Fans of Nottingham Forest have been reacting angrily to the club’s post on Twitter, in which Forest confirmed their fixture against Bristol City has been rescheduled.
In a statement on the club website, they wrote: “Nottingham Forest can confirm that their fixture against Bristol City at The City Ground has been pushed back for live coverage on Sky Sports.
The match was due to take place on Saturday 21st March but will now take place the day after, on Sunday 22nd March (kick-off 3pm) at the request of Sky Sports.”
Fans have been left furious at the rescheduling of the fixture, particularly because as the revised date falls on Mother’s Day, with many claiming that football has sold its soul to Sky Sports.
? Bristol City fixture moved for TV coverage#NFFC can confirm that their home game against Bristol City has been pushed back for coverage on Sky Sports and will now be played on Sunday 22nd March (kick-off 3pm). https://t.co/GwnwpgXhgQ
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) February 17, 2020
For those of you that might have @SkyFootball . Show them what you think and cancel today #nffc
— Nathan (@nswh123) February 17, 2020
Thanks for this ruined my holiday…..
— NotThatBrianHarvey (@brightoncityabc) February 17, 2020
Mothers Day….great work @SkyFootball another game ruined
— Korksteroo (@korksteroo) February 17, 2020
This is what happens when football sold its soul to the devil (Sky) all those years ago. Customers (fans) are an irrelevance. #NFFC
— ANDREW GABBITAS (@GABBITAS66) February 17, 2020
That’s my fifth game with booked flights with Ryanair from Ireland that I won’t now use. Even renewed my season ticket this morning, what’s the point #nffc #NFFC
— Forever Young (@bigcatjaguar1) February 17, 2020
@NFFC can you not push back on this? The American supporters group arranged a big meet up in Nashville for this game. And the USA isn’t exactly the smallest country. I expect many of them will have paid for flights and hotels already.
— Dan Berridge (@DanBerridge) February 17, 2020
What do we think?
Unfortunately, fixture changes due to television coverage are to be expected when a club is performing well in their league.
Understandably, this is an annoyance for match-going fans, as it can cause disruption to pre-booked travel, clash with national days – such as Mother’s Day – and just be an overall inconvenience.
However, it is perhaps likely that Forest fans would rather their team be playing well enough to earn a televised game, than performing averagely in mid-table obscurity.