The Final Whistle

Set in a future we can all feel now, the ‘beautiful game’ of football is beginning to show the effects of the fifty year reign of abuse it has been subjected to. The Final Whistle allows us two contemporary and thought provoking perspectives of what was once no more than a recreational game that brought communities together every Saturday afternoon. The up-close view chronicles the internal conflicts of a football club facing imminent collapse and the desperate ‘Billion Dollar Man’ gamble Burt Reece, the manager, takes to save his job and reputation. But the bigger threat to the whole ’football religion’ lurks in the world of entertainment technology. As VR or Virtual Reality makes way for Total immersion (Ti), the first signs of an real alternative to an afternoon on the terraces begin to appear. TV pundits and journalists see the potential feeding ground as football’s supremacy over the sports entertainment industry is challenged by the computer gaming industry. Media speculation raises the stakes by creating a frenzy of conjecture and doom laden predictions. The millions of once unshakable fans react by taking a new look at what used to be their beautiful game. Others take a deeper view of the cancerous effects inflicted upon a society that has suffered with the football disease for over fifty years.