Dear Premiership Footballer

I may not always tell you exactly how much I appreciate you, but I do. I love admiring your skill on the ball. My heart leaps - and so do I - when you score an unbelievable goal. Your tricks always make me chuckle, and I appreciate it when you act as a good role model for my kids.

But - you know it, I know it - our relationship has been less than equal for quite some time. In fact, it's been getting more and more unequal! Our difference in income is striking - you earn more in a week than I or my friends could hope to earn in a year. Your lifestyle bears no resemblance to mine, needless to say! But most importantly, it's pretty hard to even keep track of what you're up to. I don't mean off the pitch (the Daily Mail website gives me more than I need to know), but on it. As you demand higher wages, your employer looks to me to fork out more for tickets, merchandise and TV subscriptions. And, to be honest, I can't keep up.

It's got a lot worse recently. Many of your fans are seeing their wages shrink! Quite a lot of them have lost their jobs! Not you, though. At least - not yet.

But today it was announced that Setanta - one of the middle-men that we hand over wads of cash to so we can catch you on the pitch - is heading for administration. This should wake us all up, I reckon. Now even the broadcasters can't keep up with the FA, who can't keep up with the wage deal they've struck with you and your friends! Where will it all end?

Don't get me wrong: I still think you're great. Well, most of the time... It's not all your fault. We're all guilty of feeding this system. But now it's unsustainable. We all need to rethink - starting with the FA, the Premiership clubs... and you.

As for me - well, I'm going to hold on to my cash and wait to see what happens next. In the meantime, I'll check out my DVDs of your greatest moments - that should keep me going for the summer at least, and they're free to view!

Mets fans foxed again...

We are blessed in New York to have access to several local sports channels via cable TV. I've always thought this was a pretty amazing thing, really - in the UK, for example, you have to punish your wallet and buy a fairly pricey annual subscription if you want to watch your favorite soccer team's channel (that is, if they have one at all). It was a bit disappointing to discover, therefore, that one of our local sports channels, SNY, seems to be facing a few problems this season.

New York Mets evening games starting before 7pm EDT cannot actually be broadcast on SNY until after that time due to some exclusive rights now held by Fox TV! Apparently, Fox now has the exclusive rights to air games between 1.10pm and 7pm EDT. That would be sort of ok if they actually televised the games - but they don't seem to be doing that! Recent Mets games against the Florida Marlins started around 6.30 (at their request) and fans found radio was the only option. Despite frantic searching - as evidenced by discussion on the Mets Blog, linked from the post title above - fans found no live feeds on the internet. It seems the only way to see the start of the game live was to, er, go to Florida...