Why I hate football

Football is a game I grew up watching, playing and loving. But football, as I see football, is also dying. I realise this is a frankly dramatic statement that could be accompanied by an ominous string quartet, so allow me to explain.

Football these days is a multi-million pound industry. Clubs are run like businesses. The most important thing is the profit margins, and the ordinary supporter is pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities. Simple things like ridiculous ticket prices ensure that many fans are quite simply priced out of supporting their team. For example, Celtic are selling tickets for the forthcoming Glasgow derby for a quite astonishing £42. This for a game taking place 3 days after Christmas, at a time when people will be stretched to their financial limit. However, punters will still pay the cash required to see this game, which means the clubs will believe they can continue to charge astronomical amounts for what is, let's face it, frankly a fairly poor product, and that the dissenting voices will not matter.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when the bastardisation of football began. However, one can suggest that the advent of the English Premiership in 1992 was a key moment. Sky Sports began televising live games, pumping millions of pounds per season into the game whilst charging people to subscribe and watch. However, the price of yearly subscription to Sky Sports is a price many feel they can afford. So people will pay it, watch a higher standard of football, and stop going to support their local teams, whoever they may be. With attendances in stadia dwindling, this causes clubs to raise ticket prices to make up for this drop, in turn pricing many fans out of the game completely. It really is a vicious circle. Similarly, the 1998 World Cup was a watershed in terms of commercial advertising. Nike had what was a frankly brilliant advertising campaign based around the Brazilian team. As we all know, Brazil were eventually beaten in the final that year by France, with a very off-colour Ronaldo starting that day. Nasty, vicious rumours still persist to this day as to the role of Nike in the decision to play Ronaldo that day. The power and clout of big sponsors is not to be sniffed at, these days. If the world's most famous national side can have their team selection dictated by a corporate sponsor, where does that leave our club sides?

It really is a vicious circle. Smaller clubs in Scotland going bust due, in part, to dropping attendances. Bigger clubs raising ticket prices, forcing the ordinary supporter to the absolute limit to continue to enjoy what should be, and used to be, a sport for the working classes. Can the commercialisation of football be stopped? Will clubs remember the ordinary punters that kept them going for years? Unfortunately, I think I already know the answer to that.