Billy, Luis & Greville point the way to the future as video gets nasty

Are you travelling to Blackpool tonight? Hats off to all those Brentford fans who can make what is a round trip of just about 500 miles on a school night. Moreso, just a few days after our last away game – the narrow reverse at Bournemouth.

Sadly, for yours truly, a second trip to the seaside was just one cheeky request too far that I didn’t even try and put past ‘the boss’. Away games are becoming a pleasure I slowly reacquaint myself with after my becoming a father meant a trip beyond TW8 last season was as rare as a Will Grigg goal celebration.

That said there were, and still are, plenty of ways to stay in touch with what Brentford were doing – whether before, during or after the game. And I don’t so much mean the ‘official’ club news or those deconstructed / recycled interview stories and double transfer swoop rumours that seem to account for 80% of what we could read in the local press.

Those other sources still exist and have, by and large, only got stronger. The Beesotted team clearly lead the way. Their website is regularly updated with news, reports and articles by a number of contributors whilst ‘Billy The Bee’ is a staple feature at Brentford games, conducting interviews with fans for the following day’s report.

But that’s just the start. There’s this site of course (for those of you who like your Brentford commentary a bit leftfield) whilst Greville Waterman has launched his ‘BFCtalk’ blog this season.

Greville’s really is a labour of love that touches on both the present as well as delving into the past in a series of features that, like this one, appear to have taken on a life of their own as daily updates are now the norm.

There’s even an Italian blog for those that like the continental opinion. I’m just waiting for the Spanish equivalent to now start.

Then, of course, we’ve those old favourites in the GPG or, for those who like things a bit less feisty, the Beesotted ‘Vital Football’ page.

That’s before we even get to e-books. As our reader is probably well aware, last season’s heroics have been turned into ‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup’ whilst Luis Adriano takes full credit for his excellent work, ‘Penalties’.

Just two of the e-books out there, right now

The very convoluted point I am trying to make in all of this is that these days there is no need to rely on those traditional sources of news – the club or the local rag. Tonight, for example, I’m going to be using radio, Sky Sports news and the multiple Twitter streams for updates.

So it was with great amusement that I read recently that the Premiership are threatening to prosecute fans for sharing goal action via social media. How they’ll police this I have no idea. Even Getty Images have given up trying to do this and now make their work available for free to bloggers.

More to the point, are they that scared of a few shaky videoclips / screengrabs that would make ‘Fancam’ look like an Oscar winner? Putting aside the licensing or greed arguments that both sides have already come out with, I’m simply approaching this from a view of ‘embracing change’.

Like it or not,social media is here to stay and people use it. I’ll still turn to legitimate sources to review the action even had I already seen a goal via ‘knock off footage’.

For me this was evident during the World Cup where ‘Vines’ kept me bang up to date on all those goals I’d missed whilst ‘coming in from work’, which I then watched in full when I finally reached the sofa.

As is evident with the written word (where, for example, Bournemouth use four or five volunteers to help make their stunning programme) there are a lot of fans out there who love the beautiful game and will do anything they can to promote it.

So, instead of going after Joe Public for sticking a clip of the TV on YouTube, it would be great if the football authorities could try something similar and work with fans.

I’m sure cash and contracts will ensure this never happens but, at the least, why not salvage their image a little bit and give off the impression of a collective who are now in the 21^st Century rather than sitting, suited and booted, in some smoke filled backroom with their hands in a velvet ball bag.

The Bournemouth programme – more volunteers than covers

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