Oh Football

[Dethorn]

What on earth has happened

I remember jumpers for goalposts, pretending to be Charlie George.

Southampton winning the cup.

Archie Gemmill scoring that goal and I am not even scottish...

England dominating European Club football, and Arsenal 3-2 Man U in the cup final.

Then the imports start to arrive - how glamourous Villa and Ardilies and another great Cup Final.

The 80's belonged to Merseyside that 3-2 cup final, but who can forget Coventry City.

Italia 90 and Gazza is a hero taking people on- that Semi should have been the final and I think we were the better team.

But since then things have slowly gone wrong

More money in the game, more media, Graham Taylor, more money, and not just the cream of the imports now but hundreds,

A brief respite in 96 when football so nearly came home, even that was followed by Venables and some financial dealings.

To be honest the 21st century football is flying by for me

As money increases, foreigners increase, we laugh at Klinsman mocking the dive, who knew diving would become an integral skill of football, more money, more diving, now we feign injuries.

The trainers are on with a case now not a bucket and a magic sponge, players hobble off and are beckoned on two seconds later having undergone a medical recovery which makes me reconsider my aetheism.

5-7 subs pandering to the clus with money money money

But things go from bad to worse, and then VAR arrives and unlike Rugby, Tennis and Cricket which has defined its use and taken advantage of it - football has managed to let it corrupt the game even more.

I think the cup final should have disallowed both goals or allowed both in the interests of consistency, but to allow one and not the other ??

And even in this tournament which is on the whole been good, 3 VARS in two days review and award Czech a penalty, wrong wrong. Does not even review Sterling being technically fouled in the area wrong wrong and then does review a rugby tackle in the penalty area but fails to give the penalty  - How?

On a positive note Christian Eriksen continues to recover but this only sickens me more when I see feigning of injury.

Now we have a player/manager on £90k a week more money - who might leave if we get relegated by an incompetent organisation despite being a very large part of the abject failure both on and off the pitch. Because we failed to account properly for a made up measure to ensure that clubs are protected from being owned by cowboys and yet Bury go bust and cowboys get in the game

Yet due to money we could be relegated and lose our manager

Red tape, jobs worth, money money money ruining the game

and possible saviour VAR making it all worse

I would change 4 things

1) VAR is asked for by the Ref

2) Every dive is booked - even retrospectively

3) A player is waved back on the pitch after 90 seconds

4) scrap FFP or P&S all that is being achieved is clubs in no danger of being bankrupt are stopped from spending meaning less income for lower clubs - if there is any requirement it should be that an account is set up to cover liquid creditors and if that is done by a financial injection by the owner more fool them.

If we are relegated to league 1 on a technicality I wish I could be big enough to walk away

but I won't I will just watch from a slightly greater distance than I already do, I will watch more rugby and Motor Racing  than football, I have already taken my grandson to more rugby than football, no way would I have thought that in the 80's and 90's

 

Will they ever learn, Thanks for listening

A sad fan

 

[JoetheRam]

It was only half as good as you remember it and it's only half as bad as it seems now.

Up the Rams!

[1of4]

Football is becoming more and more driven by money. The  people put in charge, by the club owners, of running the league, appear more interested in punishing clubs and even putting them out of business than they do about running the league for the good of the clubs and more importantly the fans.

[Alph]

I'd get back into it if they showed Rugby levels of respect to referees, stopped rolling around on the floor holding the wrong part of their injured body and got sent off for diving

The whole "gamesmanship" is an excuse to act pathetic. Making out like its some sort of clever warfare. It's grown men pretending they've been kicked and then miraculously cured within a minute. It's simply pathetic and has grown more and more out of control since we started saying things like "he had the right to go down, maybe he's too honest"

Referees need more support and control. Send the cheats off. If you get it wrong? So what? Make player respect the rules and referees by hitting them hard. 

But nah, we all pretend 30 year old men with kids and families watching are somehow idols for doing 3 backflips when the trip over and then get up and tell a ref to duck off 4 times. 

[TimRam]

As a neutral it used to be exciting watching Brit teams in Europe when the competitions were full knock-out over 2 legs. Watered down and predicable just like the Premiership now.

[TigerTedd]

16 hours ago, Alpha said:

I'd get back into it if they showed Rugby levels of respect to referees, stopped rolling around on the floor holding the wrong part of their injured body and got sent off for diving

The whole "gamesmanship" is an excuse to act pathetic. Making out like its some sort of clever warfare. It's grown men pretending they've been kicked and then miraculously cured within a minute. It's simply pathetic and has grown more and more out of control since we started saying things like "he had the right to go down, maybe he's too honest"

Referees need more support and control. Send the cheats off. If you get it wrong? So what? Make player respect the rules and referees by hitting them hard. 

But nah, we all pretend 30 year old men with kids and families watching are somehow idols for doing 3 backflips when the trip over and then get up and tell a ref to duck off 4 times. 

It’s the money. Football is a business now, not a sport. There’s so much money riding on the results, that’s it’s a case of winning at all costs, cheat if you have to. The honour of the sport doesn’t matter ik the face of all the money you could potentially loose by not diving for that penalty. Everyone’s so desperate to win now, because there’s so much money riding it. The owner’s money and their own wages.