One of the things I mentioned more than once last season was how football fans and grass-roots football are neglected, ignored even by the powers-that-be. No surprise that referees are concerned because we’re fans too and committed to local football. I just didn’t expect to have to start the season with two examples of it all happening again.

A key International last week against Poland. Everybody told us how important it was, and yet it was only available live on Channel 5, who get half as many viewers as the average soap, partly because they can’t get a decent signal like me. Good news that it wasn’t on Sky which many fans haven’t got at all, but it shows that the commercial in-fighting deprives lots of committed fans of the football they deserve to be able to watch.

The Poland game itself. When I heard Kevin Keegan’s comments, I wondered if part of the joining kit for England managers was a pair of rose-tinted spectacles. Or maybe my Channel 5 reception was even worse than I thought. David Batty’s sending-off? From a referee’s point of view, no problem, but his remarks after the game were something else. He had no regrets and if a tackle went wrong, tough. All he was thinking about was his next league game. That really summed it up. He didn’t seem to care about England’s fate, and fair play obviously didn’t matter to him either. Anyway, it must have been bad because even the FA is apparently going to take action.

My second example is the current UEFA cup situation with requested ticket allocation. I use the term ‘requested’ but in fact it is a condition of entry forced upon participating clubs. An interview on television last week showed an example of a woman who has a season ticket at Chelsea, and has had the same seat for over thirty years. This lady has received a letter from her club saying she will be unable to have it for UEFA cup matches this season.

The condition of entry into this competition is that 250 of the best seats must be given to UEFA for them to allocate to the sponsors - such as Burger retailers and Walkman suppliers. These tickets are in addition to the 50 top seats that must be reserved for UEFA themselves for their own close circle to have a jolly whenever they feel like attending. This whole set-up disgusts me. The Football Association are investigating allegations about teams like Leicester allowing their Cup Final tickets into the wrong hands, and then sit back and apparently condone this UEFA scandal.

Spectators who are the life-blood of clubs deserve and should receive better treatment. Why should a lady who has supported her club through good and bad times, through cold winters and wet evenings, give up her seat to some retail executive who has probably never been to Stamford Bridge in his life before?

Of course, this kind of thing is not restricted to football. At the World Snooker Championships last year an elderly gentleman had a front row seat allocated to him for a number of years, only to have the agreement torn up because the new hierarchy wanted the best seats for themselves. Test Matches too, where the best seats are unoccupied after lunch whilst the sponsors stay inside to drink whilst watching the match on television sets that adorn corporate hospitality walls. The list is endless but that doesn’t make it right.

Only when the so-called guardians of the beautiful game of football treat the footballing public with respect will they be able to walk into the 21^st century with their heads up, instead of skulking through back alleys turning every opportunity to their own, or their friends, advantage.

John Moore