Is money wrecking football?

That is a question that was asked in a forum I’m a member of.  My original intention was to simply reply with a one word answer but I seem to have got carried away and wrote a little more than that.  So I thought I would post my answer here.  See if you can work out what my one was going to be?  

Let’s see shall we?  No player loyalty. Players don’t need to be the best to make huge amounts of money. In fact, they don’t even have to damn well play to make huge sums of money. Inflated egos, bad behaviour and so on and so on ad infinitum…….

But do you know what they worst thing about all this is? How it effects the fans. The normal, everyday fan. When I grew up football was a completely different game and catered to the mainly working class. It was their “release” from the day to day grind and work. (I’m talking about the UK here.)  

3pm on a Saturday. That was it. That was when games were played, not any time or day to suit the TV companies, sponsors etc. The average man on the street who had to work hard to just survive could still afford to watch and support his team every Saturday afternoon standing on the terraces singing his heart out. That was how these guys could face the next week at work. I mean you could write a whole “social history” type book on that, and people have.

The huge amounts of money also effects the lower league teams. It even effects the so called “lesser” clubs in each individual league, including the Premiership. There are mini leagues within leagues. No one can truly say that any team outside the “big 4″ has a cat in hell’s chance of winning the title. Some would even argue that it’s only a two horse race each year. Then there are those teams that are always battling it out for UEFA Cup spots. You have another mini league that aren’t quite good enough to make Europe but are probably going to stay clear of a relegation battle and then you have the mini league of teams who are just happy to finish 17th. That is their Championship, survival!

Why does this happen, and not just in England either? It happens because all the money filters to the top due to TV rights and sponsorship deals etc. And because those teams have more money, they can afford the best players and because they can afford the best players they win more games, trophies etc. Therefore they are on TV more. More “fans” jump on board. More merchandise is sold, bigger stadia are built and more people pay ever increasing prices for tickets. And the cycle goes on.

Tickets prices keep going up and the guy who used to be able to support his beloved club every Saturday afternoon at 3pm is forced out in favour of the prawn sandwich corporate brigade to the point where you can be in a stadium in the middle of a game with 50,000 other people and hear a pin drop!

I have stood on terracing when they had to shut the gates at 1pm, 2 hours before kick-off, because the stand was full! A mass of swaying fans singing, chanting and creating a better atmosphere 2 hours before a game than you get in the middle of 95% of games now! You can now go to a game and 10 minutes before kick off the ground is probably half empty. You can stroll to your “seat” with minutes to go.

And even if you do get into the ground early, you have to sit there and listen to some third rate bloody DJ, playing some crap pop record and making dedications to some bloke (probably a fat accoutant) who lives 200+ hundreds miles away and the only reason he is at the game is because he’s on some corporate sponsors freebie day.  He will be sat in a box having a 4 course meal with wine, coffee and mints and will probably never hear his dedication anyway!

I could go on….. There are a few positive sides to the money, but that is a different story….. But, what was the question again? Is money wrecking football? It is a very subjective issue but I’m sure you can make your own conclusions.

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Many thanks
Rik