British Football

I am not a footy fan, but the one thing which I can't deny is loving to hear the passion of those who speak about football, especially on radio 5. They are so in love and so fanatical about the game. However, football has changed, and it has changed so much in the Premiership league even the fans can see the lustre is going. Perhaps it was the ever slow but constant drip and loss of British Footballers as teams went off on spending sprees and bought the best players from around the world. As the game got more talent in it it attracted more of the viewing public, especially those who were willing to pay to view. Then sponsorship became bigger and bigger and signing of players from one team to another became not eye water but rather astronomical. A game which began with proud working class men who would stand on the sidelines shouting their team on. With players who barely got enough money to buy a fish supper but played the game because they loved it to the bottom of their heart. Such were the good old days, so old they have cobwebs and dust on them. For nowadays all has changed, nothing is as it used to be.

Football has become sanitised those who can afford to go are big corporates, they own boxes which view over the field. In almost hygenic fashion they can enjoy a good meal and take a glance down on the field to see how the teams are playing. Some fans may have tickets and those who can afford them notice a change in atmosphere. The fields are not as loud or as vibrant or as exciting and so the passion has dwindled. Passion which is now only present in a local pub where like minded people have a glass or two and shout at the TV set because they can't get in the ground and it's the only place it can be watched for free. While the largest clubs have fans all over the world, fans who have never actually been to a football match at all, fans who are a little like the corporate boxes, jumping onto the bandwagon of excitement, yet don't know what the reality would of been from seeing a real game and going for a dodgy pie from the hut outside. The feel has gone, it is dead and the little clubs who can never get into the premiership league die on their hands and knees trying their best to survive.

There is only one solution here. Stop watching big games on TV, and go and watch your local club every time they play. They may be in the lowest division, can barely get the grass cut on the field but this is where the world began and the commitment really is. For the average working class supporter football will never be the same, and your team chairman, director or owner doesn't give two hoots about what you think or who you are. Sanitised and owned by the rich for the rich, it's not what it used to be.