As a television and radio reporter, I regularly pushed my luck trying to get as close as possible to the action in the tunnel areas and when next to dugouts.
Looking to get the ‘scoop’ or the big breaking story goes with the territory as a reporter.
Even so, I wonder if we’re now going too far in breaching the remaining sanctuaries of football players and managers.
Hibs supporters are about to get the real nitty gritty when boss Nick Montgomery wears a microphone in the technical area for the forthcoming derby v Hearts.
There are also plans for his assistant to wear a body cam, cameras to be allowed in the dressing room and on pitch interviews, all as part of Sky Sports’ coverage.
How much do you want to see and hear from within your football club?
Do you want to listen to what the boss is screeching from the dugout to the players?
Do you want the lowdown from inside the dressing room in the heat of battle when players’ guards are down and tempers may be short?
It’s all part of progress in football and, if football teaches any lessons, it’s that those who stand in the way of progress usually lose.
The clubs and the chairmen who opposed the lifting of the maximum wage of £20-a-week lost the fight in 1961 when players threatened to strike.
The man Scottish football fans loved to hate, Jimmy Hill, chairman of the players’ association in England, led the fight to allow players to negotiate their wages like other trades and professions.
Within months, Johnny Haynes of Fulham was earning five times the old limit, becoming the first £100 a week player in England.
‘Against EU law’
In 1995, Jean-Marc Bosman secured his place in football folklore when he won his battle to allow players to move freely at the end of their contacts without a transfer fee.
This week has seen another challenge to the status quo, with the European Court of Justice ruling that FIFA and UEFA blocking the formation of new European Super League is against EU Law.
In practice, it might mean little, since the big clubs in reality already have a super league under UEFA control by dint of their financial muscle and the way they’ve carved up the Champions League.
In principle though, the judgement still opens the door to a new breakaway league, although given that the English Premier League, the richest and most powerful in the world, has rejected the concept, it’s unlikely to go ahead unless there’s some huge financial boost, such as has happened in golf with the breakaway, Saudi-funded LIV competition.
We already have multi-club ownership in the game and with the SFA now prepared to contemplate it in Scotland, Hibs, who are becoming innovators it seems, are already in talks about such a move.
Football changes slowly but, as we see with VAR and goal line technology, trying to impede change when it comes is a fool’s errand.
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