@cee-dee wrote:
Chelsea won without him anyway.
Doncha think the game started to seriously go wrong when a certain TV company tried to corner the market in football coverage? Or was it waaaaayyyyy back when the first millon pound transfer went ahead?
Didn't the "sport" go out of it when megga money walked in?
No I don't think it went seriously wrong when Sky and latterly BT paid for 'exclusive' TV rights.
Anyone who has been a football fan, (someone who actually goes regularly to games), for any length of time recognises the vast improvements that have been made.
There has been a massive improvement in stadium facilities, a huge increase in families attending, alongside a general increase in crowds, a big drop in hooliganism/racism/homophobic behaviour and some of the best players in the world now play across the leagues.
Football in this country is NOT just the Premier League, although listening to armchair critics you would think that was the case!
BSkyB first won the contract to show live football in 1992, since then the attendances at Premier League clubs have increased by about 50% and closer to 70% in the lower leagues. Whilst the vast majority of the TV money is paid directly to the Premier League there are also payments to the lower leagues as well as the large sums paid by the Premier League to the lower league clubs by way of parachute payments and 'development' payments, which have enabled them to improve their teams and facilities.
Football clubs at all levels also play a big part in their local communities, the vast majority run community schemes raising money and providing facilities for all sorts of causes. Sports men and women in general and football players in particular are also extremely generous not just in cash terms but in the time they spend helping good causes.
Over 70 million tickets to sporting events are sold each year in the U.K., more than 4o million of those are to watch football matches - so not only is football the biggest spectator sport in the U.K. but is bigger than all other sports put together!
Considering the millions who do go to matches there are remarkably few crowd problems - in most cases these days opposing fans travel on the same trains and buses, mix in the same pubs and bars and can actually discuss the game after the match in a civilised manner.
I really wonder how many of those criticising football and those who go to matches have actually been to a game in the last 10 years.