Manchester United: Handling broadcast rules and academy transparency

Opinion Youths
Posted by
DERBY, ENGLAND - JULY 18: Joe Hugill of Manchester United during a pre-season friendly between Derby County and Manchester United at Pride Park on July 18, 2021 in Derby, England. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)

Manchester United have a problematic culture when it comes to dealing with the academy. Sometimes these aspects come up as funny, then these issues feel more complex.

As a fan of our incredible academy, affected by the pandemic and being overseas as well, the lack of transparency of what happens is irritating. Early in the season, I wrote about an issue which was indeed a worry among academy fans and not just United ones.

In a simple and clear response from the club, we were made aware of a rule that would be adapted this season, as per the FA. While I took some time to understand the purpose of such rule, it still does not add up what this rule actually fixed, especially in Premier League circles. Questions were rightly raised over the viewership of Premier League games that fans are uninterested on. No offence to any of the teams, but as an academy fan, I am interested on watching the academy youngsters play rather than any team not being Manchester United. This stance is, I believe, among fans of other academies in the country, despite the team or badge.

By the end of the season, I expect Premier League officials, FA involved of course, to release a report on how this rule of not showing Premier League 2 games while a Premier League game is being played, affected audience and attendance numbers. While I know this will not possibly happen, I am more ashamed and worried on how United have dealt with this situation so far. As someone who has watched youth games via MUTV, until last season there was a clear and thorough process of broadcasting.

The game would be shown LIVE if the first team was not playing, or in the worst case scenario it would start a few hours before or after the first team was in action. Somehow, these rules were quite understandable due to the attention our first team gets and the multiple interviews, recaps and reactions.

However, strange things have happened this season, to say the least. At some point, things got funny, let me be honest here. Earlier in the season, the media team were preparing line-up graphics for the U23’s team whenever they were playing. So far, there’s nothing wrong here but the strange thing is that due to the rule, there would not be a chance to watch the game live on MUTV.

A few weeks later, there would be a movement in schedule for the U23’s games from Friday night to lunchtime or even later on Saturday, making it once again impossible to watch the game due to broadcasting rules. This has happened so many times during this season and it made me feel a bit strange complaining about Arsenal not leaving our camera crew show the game LIVE last season, due to Covid rules, yet again they were able to film highlights.

Yes, this happened and indeed it makes no sense whatsoever.

Last week, all three men’s team were ought to play in the same day. It hurts deeply to say this, but the same was happening to City but differently from the noisy neighbours, we were not much bothered about providing updates or whatsoever. The U18’s game was cancelled due to a frozen pitch meanwhile the mini derby against City was not mentioned from the media team. City offered coverage for their two youth teams but all we got from United was nothing but an announcement from reporter Ben Ibson who has done really well to keep us updated while our media team focuses on TikTok hits.

Also, we are yet to get ‘updates’ from the derby last weekend as MUTV should have at least had the audacity to record a few moments which strangely appeared in the pre-show ahead of the game against Brighton U23’s (20 minute highlights are now on MUTV).

More Stories about Manchester United
‘I’ve been enjoying’ – Manchester United star happy with new role under Erik ten Hag
Bayern Munich and Marseille join shock race for 26 y/o Manchester United forward
Diogo Dalot proud of latest Manchester United milestone; hard work pays off

Now moving on to a few claims and rumours which are becoming even more true as the days go by. I mentioned above that a few fixtures within the season have been rescheduled for the sole purpose of not showing the game on MUTV. Based on what has been said, United are doing this to protect the academy players from the online abuse they may get. While this may seem ridiculous, I am going to play the devil’s (no pun intended) advocate for a minute here. If there are indications behind closed doors that the situation has reached this point, then I believe United might have taken some drastic, but probably necessary measures here.

It is ridiculous, but there have been moments when people have gone to Twitter to spread negativity towards certain academy players and even blaming it on the Glazers for hiding such disgraceful performances. The Glazers might be at fault for a lot of things, but this isn’t particularly something they have put their attention to destroy, at least right now. Still, getting to this point is painful. If I would shift into my role as a customer, it is obvious Manchester United would not be getting a subscription renewal. However, the business approach is the least of my worries in this situation.

Rescheduling fixtures without letting fans know, then not even showing game highlights… Now this is ridiculous. In an earlier discussion I had regarding this, other teams have taken friendlier approaches towards fans in said matters. Consider Norwich as an example, showing games LIVE for free for all their fans for the Premier League Cup, something United have rarely taken into consideration.

UEFA Youth League games are another matter, where broadcasting rules between UEFA, MUTV and BT Sport are all mixed up. Take the example below, United first claim the game will be shown on MUTV and all subscribers got a view and a reminder that we would have the game broadcasted there. However, it was not the case as once again UEFA rules affected the situation.

Now we go into the most important matter of all, the FA Youth Cup. I am not sure what will happen for the rest of the season, but so far the FA Youth Cup games have been all subject to geo restrictions. Apparently, the game must be shown only on UK and Ireland while overseas fans will once again be left in the dark over the situation. I do not know if this was just for show, but the game against Reading U18’s was actually shown LIVE despite being overseas or not. They either forgot or maybe all this was just for the sake of official announcement.

In my closing remarks I would like to know what can be done to fix this. MUST and their representatives can actually address a few issues to the club over the media attention on academy teams and games. Here is a list of what can be done:

1. The media team can be more present in the academy games and post reports of the games
2. Notify fans over changes in fixtures for both U18’s and U23’s, not last minute announcements
3. Transparency over what happens in the academy and a separate academy account would actually be helpful
4. Show highlights of all the youth games if there’s not a chance to show the full games later on
5. A clear and thorough agenda of what the club are working on
6. More media presence and raising awareness on the importance of the long history of success of the academy

Posted by

More Stories Manchester United MUTV