The Death of Football

I never thought I'd write anything like this. Apologies for the length. There's a summary at the end.

I started watching football in the 1970s. My first game at Anfield was in 1977. We beat WBA 3-1. I can't describe how exciting that day was for me, a goggle-eyed 8-year-old. The sounds, the colours, the thrill of the goals. I remember giving Ray Clemence the thumbs up and him smiling and waving at me. I remember a connection between the players and the fans. I cried my eyes out when Liverpool lost the FA Cup semi-final in a third replay against Arsenal in 1980.

When I was old enough to do so, I went with my mates to watch the Reds from the Kop. £7 to stand with the greatest fans in the world watching the greatest team in the world. I watched the 9-0 drubbing of Crystal Palace from the Kop. I cried when Aldo came off the bench to score a pen and threw his shirt into the crowd.

Now I've got three boys and though we live in Manchester these days I've managed to keep their heads from being turned towards the red and blue halves of this city. They support Liverpool. Sort of. I've noticed that the passion I had regarding the team is not quite as intense in them. This might be down to a number of factors, of course. Back in the late 1970s we had three TV channels. And no video games. Unless you count Pong. And I don't.

Our kids are spoiled by the amount of visual choice they have on offer. My boys, like any others, love playing Little Big Planet and watching Cartoon Network. They read books. They love to play football too, and turn out for their teams at the weekend. They've got LFC shirts, and Barca shirts and they'll watch a big match on the TV from time to time. They love to go to games too, but we don't do that too often because of the cost. I took them to Utrecht at home (their first game... 0-0 - possibly the most boring in LFC history) and Udinese at home, a 3-2 loss. I took my eldest to the FA Cup final against Chelsea. They tend not to watch a lot of football, and would rather do something else than watch, say, LFC away to Stoke. It doesn't help that we don't boss games like we used to, but it goes deeper than that.

I'm wondering if their relative lack of passion is because, well, they sense a lack of passion from the players they support. I'm not talking about all the players, of course, but the eye-catching ones, the ones that kids get excited about. In recent years we've had, arguably, the two greatest strikers in the world playing for us. But look how that has panned out. One begged LFC to listen to Chelsea's bid for him and pissed off quicker than a thief in the night; the other wants out because he's - ostensibly - fed up of being harangued by the press. Yeah, right, because the journos in Madrid would rather ask you what shirts you wear if you go Hannibal again over there.

Next season the Prem will be saturated with even more cash. There will be no more Carraghers or Gerrards or Giggs or Scholes in the new iteration of this so-called 'people's game'. Loyalty ended with the last generation to see it for themselves in the teams they supported. And it's not just the players. The clubs are complicit. They decide how much our tickets cost, and they're getting dearer. A sop to the fans in the shape of an occasional half-price ticket for a dead European rubber (kids go free!) is not enough.

With the record amount of money flooding into the Prem next season, everyone involved is going to get even richer. We'll see the first 300,000+ per week salary in our league. There'll be more chopping and changing as players seek the best deals. Some might even be interested in the quickest route to a winner's medal, but I'm not holding my breath.

But if they're not going to be loyal, why should we be? They kiss the badge, trouser their six-figure pocket money for the week and go and prang their Ferrari. Meanwhile, a lot of us scrimp and save to pay SKY's subscription fees and spend hundreds each weekend travelling to support our team. Final whistle, faces longer than a Mablethorpe donkey, a half-hearted clap in our direction then it's off to the exclusive club for a bottle of Cristal, no riff-raff allowed.

Sorry this turned into a rant by the end. I can't be arsed to follow England any more because the clubs and the players don't give a toss. How long before that same apathy infects the club game? What happens when the rising ticket prices and the apathy and the recession and the reality gap between the players and the fans reaches critical mass? Attendances drop? How far do you need to be pushed before you decide enough is enough?

TL;DR: KISS THE BADGE? KISS MY ARSE YOU MERCENARY F**KS.

Good post. 

I entirely understand quite a lot of your points.  I genuinely thought the football bubble would burst in the last round of TV deals but it didn't surprisingly.

There will be a correction at some point in the next decade I think.  When you slowly erode the passion of the local working class sport then ultimately clubs will not be able to sustain high ticket prices for an emotionless experience at a stadium.

I shudder at the potential cost of taking myself and my son to games in the future when he gets old enough and I'm sure like many I will have to be selective about which games I attend.

A far cry from when my Dad used to take me week in week out.

Sadly, footballers don't see clubs supporters as their paymasters.  They see it as the big TV companies and corporate sponsors.

Very good post and agree with almost every word.

The best I've read on here in a long, long time.

JD - I think you're right. Something's got to give or there's going to be an almighty revolt. I remember how much I loved going to games when I was a kid and I'd love to take my three boys now, but I just can't dig out the best part of a hundred quid, and that's before snacks, drinks, programmes, travel...

Great post mate!

Like most things these days things are saturated, as a kid the players were like gods to me but and the only things you could find out about them were the Q&A in the match day programmes, and that was part of the mystique. Now with the internet, twitter etc you know what brand toilet roll they prefer!

The stories Thommo has told about catching the train back from away's and he would join his brother and the other lads for a beer and a sing song.. imagine that these days 

I feel they are on a different planet to the rest of us, saying that.. same could be said about some match going "fans" these days.

Agree with absolutely every word. The quicker top league football implodes the better.

That said, if you want to take your kids to watch a game of football where fans are the centre of everything and the players earn little more than enough to cover the cost of their petrol to and from games, switch to non-league football. Non-league is the only true survivor of football as it used to be, where the players happily mingle with their fellow working class supporters before and after the game and where everyone is in it purely for the love of the game, because no one makes any money out of it.

Sadly, the notion of supporting your local team went out the window when Sky Sports came along. If I never see another televised game again it couldn't come sooner. It's destroyed our grassroots game. Sky came into the fold about 1992, am I right? About what time did the England team start to dip after the "golden generation"...about what, 2009/10? Just the time when the next wave of youngsters should have been coming in to take their place. But they're not there. Where are all these new star 18 year olds we as a nation seemed to produce year after year, the ones born 1992 and after?

They're nowhere. Failed by the football leagues, clubs and authorities of their own country who slowly turned away from local community emphasis to star names from no matter where they came from. Academies were no longer for the best of the local lads, they were for the best of wherever they came from and any local talent got pushed aside to the lower leagues with no one to aide their development or out of football all together.

Now, in theory, there's nothing wrong with this. An academy is still an academy, right? These players still have the chance to shine if they're good enough, right? Sadly, no. The best academies at the best clubs got bigger, better, more influential as Sky's money started to flow in and everyone else who struggled to compete with those that had the money made cuts everywhere to fuel the rapidly inflating game wide wage budget to the point where most clubs seemed to lose their youth academies altogether. The problem is this new money flowed into the top league and stopped, starving the lower leagues of the money they needed (and still do to this day need) to survive and serve their purpose for their communities and local youth which without they wouldn't have existed in the first place.

The wages and money involved in football in the entire football league now is a joke. You have League 2 sides who average a gate of no more than 1000 a week having a 7 figure annual wage bill just to survive in that league and people might wonder, why are so many lower league sides going into administration every season?

There is some good news, however. Many non-league clubs have now ditched the idea of trying to pay a little more for the best players to gain promotion and a lot are turning themselves into academies. My local team who I work for Lancaster City, a team who had to abandon it's academy years ago due to costs, is one of them. And we are not alone at our level in switching our focus to local youth. Prescot Cables, for example, who are also in our league cut their wage budget to £0 per week and went all local. Our last season at LCFC was about £250 per week for an entire 16 man squad and coaching staff. Switching to local youth, rather than local experienced players, is the way forward in such cases. This is why it's a shame the lack of support teams like us get because everyone wants to watch the wankers on Soccer Saturday on a Saturday afternoon strains what little money we have even further. It means basic academies, basic coaching and basic facilities, but at least there are some.

It would be nice for the tide to turn, Sky Sports and other broadcasters to implode, and everything to settle down with a little more balance and flat footing, with perhaps a few wiser minds in charge to ensure it stays that way. We all want to win things, and we all want to be a part of team that wins them. But what's the point, if they players winning them aren't winning them for us?

The problem we have is the influx of money coming into the game and it will growth in the future is quitevscary as our audiences abroad grow & grow.

Fans not visiting grounds can be replaced by fee paying arm chair supporters or OOT's.

Good post.

Only thing I would add: how much of it is to do with the fact that kids just play far less of the game nowadays?

When i was a kid I used to be out of doors at every available opportunity playing with the locals in the park until way past the time I should have been home.

Nowadays, like you say, kids have so many attractions indoors that I dont feel they really develop the sam love for the game. Surely it has got to have a lot to do with it?

There has been a lot of coverage lately about the rocketing ticket prices. Interesting piece in the Mirror about it. With the new £5.5bn TV deal kicking in next season almost every ticket could be given away with that income alone.

Football must listen to fans about outrageous ticket prices - or end up with empty grounds

Sky have been hyping it on the same lines as Terrific Top-Drawer Transfer Deadline Day.

Wednesday, June 19.

When the Premier League tells fans the times and dates where they can watch the Greatest Show On Earth next season (or rather the Premier League gives Sky a rough guide which they rip-up and hand back with the real times and dates those games will take place).

But it’s not just TV redrawing the fixture list that has ­diminished what used to be a summer ­high-point, when fans began to plan their awaydays for next season. It’s the fact that following your team has become so expensive for many of them it’s out of the question.

Discontent has been bubbling away for months: Manchester City fans boycotting Arsenal’s £62 seats, angry outbursts at being charge £50-£60 at other grounds, rows of upturned plastic in many away ends, and the growing presence of protest banners that warn: ‘FOOTBALL IS NOTHING WITHOUT FANS’.

If you’re in central London on Wednesday lunchtime you may see that banner, as more than 100 fans march on the Premier League’s HQ in Gloucester Place to tell them that enough is enough. That the level of ­exploitation, which would not be tolerated in any other industry, has gone too far.

That as the eye-popping £5.5billion TV deal kicks in (guaranteeing the bottom club in next year’s Premier League £60million) it’s time to stop taking your lifeblood for granted and help them out.
 
What is really so impressive about this Football Supporters ­Federation-backed protest is the level of organisation, with ­meetings being held in London and Liverpool, and the range of rival fans taking part.

On Wednesday members of Liverpool’s Spirit Of Shankly union will walk side by side with the Manchester United Supporters Trust and Everton’s Blue Union. Arsenal Supporters Trust and Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust will share banners along with fans of lower league clubs like Yeovil and Tranmere.

For those who sit in the ­directors’ box, media seats and corporates (and anyone else who doesn’t pay to get into grounds) this may seem like the whining of ungrateful militants, but the facts shame football.

The Bank of England says prices in Britain have risen by 77 per cent since 1989. Top-tier football ticket prices have gone up 716 per cent. Despite Lord Justice Taylor recommending in the report which ushered in all-seater stadia that clubs should keep price structures in place which didn’t penalise those who paid to stand.

Last season alone, away ticket prices (often the worst specs in the ground) went up on average by 10 per cent, as wages and living standards plummeted.

It’s been calculated that if clubs passed on to fans the rise in income from the new £5.5bn TV deal (making do with the £3.4bn they already receive) every ticket at every game for the next three years could be cut by £51.30. In other words they could give most of them away.

Fans aren’t asking for anything like that, just a fair deal.

Many are sick of being ­patronised about how their atmosphere-creating passion is what makes English football a global phenomenon. Then getting nothing in return but buck-passing contempt.

The Premier League saying it’s up to the clubs to cap prices, the clubs saying they can’t do it on their own, the PFA saying their members, whose pockets 70 per cent of that new deal will go into, are only getting the market rate.

Wednesday is a long-overdue rallying cry, a shot across the bows, a taster of what might happen if those in power don’t listen.

Supporters’ groups want an admission that this ­exploitation, especially of the real, hardcore fans who travel to away games and give the grounds the passion they sell across the globe, has to be addressed.

They want to remind the Premier League that their ‘product’ is nothing without fans. And if those fans keep on being insulted they’re not short of ideas on how to damage that product.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/brian-reade-football-ticket-prices-1953170#ixzz2WIDeaKx3

As suggested it would be a better day for football if the Murdoch money circus it has become imploded, it is naive to think however it could then revert to it's unblemished pre-Sky existence. The precedent has been set and football is no more than a good earner for the money men, the FA do all they can to ensure nothing changes.   

Great post and thread although its not good to think that so many of us feel the same about what football has become yet there seems very little, if anything, we can do about it.

The thing is we moan about it but we don't do anything about it, actions speak louder than words. We continue to support the clubs, buy the merchandise and tickets, the Sky subscriptions, us fans are actually halting the death of football by continuing to support it. I mean yes there is the odd few fans that have stopped completely following football due to the money side, but the majority of us will still get up Saturday morning, have the full English and head down to Anfield or the pubs with our F***ing football tops on. We're being taken for mugs, and the money whores are laughing all the way to the bank. Until as a country we collectively say no, it'll continue to grow with more and more money.

I mean think about it this way, you think football will come to a standstill? No chance.

Excellent post, and although I have no children I can sympathise.

It is now all about the money and life style. I used to live in Aintree, in a normal 3 bedroom semi. Phil Thompson used to live around the corner, and I think he drove a Ford Capri. This was of course in the late 70's early 80's. I too used to go when I could go to the match then, Anfield Road was my haunt, and the price of admission back then? a dizzy £1, and it was made of paper.

The last game I went to was at home vs. Wolves, something like £45 to sit with a bunch of OOTers, not having a go, but where were the locals? Where were the Liverpool accents? gone. watching on the internet for free. The clubs don't mind, the team don't mind either,they will still get there money so why should they?

I drive past Goodison 5 days a week going to work and wonder what it is like to support a team where you can just turn up and get a ticket? I remember those days at Liverpool, just turning up to watch your team.

Over the last year and some I have got older, but also less interested in Football, and I do not get stressed if we lose, or overly excited if we win.

Money has ruined the game with the aid of the media. You just have to go to any gossip page, or general football page, and you will be swamped with how much 'x' costs, how much 'y' is on, how much 'z' has for his transfer budget. This is not only limited to the transfer windows, but all year round.

Players will see this and I guess will just concentrate on the money, the bling, the life style, and retirement at 30.

Remember Phil Thompson, well to cover his retirement, he set up a Fire Place shop in Kirkby, and a second on he Wirral next to Tranmere Rovers.

For me football died some time ago, Sky, Champions League, EPL, it is all about MONEY and not football.

Look at Formula 1. Where are the independent teams, the Eddie Jordans, the chance of the small team winning a race, all about Money, and the BIG companies using it for advertising. This is the same for football sadly, if you want to win you need a lot of money.

I'd say that this is true with most clubs - If a company was to offer £100 million to a club to fill the seats with advertisements for their business for the season, instead of fans, they would take it!

I followed The Reds everywhere. I'd have walked through brick walls and burning rings of fire for them. I absolutely detest them now, though. Well, like everything else I loved, they broke my heart. But the greedy bas**rds that robbed LFC and football from the ordinary fans like me, are welcome to it.
As the great man and father of Liverpool Football Club, Bill Shankly, himself once said...
“If they were playing in my garden, I'd shut the curtains.”
Thank God, Shanks can't see what they've done to his club and the beautiful game. He'd spin, never mind turn, in his box.
But even in my one here, there's no escaping the sh*te nowadays.

Harsh words that many of us will relate to taken from the book that I'm currently reading Mr Nobody (written by Fat Scouser on RAWK).
http://misternobody.co.uk/

Rightly or wrongly I often wonder if the death (demise)  of football coincided with making it all ticket to get into the ground.Who can say they never enjoyed the banter while waiting in a big queue to pay their hard cash at the turnstyle.I can recall one time at Anfield when I was with my Dad and the turnstyle man told my dad to go through at the same time as me so he only had to pay for himself.Those were the days when football had a human side to it and we had never heard of overseas owners or Sky television, sure they have poured millions into the game but it should be remembered they have made millions.

There certainly used to be a build up in atmosphere as a packed Kop waited an hour and a half before the match. With pre-paid tickets such a wait isn't necessary.

Brilliant thread and some excellents posts that I agree entirely with.

Some of you see Billy and I going down memory lane ....and so it was.

Brought up in the Shankly era I have seen posters on here jealous of those days.
"Wished I'd been there" " Bet it was great".
Yes It was.

Arriving at the ground and seeing the beutiful turf in the afternoon sun.
Getting the 510 down from Prescot to Shiel Road Ice Rink and walking the rest of the way with my scarf tied round my wrist.

We were important to the club. The trinity.

Monetary ....these days ..... are we not just the extras on the stage?

The many faces surrounding the theatre that is played on on screens in Thailand , in France , in Germany ... in Oz.
That is not an LFC observation.
That is meant as a general Premier league observation.

I would like to think that FSG  BR and ourselves represent the trinity but lets be honest.
Very honest.
It doesnt.
The soundbites want us to believe differently.

With a team whose player(s) ...until Carra retired ..... have the actual DNA of the city still after all these years ......being a unique throwback to teams that have gone before.

We thought it sacrilege when  Scottish players started to fill the playing ranks!
We thought Kenny had a sentimental streak when he bought nearly all Brit a couple of seasons back.

In my lifetime I remember ...without a problem ... sagging off school and walking into Melwood unchallenged to stand on the touchline watching training.
Their names were  ....  with their country of nationality  :

    England  Clemence
    Scotland Tommy Lawrence
    England Gerry Byrne
    England Chris Lawler
    England John McLaughlin
    Scotland Ian Ross
    England Tommy Smith
    England Geoff Strong
    England Peter Wall
    Scotland Ron Yeats
    England Alf Arrowsmith
    England Ian Callaghan
    Scotland Brian Hall
    England Emlyn Hughes
    England Doug Livermore
    Scotland Ian St. John
    England Peter Thompson
    England Phil Boersma
    England Alun Evans
    Scotland Bobby Graham
    England Tony Hateley
    England Roger Hunt

and the only one with a funny name was Phil Boersma.
Not many of those in the Liverpool phone directory !


The money came in. Sky arrived and we all bought into it.
We all thought we were ahead of Europe in football.

Little did we know that if you control the media you control the world.
You can elect governments. You can throw out a government.

You can take an ailing sport on its knees like Rugby League ... americanise it with cheerleaders and animal names.... and make money from it.


So now the vortex that is ENGLISH football has prostituted itself in the last decade for the money.

Complete arseholes with unprounouncable names make enough money in one week that literally the man on the terrace may not earn in 10 years !
The working class connections that clubs like us the Toon and others has been lost.
Young English players coming through the ranks cant get into the top teams that are crowded out by the latest crop of arrivals from Senegal.
Its no good having the new national centre for excellence when half the kids may have to leave these shores to ply their trade.

An old marketing adage.
Charge the very maximum the market can afford.

Why should FSG build a new stadium .... and that opportunity may now be lost for ever ..... when we are really nothing more than the audience and a sideshow on global TV screens?
Ask FSG if that is not the case.
Turnstiles?  Bah . Humbug.     Just pocket money.

Dont forget. We didnt buy players we should have and could have done because someone let slip that we were waiting for the TV money !

Perhaps AyreSpeak has been kept in place to appease us with his scouse connection.?
I wouldnt be surprised.

Now the media really do have us where they want us.
How can the English game be financially sustainable and operate on a sane and sensible level if it were  left to normal commercial non TV revenue?
It cant. Not now.

Gotcha.


At least there is one thing.

The Kop can still show the world on a European night who we are.
Visual value for the masses.
We can still do that .

Probably only Germany has Long term approach. Fan ownership of clubs seems to be the biggest thing that makes it work there.

Spain has the talent and academy's but only 2 big clubs, the rest are developing talent and selling it to stay afloat. Real is government backed and Barca with all their success has crazy debts.

Italy can't fill the stadiums at any price for tickets.

This league has a long way to go to make things right .personally believe the uk govt needs to get involved to make clubs have a certain percentage fan ownership. Only solution I can see tbh

Great post and as many on here have said completely agree with all points made.
I grew up supporting Liverpool in the seventies and was first took to Anfield to watch us beat west ham 3-1 I think ,amazing truly jaw dropping experience ,then went with my mate to actually stand on that heaving awe inspiring kop end,even more jaw dropping ,and so this continued bloody brilliant.
The last time I went to Anfield was the 1-1 draw with Wigan (bramble and Torres scored....yes bramble!),I swore I'd never go again it was dreadful soulless more of a cinema experience than a football match .

If an away day pops up then it's worth it,but the prices now are nothing short of scandalous and I hope the bubble bursts and the game goes back to the game I loved.

Sadly I think it's just going to get worse ,I'm just waiting for the first million pound a week footballer to show up at say Man city or the chavs then the European super league,very sad but I think it's coming.

Good OP and thread 

Seeing as I'm only 21 years old, my memory of football, particularly football before the TV deals, is much shorter than a lot of you guys. However, even in the past decade or so, the changes have continued and even accelerated. The problem is that all the money that is in the game now, benefits those supposed 'wardens' (FIFA, the FA and other 'governing' bodies), and so they are in no way inclined to see the priest on the mountain of sugar and finally cap some of the astronomical spending on wages, transfers, agent fees etc that have fu**ed the sport up.

I don't think we've witnessed the death of football, it's just in a coma in a posh private hospital.