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The Manchester United academy has long been a source of pride for United supporters and the club who have even adopted the motto — Youth. Courage. Success.
But in recent times, keen followers of the historic academy have begun to raise concerns about the club’s treatment when it comes to academy coverage.
Putting it at the forefront of the club motto and a press release for Ethan Wheatley’s Premier League debut which involved a framed ball and his picture being prominently hung at Carrington would suggest the club are proud of the academy and keen for supporters to follow their story.
Roll on the new season though and the dwindling coverage for the club’s U18s and U21s has once again come to the forefront.
With four matches already played across the two age groups so far this season, you’d struggle to know it as a United supporter with not a single one shown on MUTV and very little coverage provided by the club either.
The U21s kicked off their season away to Arsenal on August 16th but there was no acknowledgement from the club of the match’s occurrence until three days later when a two-minute highlight video was posted on the United app.
If it weren’t for fan channels like The Peoples Person who provided live updates from Meadow Park on the night, the large contingent of followers for United’s youth were left completely in the dark by the club.
In contrast to other clubs such as the opposition on that night, United do not have a dedicated social media for the famed academy.
Arsenal on the other hand, have @ArsenalAcademy on X (formerly Twitter) where they provide match lineups, live updates, and post match interviews and highlights.
While Arsenal provided reports and match highlights for pre-season matches involving their u18s and u21s, which were open for fans to attend, United’s sides attended tournaments across Europe and played behind closed door friendlies, none of which were reported on by the club.
Last season, the club used their main Twitter channel to post lineups and limited score updates for the academy but the new season has seen complete radio silence.
In fact, so limited is the academy coverage through the club’s main mediums, the U18s squad page on the app and site is currently missing half of the squad with the first year scholars still yet to be added.
Charging fans for an MUTV subscription for the self-proclaimed biggest club in the world, the service provided pales in comparison to rival clubs.
Under the academy highlights section of MUTV, not a single video is present from the new season despite four matches having been played.
The lack of coverage is not entirely new though, the U21s went six months last season between televised matches on MUTV with fans only able to tune into 8 of their 24 matches last season.
The treble winning U18s even celebrated their Premier League North title with the match not being broadcasted.
Such was the disarray at the club that the official account tweeted out that the game would be broadcast live on MUTV before ultimately not providing the coverage, showing that even the club staff are unaware of their coverage.
With no live or delayed broadcasts being provided by the club, some fans had to resort to signing up to Manchester City’s CITY+ in order to watch the weekend’s u18s derby.
Providing a match report on the United app after the match, the report included several mistakes including the goal times and substitute details.
With no matches been broadcasted live so far, United have three matches coming up in the next week for the U18s and U21s but there is nothing to be excited about for fans as they also look set to not be broadcast, with none being included anywhere on the MUTV schedule.
The question on many supporters minds is why? With over 300 travelling fans attending the U21s EFL Trophy win over Barnsley last week, where they out sang the home supporters, the appetite is certainly there for United’s academy who have packed out Old Trafford for FA Youth Cup matches in the past.
In recent years, U21s live coverage has been reduced due to Premier League broadcasting restrictions which forbid U21 matches clashing with any Premier League match from being broadcast live but this was not the case for Friday’s home win over Stoke City u21s.
But despite being free to show the match, it was still not shown on MUTV for unknown reasons.
When reaching out to the club for comments about the reduced coverage or why delayed coverage is not shown for academy matches for those affected by the Premier League restrictions, the responses have been limited.
Copy and pasted responses which ranged from talking about first team pre-season coverage, completely ignoring the questions raised, to blaming license restrictions despite them not applying to several of the matches not shown.
Pushing for further clarity of the questions raised has left us with numerous unresponded emails, a process which many fans have also experienced in their quest for answers.
Fans have taken to social media and fan forums to complain and find out any information possible about the academy matches.
The leading United fan forum, RedCafe.net has a dedicated reserve and youth section where the hottest topic is currently titled “Non-televised academy matches”.
One poster expressed his frustration saying, “How is it possible that Stoke City have the resources to provide twitter updates regularly but this magnificent club with such a rich history regarding youth, gives us nothing?”
Meanwhile another suggested any coverage is only for social media clicks and, “If there’s not a trophy or some sort of milestone to try and rack up the numbers with they just can’t be bothered can they.”
Perhaps most worryingly for United supporters though is Steven Railston, writer for The Manchester Evening News, who tweeted, “Unfortunately, *I think* it’s due to recent job losses at the club.”
Unfortunately, *I think* it’s due to recent job losses at the club
— Steven Railston (@StevenRailston) August 23, 2024
MUTV presenter and reporter Ben Ibson has also taken to Twitter to announce he is open to new opportunities, suggesting there is credibility to the fact that the staff cuts under Jim Ratcliffe have left the club unable to provide coverage due to insufficient staff, a shocking indictment for a club the size of Manchester United.
There was hope that with the introduction of Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s media presence would look to catch up with their rivals, but so far the evidence points to the opposite.
Whichever the reason for the continued dismantling of coverage, United supporters have so far had to grin and bear it as they desperately try to support the historically famed Manchester United academy but many are preparing to cancel their MUTV subscriptions if changes are not seen.
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2024-08-26 15:00:48
