The Football Pink Volume 2 | Page 6

Football is, of course, staggeringly popular. Even at a time when there is vocal discontent over ticket prices, the commoditisation of the game, the financial issues which increasingly take clubs away from the influence of fans and into the hands of investors, or the ugliness of racism or violence, football is voraciously consumed. In light of this, it is no surprise that football writing is also voraciously consumed. A brief survey of a number of national newspapers on one day shows the following: Title The Times The Guardian The Independent The Daily Mail The Daily Mirror The Sun The Daily Star Total pages 76 46 72 104 68 68 64 Pages of Football 7 5 6 10 7 9 8 Percentage 9.2% 10.9% 8.3% 9.6% 10.3% 13.2% 12.5% On average, then, the main daily newspapers in England devote 10.6% of their entire physical volume to football. This is arguably a greater proportion than any single section except ‘home news’ or, if you get the Evening Standard, property! Now obviously, this is slightly imprecise given adverts and, in the instance of The Guardian, the presence of a cycling story on their back page; back pages otherwise are the exclusive preserve of football. However, it is clear that football accounts for a lot of the time and space according by national newspapers to divergent subjects. Now consider this: Title The Times The Guardian The Independent The Daily Mail The Daily Mirror The Sun The Daily Star % Football of writing 9.2 10.9 8.3 9.6 10.3 13.2 12.5 Cost of paper/£ 1.00 1.40 1.40 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.35 ‘Value’ of football writing 9.2 7.8 5.9 16 20.6 33 35.7