Is watching 90 minutes of football so boring that you would rather look at your phone than keep your eyes focused on the match? That seems to be the concern for the PSV Eindhoven fans who protested against the club’s decision to provide free Wi-Fi within their stadium on match days. Supporters in the Philips Stadium unfurled a banner that read “Fuck Wi-Fi, support the team” during their opening match of the season on Saturday, clearly worried that their fellow fans will spend more time browsing the internet than supporting the players.
Their concerns are well-founded. Of the 34,000 fans at the ground on Saturday, a reported 17,000 used the wireless network. Apparently football stadiums are no longer sacred; they are just the latest places to be colonised by people whose necks are craned over so they can peer into dim screens and roll their thumbs over tantilising pixels. Cinemas, restaurants, concert halls and even our bedrooms have surrendered to the engrossing allure of the smartphone. Football grounds have simply fallen in line.
Maybe this is not such a bad thing. Fans could legitimately use the internet at matches to keep up with other scores, find directions for the way home, check for delays on public transport and contact their friends. Anyone who has tried to organise when and where to meet after a match via text messages will be familiar with the frustration that arises when thousands of people sitting around a football pitch use their phones at the same time.
Asides from the practical uses of the internet, there is something else at play here. For a lot of fans, the internet is now an invaluable companion they rely upon while watching sport. Social media and online journalism give fans minute-by-minute facts, analysis and opinion about the game. For some fans, that steady stream of crowdsourced information is more entertaining than listening to the people sitting beside them. The fear of missing out on a vital piece of news or gossip keeps supporters glued to their phones rather than the action that is unfolding before their eyes.
There was a time not so long ago when people watched the classified results and Match of the Day to learn about Saturday afternoon’s football. Few people have the patience to wait so long nowadays. By the time Match of the Day aired on Saturday past, the news that a bird may or may not have defecated into Ashley Young’s mouth had been flying around the internet for nine hours. If you hadn’t seen the incriminating pictures by the time the classified results were read out later in the afternoon, you were out of touch. A few people might even comment below this article to complain that the story about Wi-Fi at PSV is now too old. This new world moves quickly and has little sympathy for the ignoramuses who are stranded behind the times.
The real question being debated on the stands of the Philips Stadium centres on whether this new immediacy is an improvement or just another example of how technology creates as many problems as it solves. Does the constant availability of information liberate us or does it sully a previously pure experience? If Wi-Fi comes to a football stadium near you, will you be logging on, and will you do so happily or regretfully?
