Falling out of love with football.

[Adrian]

I'm a fan of the NFL which like it or loathe it is a very successful entitiy. 32 teams and all of them have a genuine chance at glory. If only 2 or 3 teams could purchase all the elite players the model would not work

[weller54]

3 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Not at all, I do get fed up at times of the media overkill and the big 6 bias etc. I am

actually enjoying footy more now than ever as I feel the product is so good at the moment across all divisions. 
 

as for my beloved Leicester City, love this club more than ever, even after the recent results my passion for the club, owners and players is as strong as ever.
 

However with Brendan I feel a real disconnect very similar to how I felt about Pleat and Taylor, I never felt they had the clubs interests at heart it was always about them and self promotion and ego. It feels much the same way now, I support and love my club but struggle to support the manager. 

But don't you think we're just 'making up the numbers' in the PL?.....The elite/entitled big 6 are never ever going to allow what happened in 2016 to happen again! Basically, a club like ours is now just a feeder club for those teams... where's the joy in that?

[jerry]

57 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Anyone else feeling the same? It's not because we are where we are either! This feeling has been sneaking up on me for the past few years.

Watching players being paid obscene amounts of money during a time when so many people are struggling to heat their homes/feed their kids.

Watching the corrupt ffp 'system' protect the elite 6 to the detriment of all the other PL teams.

Watching blatant, corrupt refereeing/VAR decisions always benefitting the 'top' sides.

Football as I knew and loved is vanishing before my eyes.

Perhaps I'd be more interested if Leicester were playing back in the championship or even league 1, away from what has become a crooked and boring PL.

Having supported since 63 I agree totally with your sentiments. Game based on greed, Players with no loyalty or  affiliation with a club or City. Game does seem more honest in lower leagues with Fans genuinely supporting their side regardless of no real expectation other than feeling a part of the local community. Maybe Championship Football is not the disaster that fans dread.

[Heskey2011]

You're bang on with the "we've completed football" line. Think it's put us in a weird kind of limbo hasn't it. Not getting CL has made us feel like we're failing, moving backwards. Whilst to some we should just be grateful to be in prem at all.

 

Wonder what it's like being a teenage or early 20s supporter now, their idea of a good season, I'd imagine would be competing in Europe, challenging the top 6, we've never done that before always been the underdog. 

Half our fans think we should be up there challenging for stuff, the other half's just happy to be on motd.

As a kid i was fully us, but watched man u in Europe and quite liked Newcastle sexy football, most of us brought up in 80s/90 bet had a prem team we followed a bit, a bit more than we admit now. Back then Leicester supporting, away games etc it was all just fun, sh1t when we lost but it didn't really matter we had a laugh looked forward to the next game, I remember being relegated to League one, it was bad but also there was a feeling of we'll smash that league it'll be fun, new teams to batter sing about etc and it was, felt ridiculous winning every week. 

Anyhow now our identity as fans we're not all on same page, we're not all enjoying the ride in the same way and that's causing fractures.

Been on FT for a decade at least, from my perspective the last 5 years have been a lot more arguey than the 5 before that.

We get bombarded with news these days on our phones and talksport etc, we're in the news with our players being more celebrities big time Charlie's etc, that wasn't the case in the 90's early 2000s. Think alot of our fans don't like that side of it. It's mainly bad news players being tapped up by horrible clubs like Chelsea.

So yeah understand people falling out of love with football and Leicester we've changed a lot haven't we. Like we won the lottery and we did let it change us.

 

 

[hackneyfox]

47 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Totally

 

Its been happening for years for me. Accelerated by the loss of my Dad in 2015. 
 

I used to be ‘all the games, every week’ Torquay and Yeovil away midweek etc.

 

Now? You’ll do well to get me down the KP at a weekend. 
 

 

A defeat used to ruin my week, but now? I honestly don’t care.

 

Why be so anti Rodgers then? Because I still love the club, the memories they’ve given me and I absolutely hate anyone publicly bad mouthing the owners who’ve given me those memories. 
 

I’d love for my love for it to come back (though Halifax wouldn’t like it 🤣) but I don’t think it ever will. For a club our size, in the last 10 years, we’ve completed football. I’ve no interest in being an ‘also ran’ in the PL. If we were to get relegated and win the Championship next season, it still wouldn’t be as fun as 2014 when we were all chasing that holy grail. 

That’s what happens to most fans.

Do you have kids?

[The Year Of The Fox]

3 minutes ago, hackneyfox said:

That’s what happens to most fans.

Do you have kids?

No I don’t 

[grobyfox1990]

No. Still my favourite sport, but being caught up by f1. Off to Sutton v Harrogate right now which should be fun, Brighton away tomorrow which is always good as lewes is one of the best pub towns in the country then Austria Vienna on Thursday. Results have never overly bothered me, it’s always good to go to matches, meet friends/family and do something. The start to this PL season (Leicester aside) has been quality. Leeds v Everton on Tuesday was a great watch 

[Foxdiamond]

1 minute ago, jerry said:

Having supported since 63 I agree totally with your sentiments. Game based on greed, Players with no loyalty or  affiliation with a club or City. Game does seem more honest in lower leagues with Fans genuinely supporting their side regardless of no real expectation other than feeling a part of the local community. Maybe Championship Football is not the disaster that fans dread.

Also a fan since 63. This sums up how I feel too. Took my grandson to a league two game recently as near our homes. Refreshing and friendly atmosphere. Of course I want Leicester to be in top division but watching Championship highlights the other night struck me how evenly matched most of the teams are 

[somebum]

I've been drifting away myself in recent years, especially so at the start of the covid era. The media fear machine was in full flow and people were genuinely concerned, businesses were being lost, people's income was down and the gulf in earnings was never more apparent. I think it was Jordan Henderson who led the group who "agreed to take a pay cut" but, forgive me if wrong, details of which were never really made transparent.

 

I look at the ridiculous transfer fees now and it turns me stomach. I find myself doing a lot more head shaking the older I get. Gordon being touted at 50 million? Yes we have inflation and the world's most expensive player is no longer Trevor Francis but when the majority of people WILL be struggling this winter and much beyond, I fail to see how a lot of clubs will be sustainable.

 

I've said for a long time that the Super league will be resurrected at some point. I'd recommend anyone to look into Football wiki leaks.. the whole scenario was in motion years prior. The big clubs know that something is coming..perhaps also the lesser clubs like ourselves who are trying to consolidate.  The collapse is imminent... But there's a subject for another day.

[SpacedX]

2 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Anyone else feeling the same? It's not because we are where we are either! This feeling has been sneaking up on me for the past few years.

Oh complete balls Let's be honest, it's pretty much everything to do with that. 

 

3 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Watching players being paid obscene amounts of money during a time when so many people are struggling to heat their homes/feed their kids.

I suggest you look away then. This is nothing new. Wages in modern day football are determined by the spending power of clubs. With richer, more ambitious owners, teams are desperate to achieve levels of success that previously would have seemed unheard of.  Because of that, insane sums of money are now circulating around the sport, and wages have gone up pretty much universally. And with the sport becoming increasingly popular on a global scale, they aren't about to come down any time soon. It's true, several decades ago, professional footballers weren’t getting paid much more than their average countrymen. Today, they are paid by their extremely wealthy owners, and in an era of oil money and private equity firms (in addition to deriving revenue from the team’s sponsorship and TV deals, merchandise sales and to a lesser extent, ticket sales) the rich are simply going to get richer. It’s the owners’ money and therefore, their prerogative to spend it however they wish. Furthermore, sports franchises drive economies like few others do.

 

The players are not to blame for this, what are they supposed to do? I guess during hard times like these, avoid the token gratuitous and frequently crass and insensitive flouting of their wealth  I do think for some it has engendered a very contemptuous attitude, that player power is a very tricky thing to manage and certainly since the introduction of the agent into the game in the early nineties, has engendered the belief that a player is bigger that the club and the badge that they play for. 

 

28 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Watching the corrupt ffp 'system' protect the elite 6 to the detriment of all the other PL teams.

In spite of the above, fifty per cent of clubs are hemorrhaging  money and this is an increasing trend. It becomes a downward spiral, spending more than they have earned in the past in an attempt to remain competitive without paying their debts. Living within your means is the essence of accounting but it hasn't been the basis of football for years now. This is essential to the long-term sustainability of the club as the owner of our own stressed this week. Naturally, the major criticism of FFP regulations is that the bigger clubs are able to solidify their positions and competition is discouraged. A consequence of this GDP level spending and resulting large player amortisation and wage bill expenses, accounting records frequently show that the big clubs have made huge losses, yet these perpetual losses have been historically soundly underwritten or offset by their super rich owners. Jose Mourinho was absolutely right when he observed that FFP is a big protection to the historical, old, big clubs, which have a financial structure, a commercial structure, everything in place based on historical success for years and years and years. Look at it this way though, there is the fact that were it not for FFP, there would be nothing to constrain Newcastle United from buying the league right now unlike the way that Man City and Chelsea had carte-blanche to spend when Sheik Mansour and Abramovich first came into the English game.  

 

53 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Watching blatant, corrupt refereeing/VAR decisions always benefitting the 'top' sides.

 

Nah...it's more incompetence. But I do think that match day officials can be intimidated and steered in their rulings by the larger crowds and more aggressive managers.

 

55 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Football as I knew and loved is vanishing before my eyes.

 

Then there's always Star Soccer or vintage MOTD on You Tube. 

 

Face it, the world has changed, the game has changed and the model will become increasingly more Americanised. And actually,in many ways, the 70s and 80s weren't as great as you or I recall them. 

 

58 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Perhaps I'd be more interested if Leicester were playing back in the championship or even league 1, away from what has become a crooked and boring PL.

Don't be ridiculous. The entire rationale would be to secure promotion not to vegetate there. And do you really think that the football league is immune from the injustice, inequality and supposed 'corruption' you allude to? It has a huge knock on effect. Also, I think you've forgotten just how ****ing inglorious, dour and miserable League 1 was. Perfectly happy to allow Pompey to take me back in time when I occasionally go to matches with a relative, City? no thanks. 

 

Newcastle have majority owners in Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) who are rich beyond comprehension worth in excess of a purported £300 billion, and who, theoretically, could outspend any club in the world. That, and the evil spectre of the Super League (which will continue to haunt the game), should be reason enough for you to 'fall out of love with football'. 

 

I absolutely guarantee you wouldn't have started this thread five games in two seasons ago.

 

 

 

 

 

[fox_favourite]

Greed has killed the game. Top 6 are very blatantly favoured in how things are run. Example is Fofana situation - what Chelsea did was tapping up in the open, using the media to their advantage then putting utterly embarrassing bids in. Yet nothing is done or said. SkySports are the pits as well, being used by the big clubs for this purpose. it’s killing the game and my love for it. 

[Foxxed]

When we start playing good football again you'll fall back in love.

 

But the corruption and the bending of the rules for the league's money-makers will still be there.

[Saxondale]

Sadly, this is the side effect of us completing the greatest ever sporting triumph. There is simply nowhere to go but down.

Also, the twat six are definitely spoiling things.

 

I think as football fans we need to focus our anger on doing everything we can to destroy the twat six sexopoly. Whilst there’s not a great deal we can do, there are some things. Stop giving Sky your money for a start.

[Saxondale]

Just now, Saxondale said:

Sadly, this is the side effect of us completing the greatest ever sporting triumph. There is simply nowhere to go but down.

Also, the twat six are definitely spoiling things.

 

I think as football fans we need to focus our anger on doing everything we can to destroy the twat six sexopoly. Whilst there’s not a great deal we can do, there are some things. Stop giving Sky your money for a start.

Also, we need to be protesting and lobbying for league reform to level the financial playing field.

[weller54]

2 minutes ago, Saxondale said:

Sadly, this is the side effect of us completing the greatest ever sporting triumph. There is simply nowhere to go but down.

Also, the twat six are definitely spoiling things.

 

I think as football fans we need to focus our anger on doing everything we can to destroy the twat six sexopoly. Whilst there’s not a great deal we can do, there are some things. Stop giving Sky your money for a start.

I'm cancelling Sky and BT Sports as soon as my contract is up!

[jonthefox]

I remember when we got promotion I didn’t want to go to the premier league. I thought that being defending champions against the likes of Derby and Forest would be far more interesting. Obviously, I had no idea what was about to happen.

[Adrian]

1 minute ago, Saxondale said:

Sadly, this is the side effect of us completing the greatest ever sporting triumph. There is simply nowhere to go but down.

Also, the twat six are definitely spoiling things.

 

I think as football fans we need to focus our anger on doing everything we can to destroy the twat six sexopoly. Whilst there’s not a great deal we can do, there are some things. Stop giving Sky your money for a start.

what the hell is a sexopoly

[Saxondale]

1 minute ago, Adrian said:

what the hell is a sexopoly

If you understand what a monopoly is, I’m sure you can work it out.

[Dorkingfox]

Total as agree, I have cancelled as sky and watch more local football. The love in on the rich clubs is sickening and has taken the competition out of the prem totally, not that there was a great deal before. This is the least interest I have had for over 50 years

[kingkisnorbo]

As I’ve said before the state of the game in general means I’ll bin my season ticket off in the near future. Just ain’t what it was. Pricing is going bonkers. Stadiums sanitised to kingdom come. There’s a thinly veiled form of economical apartheid being taken out on anyone who isn’t backed by a nation state or glorified mafia meaning we probably won’t ever properly compete again. I could go on but yeah.

[HybridFox]

I don't watch as many games as I used to. There was a time when I'd sit through every game that was live on TV and watch all the analysis etc.

 

Realised how much bullsh*t they all talk when we got promoted and they didn't know f*** all about us.

 

Nowadays it's just our games or some of the big ones

 

International football is a load of BS with the FA yes men

 

Even the excitement has been zapped from us with our turgid predictable football. Still dragging myself to the home games but I've got no appetite to go away at the moment.

Edited 3 September 2022 by TK95

[Kitchandro]

Yes, excellent post. I fell out of love with it a couple of years ago after not enjoying it for quite some time.

 

I would add; having a season in lockdown which defeats the entire purpose of the sport with no fans there, the Qatar World Cup being in winter, the Super League clubs not being relegated or at least deducted points whilst in the lower leagues that is happening to clubs for much lesser crimes, the demolition of beautiful unique old stadiums for aesthetically and atmospherically inferior monstrosities, managers players and pundits justifying diving despite the fact 6 game bans would immediately remove it from our game, and managers justifying dull football despite all the money in the game.

Edited 3 September 2022 by Kitchandro

[goody2028]

Don’t think I will ever fall out of love with football despite the shitshow it is becoming. Get rid of VAR and it improves no end, also. 

[bfox]

1 hour ago, weller54 said:

Anyone else feeling the same? It's not because we are where we are either! This feeling has been sneaking up on me for the past few years.

Watching players being paid obscene amounts of money during a time when so many people are struggling to heat their homes/feed their kids.

Watching the corrupt ffp 'system' protect the elite 6 to the detriment of all the other PL teams.

Watching blatant, corrupt refereeing/VAR decisions always benefitting the 'top' sides.

Football as I knew and loved is vanishing before my eyes.

Perhaps I'd be more interested if Leicester were playing back in the championship or even league 1, away from what has become a crooked and boring PL.

Very much the same. I can't quite put a finger on what it's been - an accumulation of factors such as those you describe I presume. I'm half putting it down to just maturing as a person and that footballers/football just doesn't relate to me as much anymore. It also grinds my gears how often footballers get idolised. I think football under Rodgers has just fast forwarded it a bit - I haven't even watched a full 90 for over a year and a half - I know what I'm getting before kick-off. 

Edited 3 September 2022 by bfox

[Le Renard]

You think it's bad in the Prem, try watching Ligue un, where you know PSG are going to win it every year.  Although you just forget about them and watch it for the best of the rest.