Club Urging ITV Boycott!

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 14/06/2002

GRIMSBY Town, in common with the Football League, are urging their fans to boycott ITV's coverage of the England v Denmark game on Saturday, which is being screened at lunchtime on both major terrestrial channels.

Many football fans and their families have already been boycotting ITV generally, and if they have to watch their channels, turning off their TV sets during advertisement breaks to try and impact on the company's potential income.

Following the shambolic collapse of ITV Digital, football clubs the length and breadth of England were severely affected by the loss of TV money, with Grimsby Town being especially badly hit, with 55% of their income disappearing overnight. The clubs affected without exception form the bedrock of our national game, and the loss of a single team would be a tragedy for its supporters, and could have severe knock-on effects for the remaining teams in the league.

The club are urging Grimsby fans to give ITV's coverage of England v Denmark in particular the red card, to try and put pressure on ITV, who derive the bulk of their income from advertisements, to honour the remaining two years left on its contract with the Nationwide League to televise games - and reimburse the 72 league clubs with the money they are owed. For once the armchair fan can actually do something from his own sofa to help the club!

"If the advertisers on ITV realise that more people are watching the BBC, then it will be more pressure on them and on Carlton and Granada, which will all help." a spokesman said.

Grimsby Town FC have organised a petition for fans to sign electronically which can be found at http://www.extra-gtfc.co.uk/petition.

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