While thousands of artists are left to rot, all anyone cares about is the football

If archive episodes of ‘The Archers’ are good enough for the rest of us, then why shouldn’t the footie fans be fed a temporary diet of black and white footage of chaps in baggy shorts from the olden days?

Brighton's Aaron Mooy vies with Crystal Palace's Patrick van Aanhol (AFP via Getty Images)

I put a tweet up this week about being “utterly sick of the constant spotlight on football in the news – when’s it coming back blah-blah? And yet theatre/music/comedy venues and the entire hospitality industry don’t get a (f***ing) look in”.

Apart from a few accusations of misandry (yawn) there were over 13,500 who “liked” the tweet.

This is possibly unsurprising considering I’m a performer and a writer and tend to surround myself with like-minded people. I find it makes life easier – let’s face it, we tend to only really like people who broadly agree with us. Those who don’t are really annoying.

But the fact remains that the television media is obsessed by football. Just about every news bulletin mentions the game: how might it possibly return, what plans do other countries have up their sleeves etc? It’s as if the priority post-lockdown is football and everything else comes second.

I realise there are huge sums of money invested by the TV companies in the game but it’s a bit galling that the arts and culture industry which generates more for the UK economy in terms of money and jobs is virtually ignored when it comes to daily briefings.

Now I don’t personally know any footballers, but I know a hell of a lot of freelance entertainers, be they poets, actors, musicians or comics who have seen their livelihoods snatched away for the foreseeable future and whose plight is more or less being ignored.

“But what about the fans?” comes the cry, “How will they get through the season without seeing a match?” Well, possibly in the same way that millions of avid gig and theatre goers will survive without seeing any live performances in the months to come. We’re all missing out, and your “thing” is no more important than anyone else’s.

I think what I resent most about football is how television seems to hold it in such high social and cultural esteem. The suggestion that, without the glorious game, the country will slide into a deep depression and that only some men kicking a ball around will provide the morale boost we all need. Women’s football, needless to say, has barely had a look-in during lockdown sports news, and neither has anything else.

I understand football’s importance for millions of people in this country. I understand the tribalism and the community spirit behind it, the belonging, the passion, but I think at a time when it can’t be played safely, then news programmes should broaden their horizons and look beyond the beautiful game.

Because surely there has never been a better time to focus on other things this country has to offer. For starters, the one thing we can all do at the moment is read, so why not swap these interminable football discussions for a look at a new publication or give a great audio book a plug? Couldn’t we use this opportunity to give the arts the same parity as sport in terms of TV coverage, and give us an equal daily dose of painting, poetry or music? It would just even things up a bit and to give hope to millions of out-of-work arty types that they aren’t being entirely forgotten and that their careers also matter.

At the moment, weirdly, it seems like television doesn’t even care about its own industry. The fact that no more television or film is currently being made doesn’t seem to be newsworthy, never mind a cause for concern. Whereas Millwall not being able to play Chelsea (insert your own teams) at home next month is portrayed as a matter of national importance and a subject worthy of endless discussion.

Football will have to find its own way out of this mess, in the same way that everything else will. Maybe, whilst the world waits for some semblance of normality to return, repeats of old matches should be shown on Saturday afternoons? After all, if archive episodes of The Archers are good enough for the rest of us, then why shouldn’t the footie fans be fed a temporary diet of black and white footage of chaps in baggy shorts from the olden days?

Surely there are classic matches that real die-hard fans could enjoy, whether they know the score or not. Or why not simply repeat every World Cup penalty shoot-off instead? Even I’d watch that.

Meanwhile for the arty types and yes, I know, you’re allowed to like both, there are some cultural silver linings around this week and whilst it might not be the same as visiting in person, I spent a very happy hour mooching around the National Portrait Gallery this week. The BP National Portrait award is up and running and very much worth a virtual tour and as I moved my cursor around the show, it struck me that surely the galleries should open before sports’ pitches? All you’d need would be carefully numbered time slots, but of course no one has even mentioned this because... well you know... football.