak
The idea there, mate, is you think they want to fix problems. I think that, know...
00:28:07
DailySaintsPod
so I guess we'll see. and I guess in no time it'll just become the new norm and then until they change it again. But look, that's sir that's it.
Conclusion and Listener Call to Action
00:28:16
DailySaintsPod
That's all we've got time for today.
00:28:19
DailySaintsPod
So thank you everyone for listening. and Thank you, Zach, as always, for joining me.
00:28:25
Zak
i mean, it's getting so riled up, mate.
00:28:26
Zak
Sorry.
00:28:28
DailySaintsPod
It's why we love it. It's why we do it. Let us know in the socials, in the comments, your thoughts on VAR and on this new championship structure.
00:28:40
DailySaintsPod
I'm willing to open it up but to to the level and hear your unfiltered opinions because, as you can tell, ours are right there with you. So, yeah, let us know in all of its unfiltered glory how you feel and what you would do to change or fix or get rid of VAR. We are Daily Saints pod absolutely everywhere.
00:29:03
DailySaintsPod
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Blue Sky, YouTube, everywhere. And while you're there, why not give us a like, a subscribe? It goes a long way to helping us out.
00:29:14
DailySaintsPod
We will be back tomorrow with our preview of our midweek game against West Brom. But until then, everyone, have a wonderful day and we'll see you then.