No Footy, No Cry (Look What They’ve Done to my Game, Ma)
I don’t think that there has been a season since the very early 60s when I have watched less football.
From about 1966 I used to stand on the Kop until family and work started interfering. Then it was a case of going when I was able. Gradually over the years my attendance at the ground decreased. We moved further away and the price kept going up but I became a committed TV fan, and watched at every opportunity. But this season, I have no TV subscriptions and I’ve just watched a few cup matches on terrestrial TV and I can report that, although I always check the scores, I am not missing football at all.
Why? These reasons are in no particular order and are not meant as a criticism of any particular team.
Betting Ads. The sooner the government to something to curb betting ads around football the better. It’s impossible even to watch the goals on YouTube without being bombarded by BET365 and their competitors.
Club Ownership. Middle Eastern despots, American Hedge Funds, dubious business men. If someone can explain how The Premiership can take months and months to decide whether 777 partners are suitable purchasers of Everton, I would be interested. I’m no bluenose, but seeing Everton being driven to the edge of financial ruin by Moshiri and his Russian mate has been really sad.
VAR. If we can measure offsides in millimetres, why can’t we penalise wrestling matches in the penalty area at corners and free kicks and, leading on to another hate of mine, penalise players for blatant play acting. All teams have these players, everybody knows who they are and a month of “zero tolerance” of both of these cheating tactics would stop them.
Dreadful standards of refereeing in the Premier League.
Managers saying idiotic things. I love Jurgen Klopp’s bones but the outburst after the Spurs game when he suggested replaying the match because of that totally stupid offside decision (see above) was ridiculous. He knew it would never and should never happen but couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
TV pundits saying idiotic things. I’ve lost count of the number of times an interview could have queried any of the above with players and managers, but they never do. The Premier League brand has to be protected at all times.
There are loads more, but finally, the “multi club ownership model”. There will be 2 clubs owned by the same people in the Champions League next season, unless UEFA to the right thing and ban one of them. What happens if they are drawn in the same group? What happens if they are drawn against eachother in a knock out round and the owners decide that one club has a better chance of winning the competition than the other?
So for my live sport fix, I’m now occasionally attending Fylde Rugby in English National League Division 2 North. It’s next door. It’s a tenner to get in. It’s a really friendly atmosphere. The beers good. I go with my son. What’s not to like? I don’t really understand what’s going on on the field some of the time, but that’s a minor problem.