Premiership losing appeal?

With a projected total attendance of 12.36 million for the 2005/6 season, compared to 19.9m and 13.3m in the previous two seasons respectively, there is a clear and worrying trend in declining supporter attendance.

A combination of factors are contributing to the loss of interest in what was only three seasons ago regarded to be the most exciting league in the world. The most common supporter gripe of over-inflated ticket prices had previously not affected attandances at the highest level, with demand increasing due to the return of families and emergence "non-traditonal" supporters on the terraces, such as tourists and wealthy professionals.

However much of this new interest was based on the inherently marketable quality of a product characterised by superstar players, open, attacking play and, crucially, goals. Last week's Premiership only tallied 19 goals, whereas Serie A, often derided for being negative and boring, saw ten more at 29.

Arsene Wenger, the erudite and attack-minded Arsenal manager, has come out in criticism of the new-found conservatism in Premiership football, with Newcastle's Michael Owen expressing his surprise at how much the local game has changed in only a season since his move to Madrid.

So why the avarice? Risk. As teams like Everton and - dare we say it - Chelsea have shown, keeping a clean sheet is a better measure of league success than going gung-ho for goals. And while the fans might not always appreciate 0-0 draws, the money men pressurising coaches since football's bubble burst will demand the cash injection of European football or even retention of Premiership status over goal of the month prizes.

We also shouldn't forget the increase in quality of players and coaches in the division, the initial bursts of cash in the game spent on attacking players but the inevitable long-term improvement of defensive ability and tactical awareness, highlighted by the emergence of smart young coaches such as David Moyes, Chris Coleman and of course Jose Mourinho.

But it's not only a lack of goals that are driving people away from the terraces. The average ticket for a Premiership match hovers around the 50 euro mark, the price increase far outweighing inflation since the league's inception in 1992, which would have the price closer to 25 euros. The cheapest ticket available for some games London can be up to 55 euros.

While this isn't necessarily prohibitive for one of the world's more affluent consumer markets, who expect pay upwards of 300,000 euros for two bedroom apartments in working-class areas of inner London and five euros for a cup of coffee, there is a growing element of resentment at the beneficiaries of this spending.

There is a perception that Premiership players are overpaid, oversexed playboys, ungracious towards the supporters who pay their inflated wages and more concerned with designer clothing, horses, vintage cars and seedy nightlife than winning trophies for club and country.

While this may be more a result of tabloid sensationalism than an endemic problem within football culture - most Premiership footballers are hard-working, dedicated professionals with stable family lives - the success of the modestly paid and presented England cricket team in this summer's Ashes series may have pushed supporters further away from the beautiful game.

Televsion and ground attendances were at an all-time low over the weekend of the final Ashes test, England gripped by a cricket frenzy and genuinely warming to the relatively humble, approachable stars such as Freddie Flintoff and Michael Vaughan.

Over-exposure is also a contributory factor to the malaise, variable kick-off times and up to 140 live Premiership TV games per season putting people off attending the games in person.

One shouldn't also forget the initial bursting of the football bubble post-Bosman and ITV digital collapse, seeing well-supported clubs such as Leicester and Derby County slip out of the Premiership and replaced by the likes of Fulham and Wigan, small clubs whose combined attendances would struggle to match that of one massive lower-league club, Leeds United.

The perception that, after Abramovic's millions, the Premiership is becoming a one-horse race is also a factor, although pre-Arsenal's ascendancy Manchester United were utterly dominant for an entire decade. The height of the bar from the top four isn't nearly so great now and will ultimately see the traditional clubs raise their own level to close the gap.

Even the Champions League - regarded to be the benchmark of world-class competition - isn't immune from the rot, Chelsea's group stage clash with Anderlecht seeing less than 30,000 attend for a top European game and an all-time competition low of 3.7m TV viewers.

Ultimately it can only be hoped that, referring to the example of Serie A where champions Juventus regularly undersell by 30,000 tickets or more, the clubs will be forced to sit up and take note before it's too late and introduce membership schemes that are actually beneficial to less affluent but loyal supporters, with the Premier League's case to the European Commission over the next TV deal expected to feature some level of reference to the problem.