Mailbag: Will football remain a European-dominated sport?
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Hello everybody, it's Saturday and what a day it is for the Football Ramble Mailbag. Remember if you want to get involved with the Mailbag, you

You can tweet us on X at Football Ramble. Message us on Instagram and Blue Sky at Football Ramble. And of course, email us show at footballramble.com and get in touch on the Discord as well. Did you have a fabulous Friday, Marcus, as promised yesterday? Fabulous Friday. It'll be a sensational Saturday and then a super Sunday. There we go. I think Friday was so good he lost his keys. Yeah, he probably did. You'll get him back for next Friday though. Yeah, definitely. I found him in a bowl again.

Now, let's start with this from Stuart on Instagram. With Saudi Arabia set to host the World Cup in 2034, and with the rapid growth of football in the Middle East, do you think it's naive to assume that football will remain a European-dominated sport? I'd love to get your views on that, Andy. Would you? Well, you can have my views on it. Great. I think it depends on...

which realm of domination you're talking about if you're talking about commercially and ownership wise I don't think anyone's arguing that it is going to be European dominated going forward are we talking though in terms of on the pitch because

Because if we're talking about producing players, that's something entirely different. Now, look, in the explosion of Saudi Arabian money in sports, when it pertains to football, what we never talk about...

or we rarely talk about, is the fact that Saudi Arabia does have a very strong football culture anyway. A very strong football supporting culture anyway. One of the striking things... Much of the Middle East does. Yeah, but one of the striking things to me about my experience of going to the 2022 World Cup, there was a lot of walking around Qatar thinking this was built five minutes ago, no one will be on this metro system this time of the month, all that sort of stuff. But...

In terms of fans who were present and noisy and added colour, the Saudi Arabians were up there with the Argentinians or the Brazilians or anyone else. So I think we have to make that clear.

if you're unhappy about Saudi wealth pervading sport and pervading football, I can understand that. But we shouldn't detract from the fact that Saudi Arabia does have a very strong football culture. In terms of producing players though, and in terms of getting those players into European football, which will still remain the top rank of club world football and thus football, I think it is fair to say. Yeah.

I think they're a long way off. I mean, you know, you look at Saud, he's just come through at Roma, scored his first goal in the Europa League this week, actually. He's very much an outlier. Something with Qatar that, again, might not have been discussed that much is the fact that since, before the World Cup actually, before the World Cup actually happened, they had moved on in terms of policy, essentially,

in terms of wanting to buy superstars. That's why there's, I guess, the gap for the Saudi Pro League to go and do that. Because it's very rare that you get a superstar or even an established European player going to Qatar. Marco Verratti is a total outlier in that sense. And obviously part of that is due to the relationship between PSG and Qatari football through QSI. So...

Even before the World Cups happened, Qatar has put lots of investment into the best youth academies and to have the best facilities to grow its own players. Now, obviously, that takes a generation to arrive. But I think when we talk about the money domination of Saudi football, the thing that really captures the imagination, captures people's hearts and is marketable is...

are the actual players on the pitch. So I think in terms of the Middle East and Saudi dominating football financially, I think we're already there and we're clearly going to go far more into it. But if we're talking about on the pitch, which is a huge part of it, that's something completely different. Of course, what Qatar did with

football's calendar and top level football's calendar and what the Saudi World Cup will do for that all over again maybe that's something different if we're talking about influence actually on the game rather than in the boardroom yeah I think it's good to separate those two issues yeah I think so because I think off the field it's already happened I mean I think

football international ever being European dominated. I think that probably ended when the FIFA presidency changed, when Joao Avalanche came in all those years ago in what would be the 70s maybe? He started to change it and of course...

it went that way. Yeah, a huge part of creating the world game, really. And to be fair, that was, just in that point, a reasonably noble cause because other nations had been ignored, really. Probably due to colonial or horrible thinking and all that. Yeah, that was Stanley Rouse all over, yeah. Right, and so, you know, this. But obviously the question is much more multifaceted than that. Andy's talked a bit there about the...

the money in the game, but then the actual quality of the football on the pitch. What are your thoughts, Luke, with regards to this? I think I perhaps don't have the vision to imagine the football to have ever really, in my lifetime, leave the crucible of its domination, which is Europe. I think there's so many different factors. Andy's covered quite a few of them there. So many different boxes that need to be ticked that actually...

don't relate to money necessarily. It'll be like the fact that, and listen, I'm speaking from ignorance here. I may be wrong. Andy's spoken a bit about the football culture in Saudi Arabia and you've said in the Middle East more broadly they've got a football club, they love football and stuff. That's all fine, but there's so many other things that need to happen. Massive, masses and masses of people love, for example, the Premier League in Africa, for example, but that doesn't mean that

because of that or because of one or two other reasons the domination of club football or football generally is going to move to Africa it's just one of many many reasons or circumstances that need to manifest themselves for this stuff to happen and I just think that Europe has had such a head start like such a head start that it's very difficult to imagine it moving away from where it is at the moment it needs to be things like you know

Saudi Arabia may have a very strong fan culture of football in their country, but do they have a situation where every single kid growing up wants to be a footballer and every single kid...

moreover, if they're good enough, has access to good facilities to become a footballer. The culture is just so different and I don't know enough about it to know whether that's the case or not, but I suspect it doesn't have that. And the other part of this is the fact that the Middle East is investing in European football. Exactly. They're not doing it themselves. You've got to look at the flow of players as well. Um,

I know obviously a few have gone to San Diego but that's clearly just because of the money. I mean, and one of the big ones that went from here, Jordan Henderson, didn't last that long and came back. We saw China trying to do a similar thing and just throw money at players and, you know, that's got an obvious shelf life. And,

and is not going to have the kind of appeal. Take Brazil and Argentina, two of the big nations, obviously, outside of Europe. You don't see a flow of European players going down there. You see Brazilian and Argentinians much more going the other way. So if that is not happening, again, I can't see, again, the quality. And also as well, I think with European clubs, you have that history. It's almost a bit like if you started having

American football leagues pop up in other parts of the world. Well, will they usurp NFL? They just won't because of that history, because of so much, not a brilliant comparison. I think also the brand recognition is a huge part of that. Exactly, yeah. Even if you just take the Premier League, for example, Marcus, like the idea that what hurts these other countries in terms of them trying to establish themselves as big competitive teams

well-watched leagues. It's just that the gravity of the Premier League, and in some cases there's exceptions to that, so the gravity of, say, what Portuguese or Spanish football can offer South American talents, they can offer them a similar culture, a similar language, but a load more money and, dare I say, better infrastructure. It's the same with the Premier League. Another good example, actually, would be the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland...

suddenly became this hotbed of producing amazing amounts of talent. What's going to happen? They're not going to stay in the League of Ireland. The League of Ireland is completely bereft. So much has to change. Because of the Premier League. So I think with Saudi Arabia, as the example used by Stuart here, and he talks in quite broad terms about it being a European-dominated sport, and there's different facets to that, as we've said. But what's going to happen if Saudi Arabia, for example...

as a result of the World Cup in 2034 around it, invest loads of money into not just their infrastructure, but to developing young players and they get a lot of good coaches. They get three or four players who come through that could be genuinely world-class. What's going to happen when they get to 18? Well, they're going to go to Europe. It's impossible to imagine that not being the case. The smart thing out there when you look at leagues who are able to establish a successful brand of some sort is

best practice is no longer to compete with the Premier League because you know that the Premier League is the Premier League find a different thing of doing is to find your niche a

around it recognizing that it was the dominant domestic game of totally of club football and there's examples of this all over the world really MLS is another great example MLS has got a lot going for it the games are entertaining there's some good players in MLS passionate fan base passionate fan base totally but really good quality culture becoming more and more popular every year by every measure um

yet what they can't shake is if you're a European player and you're playing in MLS at say 25 you're basically a failure I don't mean that in a horrible pejorative way but the fact remains if you were 25 and European and really good you wouldn't be playing in MLS well you're not elite no you're not elite player yeah just to just to be a bit of a knob if I was 25 and playing in MLS I wouldn't feel like a failure but I

understand the point you're making because I never played at the very top level no leverhead reserves it's competitive hence I said very I'd have you nazzled come on come on no I think that's right and I think Andy all the way back to what you were saying about

On the pitch, I think we've talked about that, but off the pitch as well, it's already happening and the idea European dominated. Qatar World Cup, changing the calendar, you mentioned that. I think the calendar thing is so important because you think how the biggest clubs in the world, the biggest European clubs, were totally against that and it happened anyway. And the fact that it happened and it was a really good quality World Cup, I

That's epoch defining. We know it's been done and it will happen again in 2030. Make no bones about that. And I'll tell you something, a Winter World Cup after the heat of North America next time round, we might go, maybe not such a bad idea for those England players. Although it will be in Saudi Arabia, so it won't truly be what we know as winter. Good question though from Stuart. Thanks Stuart. Good question. All right. After this little break, we're going to talk about

about the 3pm blackout and all your follow-up and feedback from that because I think there's some fascinating things to discuss there. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. What is your favourite part of the holidays? Maybe it's organising a Christmas dinner for all your friends, catching a Christmas light show or causing up on the sofa with a hot chocolate for the festive football period. We all look forward to sinking into those holiday comforts and taking a well-earned break at the end of a busy year. But let's be honest, it's not always as easy as it sounds.

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Now, Michael has sent us in this email and it's a long email, but it's a good one. And I think there's a lot of detail in here that needs to be addressed. So Michael says, I found the discussion about the 3 p.m. blackout on last week's Mailbag interesting, in part because I don't live in the United Kingdom.

I couldn't help but think that part of the broader discussion around scheduling, which you didn't get to, was that the Premier League is not a product that is exclusively consumed by and financially supported by UK residents. I understand that economically, culturally, etc., that UK residents have the most skin in the game and that it is a league of English club.

However, the vast majority of Premier League fans are not UK based and do not reside in your time zone. I'm a Spurs fan and a quick Google will tell you that Spurs claim to have 180 million fans with approximately 3 million of those fans residing in the UK. Sounds like a Daniel Levy number to me. I was about to say when you say a quick Google, is that his Twitter handle? Now let's assume those numbers are accurate for the purpose of this question. Well fine, I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest they have a lot

more fans outside of the United Kingdom and Michael says so that would mean only 1.5% of fans Spurs fans live in the time zone the games are being scheduled for and a whopping 98.5% of fans who have massively contributed to its growth have to make do watching games at odd times brackets in the middle of the night if you live in New Zealand like me but to varying degrees of inconvenience elsewhere

So my question is, do you think non-UK based fans should be considered as part of the scheduling discussions in general? I know that literally half of the entire world would probably appreciate a few Prem games kicking off at 10am, presumably 10am English time. It might make for a shit match day experience, but it would be for the benefit of the silent brackets massive majority.

So that is an interesting point of view from Michael there. Luke, what do you think of that? I think that... I'll be careful, I'll choose my words here. That Premier League is an English...

Yeah. And it's come from a... The roots of it are for English football fans. I'm not excluding... And Welsh if Swansea. Yeah, yeah. I'm not including other parts of the UK. That's what I kept saying, UK. They've got their own competition and I want to respect that. Yeah. So any decision that needs to be made...

really does need to have those fans front and center because the match going fans are the ones we should prioritize. And I don't mean that in a kind of, we can't ever move on and modernize type way, but I don't think it necessarily comes that much into play in,

what we were talking about last week because what we were talking about last week was basically just for British people because we've already talked about the fact that if you live other parts of the world you can watch these games anyway. Great way to avoid the blackout play at 10 in the morning. And we do have more on the actual kind of straight shootout whether the blackout should come and go but this is an angle which we didn't talk about. What I think Michael is kind of getting at is that what

point do you strike the balance between saying we are now a massive global product to some of the decisions we make have to reflect that and how passionately do you guard the tradition and the culture that it came from and I think you know if you look at the reason why games kick off at 3pm in this country it's because you know on a Saturday traditionally that's when the factories kicked out people would go from there to a game and it's just always been there

And there are plenty of people that think, you know, tradition is a good thing and it should be protected. You know, we should stand for something. And plenty of people say, like, you need to move on. You need to understand these are big global products now and the world is a lot smaller and people have access to it. But to me, you know, in a weird way, it kind of goes back to what we were saying in the first question before the break, which is that

you know, why do, and I've spent some time in New Zealand and you guys know that. And that's where Mark was from. Why do people love Premier League there? Because they don't really have a football culture of their own. And that's not a criticism because the people who love it are passionate and they're as knowledgeable as the rest of us. And they love the game as much as we do. And I'm not, I'm not diminishing them by saying that. I'm just saying there is no culture. When I played football in New Zealand,

we sometimes would have games moved because there'd be a big rugby game on and everyone wanted to watch it. So that's what you're dealing with. And so at some point, you do need to acquiesce and help and give a bit back to those people who are passionately following you from thousands of miles away. But at some point, you also need to say, this is a...

This is a British product. The reason this is so good. And it's loved in that format. And the reason it's so good is because people here go to the games at that time because they can go. And if you move it to... He's saying 10 a.m., which seems like a compromise. Say you've decided that Australia and New Zealand is a massive market for you, so you want to move a game to 8 o'clock in the morning. I mean, what's that going to do? That's just going to undercut the whole product. Yeah, and I think that is the thing that you can miss it. The fact that...

The reason the product is loved so much is not just as it is. One thing we really noticed during COVID is the atmosphere in the stadium needs to bang for it to be good. Exactly. When you watch those... So to think of it just...

a game of football being televised it's not it's a cultural experience being televised when you're watching it whether you're watching it from Sydney Kuala Lumpur New York or wherever else and I think it really struck me when you go back and you know you watch the Sky Sports years and they had the one from 2021 I think I must have turned it off after five minutes it's so

so depressing. The only reason we watched it is because we're desperate for football because the world was fucked. And it was nowhere near the product it was otherwise. You know what? The Premier League has to be really, really careful with its atmosphere because you're already in a territory where...

Some people are complaining it is too expensive. Clearly ticket prices are moving in a direction where it's more aimed at tourists. So when you speak to players, and I think players are important to bring in here, whereas they used to say we come to the Premier League because it's the best atmosphere overseas football is.

they never really say that anymore. They never even make a token effort at saying that anymore. And what's interesting is, just to take Michael's question in a slightly different direction, but I think a related one, Marcus, is the idea that clearly the Premier League have decided that it is worth

trying to court those fans that Michael was talking about in some way because they keep talking about things like a game overseas and playing a game in the US or a 39th game, whatever. So the way they've... They are acknowledging this is definitely a valid point, but they've gone about...

They've approached it in a different way. No one has suggested, as far as I know yet, well, actually, do you know what? The majority of our fans are in the US. So we really need to be playing games at 11pm so they can watch it after they get home from work or whatever. No one's saying that. So I think we do have to be careful here of losing the very identity that makes it the game it is in the first place.

in what is actually quite a noble pursuit of acknowledging the fact that people can be legitimate fans yet live a long way away. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think, without sounding too political, I think it's a bit like with free market, you know, sort of liberal...

economics and so on it's like you have to have some brakes you have to have some control because if you just let it run wild you'll see what happens and the common person usually gets kicked to the curb and that's what we're talking about here with fans I mean I went to Millwall for the first time actually on Wednesday night just gone

got there quite early about an hour an hour and a half before the game because meeting a friend and blah blah blah and the atmosphere there now I know they're not a Premier League club but it's not inconceivable to think they might be one day I understand with their shoe string budget but they're one good season away from it exactly exactly you get the point I'm saying and it was you know they talk about it being a community club and all that kind of stuff and yes they've had their problems with some of the you know unsavoury stuff and whatnot but

but you go around that club and you walk around the ground and you see it and you go yeah there is something a little bit special here that's a great experience that would be completely destroyed if you started messing around with this and I know some clubs have moved on and I get it but

But I just think the idea of saying to the fans who go, it's always the same thing. People who live in far-flung parts of the world, it's great that they watch the Premier League. I absolutely love that you can go to so many places and they support. But it is also possible for those fans to maybe start watching another league if suddenly they really like the league. I'm not saying they're fickle. I don't mean that. But

But the point is, the fans of these teams are the only thing that stays. We've seen kits change. Colour. You know, one or two. Few, but one or two. Badges have changed. The stadium's changed. The location of the bloody club has changed. The fans are the only... I support that one. Well...

Let's not get into AFC Wimbledon and Kingston. No, you're right to say it. You're right to say it. But the only thing that stays. Well, I think we've explored that, haven't we? And also as well, again, the origins of it. It's a club. It's not a corporation. Exactly. You know, despite...

a lot of the evidence suggesting. The clues do tend to be in the names of the teams. So I understand Michael's question. I would also say, Michael, if I was being, if I was slightly not picking up on the sort of spirit of the question, a lot of Premier League fans are in Africa and actually the time zone isn't too bad.

But I just wanted to say that in case anybody was screaming at their phones or stereos, however they listen. So thank you for your question, Michael. Really appreciate that. But I think we disagree with you on that one, respectfully. And maybe a bit disrespectfully, if we're going to... I think Mark and Andy have more respect for you, Michael, than I do. There we go. LAUGHTER

That's okay. That's why you left New Zealand. You can't stand it anymore. You're hounded out. Too many mountains. Too much walking. Well, we did put a poll to our listeners on X and YouTube with regards to the 3pm blackout. So again, this is more the angle of a kind of a straight shoot. Would you scrap it or would you keep it?

And over 800 people voted, which I think ratifies it. So 75% of people voted to scrap it. 25% of people voted to keep it. Nothing's ever gone wrong with a binary vote before, has it? Absolutely. Well, none of that magnitude, Andy, of course, in this country. I stress this country. This from Like on

on Blue Sky he said I say scrap it and get all of the Premier League on one streaming app like how the NBA does it if people want to go and support their local team they will regardless of a 3pm blackout yeah so the problem with that that's a really interesting comment there's a few things to unpack there and I'll have a go at it first if you guys don't mind the NBA is different to the Premier League because when we talk about

the 3pm blackout, we have to talk about it in the context of it protecting the pyramid all the way down. And there's no other pyramid in the US for basketball that is really worth a damn. There's no... And it's literally impossible to follow your team home and away. And the country is so vast and the games are so frequent that you can't do that. The other thing I would say is that the Premier League streaming app

Interestingly enough, that is happening. So if you watch the Premier League outside of the UK from 2026-27 season, you will be doing it from a Premier League produced in-house, probably streaming app.

They've ended their deal with IMG and Premier League Productions, which is bad news for the likes of Andy, who's employed by them some of the time as far as I know. And they're going to start producing it in-house. Now, to me, this is just... That's happening. This is my personal view off the back of that. I think that will be an interesting road test for them because the Sky Sports deal is actually running, I think, to the end of the decade or so. After that, if that goes well, doing it for overseas viewers, I think they'll do it for...

British viewers as well. And I think it would be sensible to do that. And it makes perfect sense that they could, uh,

essentially get people to subscribe directly to the Premier League rather than farm it out which is the easier way of doing it but I think they can make more money doing it the other way yeah because I think there's so much upfront money at the moment and then I think off the back of just likes the 3pm blackout will go then I think that's the way it's going to go I think there's so much upfront money from Sky Sports for example if that keeps coming in they're not going to do that in the UK it's easier for them to not worry about it right yeah

Mega on YouTube said about the 3pm blackout it is ridiculous the only reason I don't go to games is because there aren't any tickets available obviously not an AFC Wimbledon fan Andy so then I'm just not able to watch it at all yeah

What's that? We've got a very small stadium. It's hard to get tickets. Not if you're Andy Brass. Not if you're Andy Brass or no, so yeah. He said, so then I'm just not able to watch it at all, despite it being in my hometown. Ludicrous. People in Australia can watch all my team's games, but not me living just down the road. Yeah, I mean, it's not ridiculous or ludicrous because we've explained that it's to protect...

Rightly or wrongly, you might not agree with it, but it's certainly a legitimate point of view. I think we can all understand that it's to protect smaller teams. I would also say, you know, the NBA thing and the American sports thing as well, which is relevant to this as well, regarding the hometown, it certainly used to be the case in some American sports that they weren't able to show the games locally on local networks if they hadn't sold the stadium out. So you could watch, say, the Giants in California, but if the Giants hadn't sold enough tickets...

You couldn't watch it in New York. Interesting. Now, I don't think that's the case anymore. Andy might know more about that. But it used to be the case. They did used to do something around that because, of course, so many TV networks in the US are kind of regionalised. It'll be NBC, but it'll be... If you're watching... I say you're watching an NFL game on Fox and you're in New England, you'll probably watch Patriots. But on Fox down in the South West, it might be the Chargers or whatever. So it's a different situation. On this, it's in there for a truly noble reason, but...

We just don't know if it's a bit outdated now and whether the world's going that way anyway and it's like holding back the tide. That's what I would say. All right, well, speaking of such things, what about this? Ian on Blue Sky said, millions are already watching 3pm games on illegal fire sticks. They shouldn't be, should they, Andy? No, they shouldn't be. Going to a game is just such a different experience than watching on TV, though. It's a completely different product. Such...

that I don't think many people actively decide between the two. And that was a point I was making. I think Ian's 100% right about that. Yeah, we love Ian, don't we? Yeah, I think that's right. And the fact is that as well as them being two very different options, which I think people do understand the difference. I think it's nonsense that people won't go to a League Two game that they want to go to so they can stay home and watch football on the telly. I think that's just...

like total nonsense. But also the point that he makes about streaming, that is...

a whack-a-mole that you're never going to win that's happening all over Europe and probably all over the world at the moment. And with the fact that, you know, it's not really, it's not a middle-class choice to have good internet in most cases, is it? Right. That most people can get that. So, you know, the Premier League have even started coming around to, you know, putting some of their goals on social media and stuff, which they were trying to stop that. Mm-hmm.

I had a huge team of people trying to stop that a couple of years ago. I think you have to be realistic. Yeah. I slightly disagree with Andy on some of it, but I get what he's saying. I think it does matter on what's on telly and what isn't. I think if you see, for example, and I used the example of Gosport Borough last week, but I'll tell you now, if Gosport Borough at home towards the end of the season and...

There's a massive game on the telly that they're not going to get home for at the end of the Premier League season or something. A big straight shootout. But that's an exceptional circumstance. You're not talking about something that happens to them every home game. But it affects things. It does affect things. Yeah, but if it's an exceptional circumstance, I think it's normal that it affects things. I think people should be free to make their own choice on that. And the fact is that a lot of lower league football and non-league football is...

totally unsustainable on a business model. Is that sad? Of course it's sad. But it also gets into the situation where you have like Exeter City, for example, who are now fan run and doing very well. But when they were setting that up, it

it underlines a lot of the problem with that because, you know, we think that these clubs have to be saved, whatever, and you don't really think about how they interact with the community. I mean, I know some people who are involved in the setup of the fan running trust at Exeter. They were saying it was so difficult to get businesses involved

to work with them at the beginning, to get suppliers working with them. Because, for example, when the previous club ran into financial trouble, it has a knock-on because they order four grand's worth of sandwiches that they can't pay for and that place goes out of business. So this idea that you have to save these football clubs, come what may, whatever the cost, football clubs at that level...

And I include my own club in this. All need to be smarter. Sure, I agree. And I know this is getting tedious, so we want to move on. But I would just add, it'd be interesting, we should revisit this at the end of the season, because I think that Sky Sports Plus thing for football league clubs, which has been good for the likes of Portsmouth, my team, because it gives them more money and they get more TV rights and stuff like that.

I'll tell you now, that normally applies to games like the Tuesday night game you always get in the Football League. I'll tell you now, Gosport borrows the tendencies when they play on a Tuesday night at the same time, will be affected badly by that. And that is a point that needs to be made. Yeah, and it's a point that needs to be addressed by those clubs as well. Fine.

3pm blackout. Should it stay? Should it go? I say we ask the Saudis and let them decide. All right, let's have some more of your questions after this.

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Andy, you've got the next question. Yeah, it's from Kieran on X. It says, with football news, scores, results, highlights, etc. all very much readily available at our fingertips as soon as it happens. Does this spell the end of Match of the Day and other dedicated TV programmes the likes of us and many others grew up with? Eh,

Look, it will be interesting to see people in 20 years' time who've grown up with this sort of thing, how they will consume football media and coverage and all the rest of it. But I do think that...

There is something about all of the highlights being in one place, like the whole of the action there, and a kind of a central hub of it, and a lot of chat around it and so on. And Massey, they may well in future have to come up with some new innovative ideas and so on, although those ideas won't involve getting Noel Gallagher to have his say on stuff. He's too busy on TalkSport. The problem is they might. Well, maybe. But I just don't see it, because I think there's still value in that idea that...

I'm a bit old-fashioned, and I suppose that is what this question is all about. But the idea that everybody sits down and watches this kind of central show, if you like, I still think that in generations to come, that will have value. I don't know whether it will have the soaring views that it has at the moment, but I still think people will. Because the idea of everything being at fingertips and so on, I think...

it's fine to consume football on your phone, which is really what this is about. But you want to see it on the TV and that is where it's going to be. But the difference is, the difference maker here is that people now can easily watch YouTube on their TV. That's the difference. And I think the fact that Sky Sports, like less than an hour after the whistle, has Premier League highlights, three minutes of a match, like,

all cut up and ready for you to go. I think that is the thing that's going to make it more difficult for, say, Match of the Day going forward. But we've honed in on Match of the Day there, but it's other dedicated TV programmes as well in the question. Well, that is the one, though. Yeah, I think the question becomes complicated if you're going to do that because Match of the Day, like, the reason...

respectfully, the reason that none of this actually matters at this point is because Match of the Day's figures are far higher than Sky Sports' Premier League coverage and there's a reason for that, of course, the paywall. And Match of the Day is a TV programme that should absolutely be treated as a legacy product that is a TV show in its own right and

rather than just a quote-unquote highlights program. It's been around for 60 years, and the viewing figures still are a testament to the relevance it has. I don't know the breakdown. I know it gets about 4 million, and Match Day 2 gets about 3 million. I don't know what the breakdown of the demographic is. I suspect it's probably older people. I think it is, yeah. And that's fine. The BBC's a public service broadcaster. It should be treated totally differently to...

whether ITV want to bid for it or whatever. I think the reason the Match of the Day is continuing through till 28, 29, I think it is, is presumably because, and I don't know this, but presumably because ITV, Channel 4, it's not worth bidding for it for all the reasons you guys are saying. But because the BBC is a different beast and should be offering a service, it should be a total no-brainer that it should continue because people are watching it for totally different reasons. And they are older people, I think, as Andy says, or people who aren't,

bothered enough to watch four games or haven't got the budget to pay for a package. And it is expensive. There's no getting away from that. You don't have any interest in social media and stuff like that. So I think there's still a place for that. You're right to say, I think you wonder whether it's going to be there forever. But for now and for the foreseeable future, it's absolutely relevant because it's not about the reasons that Kieran is potentially suggesting it's about.

You don't go on. If it's a game I can't catch and it's a big game, I'm desperate to see the goals. But I don't think in the same way when it comes to Match of the Day. I watch Match of the Day Sunday mornings with my son normally because I'm up early and it's a great thing to have on. It's a program that needs to be judged regularly

in a slightly different way and I think I was certainly guilty back in the day thinking it's a bit shit because it's very basic and you know I don't really like the pundits on it and stuff but you know after a while you start thinking yeah but I'm a bit of a football pervert and it's probably not really for me but I think yeah who's it for yeah but matches that it has evolved in as every it has but it shouldn't evolve too much because it's a legacy show and that's important no but there's indeed there's only so much you can do you show the football and you have people talk about it that's essentially what people want exactly you know how you dress up the studio and all the rest of it is is you know the

their worry but I think I think there is that like I'm sort of trying to get to there is that sort of communal aspect to all that that that idea that you're not just consuming everything on your own I know that's kind of the way of the you know a lot of the Western world has gone recently with regards to some things but I still think it's it is relevant and I still think that people who you

you know, on a Saturday, people after the matches may go down to the pub, they may watch another game, they may watch this, to have somewhere where it's all there for you. I still think there's value in that and I think there will be for many, many years to come. But it's hard to say how it will be consumed in 30 or 40 years. Goodness knows. Yeah. We can't put it that anyway, can we? Exactly. What about this from Will on Instagram? Hello to you, Will. He says, what is the best food you've had in a stadium? Ooh. Ooh.

Well, I'm immediately going to go for Kidderminster Harriers. I've mentioned it before. They had a legendary kitchen, like unbelievably good. I think the last time I was there, Wimbledon won and I had a cottage pie, which was absolutely sensational. Now, I went to Harrogate last weekend, as I mentioned in Friday's Ramble. The food there looked amazing, but we'd been to...

Harrogate's premier sandwich shop, Thug Sandwiches, beforehand. And so that was food that I had in a stadium. It's just not food that I bought in the stadium. Right. That's what you mean. I'm really glad that you said Kidderminster Harrogate's in a cottage pipe because...

I think sometimes people, if they think about food in a stadium, understandably think of maybe going abroad. And obviously there's great options, but there are some good options here. Yeah, totally. We're way beyond shit burgers and we're way beyond burgers at Arsenal that cost like 18 quid. They're still available at Arsenal. Andy, what about the legendary Pickham mix stand at Dortmund?

That's very good. They don't have it out for the Champions League games. Disappointing. Underlined this week when I was at Dortmund Barca. I think they're above it. No, I think it's to do with UEFA regulations. Of course it is. Give us a foreign one, Andy. LAFC was very good. Because, of course, you've got the sort of combination of American...

and Latin culture there as well. They've got quite a large Latin following. Burgers and tacos. Oh, the taco stand there is wild. Get a fish taco at LAFC. I bet that's great. I really like, I had some really nice food at New York Red Bulls. Okay. Speaking of the American thing. Wash it down with a can of the stuff. I did not do that. A pint of michelada at LAFC. They had French dip sandwiches. They had pulled pork. They had a lot of good stuff there. It was years ago, but I remember it. Yeah.

Yeah, French dip sandwich is a classic, of course. They had a hot chicken sandwich there, which was nice as well. Oh, dear. Because the food at American sport places is amazing. But I think that's the... And they've imported that across to MLS. Well, I was going to say, I think that's an American sport thing, isn't it? Especially with NFL, with your tailgating and all that kind of stuff. I've just looked it up, and Red Bull's now doing... They're advertising a hot honey chicken on waffles. Hey, come on!

Don't get that at Portsmouth. That's not too shabby, is it? Actually, talking of Red Bulls, I was at Salzburg PSG covering the game there on Tuesday.

I've never seen such a comprehensive fridge of Red Bull in the press area. They had everything. They had ginger ale that was made by Red Bull. Wow. I will not rest. I will simply not rest. Speaking of Kid and Mr. Harris, I will not rest until Fulham put out a Craven cottage pie. It's a no-brainer. Come on, man. They just don't do it, though. It's a no-brainer. No, you're right. I mean, if I was to say that if you ever found yourself...

with an invite to the college pavilion at Fulham you won't be disappointed by the food there no you won't so I'm not going to get an invite if it's not you though and the little mini full time pies my goodness leave Pards out of this that's what I was saying when I was in there get him out of there leave him out of all this

Thanks for listening to the Football Ramble Mailbag, part of the Acast Creator Network. To respond or follow up to anything that we've talked about today or ask us a new question about something else, do find us on xBlueSky, TikTok and Instagram at FootballRamble. You can email us, of course, show at FootballRamble.com or if you're a patron person, get involved via the Discord.

And also, while you're doing all that, subscribe on YouTube as well. And you can comment there. So lots of avenues for you to get involved for next week's Mailbag. Thanks, Luke. Thank you. Thanks, Andy. And thank you to you beautiful question-asking people. The Football Ramble is a Stack production and part of the Acast Creative Network.

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