Topic: Walking away from Liverpool FC.... From Football itself....

[Livbes]

I’m in Turkey on holiday and do you know the shirt I’ve seen everywhere? ONE shirt,  massively more than any other?

Reds? Mancs? Even Arsenal? Nah. Inter FUCKING Miami. Done with this shit. Over 3 decades. Done.

[has gone odd]

I also generally find football more boring these days, I wonder if that is just a getting older thing    It just doesn’t grip my attention, and I find games really seem to drag.

Yeah it's weird, yesterday for instance I made a coffee half way through the 2nd half, would never have done that before. VAR has sucked the soul out of the game for me, really broken it. A moment of euphoria followed by a long delay, really shite idea it was and still is. The inept referees that overlook the most basic calls is another. Pundits, less of a bother as I watch most games on mute. Billionaire corrupt owners swinging their wads around is the final straw for most I would have thought. Even Klopp's enthusiasm is looking drained, trying his best to hold the ship together and make excuses for his employers .. lists goes on.

Lower leagues are fun to watch if you have a team to follow, seems like real football again.

For other sports, golf used to be my jam but that's now been commercialized heavily. Only others I used to watch were touring cars, f1 and snooker.

[GreatEx]

I'm enjoying Aussie Rules (AFL) way more than PL/CL football these days. Fast, skillful, tough, and way less fucking around. Regional, and thus free from sportswashing and hypercapitalism. Season ends in 7 weeks so I guess I will watch a bit more football after that.

[cissesbeard]

Good to see the Sunday Times today with 4 pages of Rugby Union coverage for meaningless friendlies and one quarter of a page on the Challenge cup final with no pictures. It really is shocking how the Southern Press show their hand. No wonder RL fans have a big chip.

I've got more and more into RL over the last few years. Been to 7 live games this year, affordable, easy to get a ticket, good atmosphere, both home and away fans leave the stadium at the same time and no trouble.
I've lost interest in football but still enjoy watching liverpool. Just make sure i avoid commentators, analysis after the game, pundits in general, social media bantz, talksport etc

[KillieRed]

I'm enjoying Aussie Rules (AFL) way more than PL/CL football these days. Fast, skillful, tough, and way less fucking around. Regional, and thus free from sportswashing and hypercapitalism. Season ends in 7 weeks so I guess I will watch a bit more football after that.

‘Mon the Hawthorn! 😉

[Vote For Pedro]

I'm enjoying Aussie Rules (AFL) way more than PL/CL football these days. Fast, skillful, tough, and way less fucking around. Regional, and thus free from sportswashing and hypercapitalism. Season ends in 7 weeks so I guess I will watch a bit more football after that.

Went to watch Collingwood a few times when I lived in Melbourne for a year. Great times and those Magpies definitely weren't funded by Saudi. Gutted I couldn't stay over there.

For me the NFL in winter and cricket in summer has slowly taken over from football as my preferred televised sport fix. That doesn't look like changing any time soon after this weekend.

[SvenJohansen]

I'm enjoying Aussie Rules (AFL) way more than PL/CL football these days. Fast, skillful, tough, and way less fucking around. Regional, and thus free from sportswashing and hypercapitalism. Season ends in 7 weeks so I guess I will watch a bit more football after that.

Aussie Rules is appealing to me now. Used to watch it for a while years ago. What happens when the season ends? Like if I wanted to watch it are there lower leagues or tournaments to see so I can to get my fix? I suppose I might be able to watch this season from the start in order to be ready for next?

[mikeb58]

My interest in Liverpool is hanging on by a thread, even laughing at Everton is almost non existent now as well, the rest of football I walked away from ages ago.

Love my Snooker now and Test Cricket (but I've always loved that) and look forward to the grass season in Tennis, pity that's only about 6 weeks.

[Terry de Niro]

This is a parody thread? I get times are hard (ish, big ish), It is happening in a way thats unusual to us. To fuck it all off after the years we got out of it and have put into it, is weird. if you no longer want to know, then fine, but i suspect you do.

The way it's going now with the Saudi League and the sportwashers taking over there will be nothing to follow anymore. And that's before all the obvious corruption from officials and the like that has really started to ramp up in the once-greatest sport going.

[Mister Flip Flop]

I spend any of my hard earned on following the motorbike road racing circuit during the summer. I hope the Saudi's don't get their hands on the TT  :'(  Watching Liverpool has become a past time more than a passion recently. Football is akin to a pantomime now and about as relevant.

[Black Bull Nova]

I have watched every single Rugby League game in England & Australia this year (4 or 15 minute highlights) and its been marvellous. Investing in an alternative withour all the shit that goes with football has been well worth it.
I can recommend
Last saturdays final was the opposite of all that is wrong with football

[Jotatheslotter]

I’ve been becoming more and more disillusioned with football for a long, long time.

A part of me genuinely thinks that this is the reset that football needs (Saudi Arabia) to put those who evidently only care about money over the love of the working man’s game, trading morales and values for the regime we all know. One thing that football is compared to other sports is non-monopolised, it’s not like Golf with PGA and Liv for example, the game will live on professionally because of the sheer volume of clubs, supporters and teams.

I have spent the last ten years at grassroots level and the impact of money is there to be seen all over the place, there are teams not even near the conference that are having to now deal with players with agents and I’ve gone from coaching kids with pure love for the game to adults now taking their kids to expensive one-to-ones before they’ve turned five with Instagram profiles for their beloved children in hope of living their own dreams through the eyes of their children and earning the salaries that they can’t. The whole game is truly fucked, yet, I’ll go to some of these non league games where the money is evident but the quality is much higher than ten years ago and you can stand next to the pitch with a pint in your hand, no VAR and discussing shot decisions rather and forgetting about them rather than seeing multiple people look at the same thing twice or three times and still rule incorrectly in what can only be deemed as pre-mediated - it’s the closest thing remaining in my opinion to actual game that we all know.

The football and general sporting world is extremely bleak as it stands in front of us, but fortunately for us I believe that football is too much to fall victim to the same problem as other sports and if it does I truly believe that we will stand up as fans not to be a part of any such future regime, even if other clubs accept it and break away one would hope we stand our ground and maybe we see a game closer to what we expect in England, yes it might not be as rich, yes we might not have “world class players” but we’d have something and take part in something that resembles a game we genuinely appreciate.

[B0151?]

For me nothing will ever come close to football. Such a beautiful game. From playing to watching even a Sunday league game to following a team. And as exhausting as the drama can be at times, I actually love having something that keeps me occupied almost all year round, the good and the bad, something you can just have a chat about to many people (at least in Liverpool, a football mad city). Definitely would leave a huge void so I understand that !  It's why I could never or even want to.

In terms of the way the game has gone...  The huge commercialism etc. There's pluses and minuses. Hooliganism has been reduced to a fraction of the levels that there once was, as has racism at matches.  Going to the match for the most part a safe experience, fairly family friendly experience. It's easier to follow your team than ever and watch the matches even if you can't get to the game. Easier also to feel like part of a community also even if you are many miles away.. But I would never argue against the minuses in this thread as I completely get it. Just my pov.

[GreatEx]

Aussie Rules is appealing to me now. Used to watch it for a while years ago. What happens when the season ends? Like if I wanted to watch it are there lower leagues or tournaments to see so I can to get my fix? I suppose I might be able to watch this season from the start in order to be ready for next?

There's the women's league, I think that starts in January or thereabouts, but generally no, it's footy in winter cricket in summer for the most part. A little time away is good for the soul.

[Solomon Grundy]

Social media has damaged football just as much as money. Especially Twitter. It's not coming back from this.

[Egyptian36]

I only watch Liverpool games thanks to Klopp and some highlights now and then. I didn't even watch the CL final last season, lost interest at watching other games since the football authorities in England allowed the rich to ruin football and do whatever they want.

[AlphaDelta]

I don't know if its because of where I live and grew up (Liverpool), but I think football is a massive part of my life, every single day. I watch it, I talk about it with friends, colleagues, strangers in pubs, taxi drivers, we all have this common connection, the game.
I have wondered if I grew up in a town or village which had rugby or cricket as the primary sport, would things be different? I don't know.

I think a good thing for me personally is, I have another hobby that I am passionate about so if football is getting me down I can throw myself into that, and vice versa.

[Cusamano]

its all cyclical

This bubble we are in wont last forever 

[Black Bull Nova]

I only watch Liverpool games thanks to Klopp and some highlights now and then. I didn't even watch the CL final last season, lost interest at watching other games since the football authorities in England allowed the rich to ruin football and do whatever they want.

Pretty much there as well, I will watch MoTD on fast forward and, aside from LFC games, avoid most, missed my first world cup in memory last year and avoid England games (despite this being far less infected by cash) because of the fans. I have an alternative so I am lucky. Actually interesting watching EFL as it's a bit more like football as it used to be although still only occasional as the same attitudes that pollute footballers have filtered down (or up) and exist at all levels in football culture from PL to park football.


Watching football is like a drug habit, you are hooked in as a child, in my case a long time ago when things were very different. You choose your drug of choice (which, as blues know, is a lifelong choice for most, whatever the consequences) and then the drugs gets watered down, polluted, more expensive etc as the dealers get greedier. Trouble is you are hooked and it's hard to kick. Missing the world cup was a bit cold turkey although easier than I thought given the drug is now weaker than it was because of the watering down. I'm probably at the methadone stage right now.

[Rich]

I got a bit disillusioned by the direction modern top level football has gone.  About the only thing I still really love is European aways with mates.

I used to love going to every single game but controversially I don't really like what Anfield has become / is becoming.  I know its essential if they want to be a big player in the modern game but it just doesn't really align with how I view Liverpool.  The whole place just feels so commercial and 'clean'... I liked working class and no frills. When the whole point of the stadium was about watching a football match.

With that, I've started going to lower league football games; it's not the same obviously but it feels a little more relatable.  Plus, there isn't any social media or hype in between games

[Black Bull Nova]

Yup, including getting there early (and not for refreshments)

[Jookie]

I did about 4 months last season when I didn't hardly watch a Liverpool game. That culminated in my not watching 1 minute of the World Cup in Qatar. My missus still watched football so I got to see some football but not Liverpool games.

I missed the actual Liverpool games but didn't miss the noise around football. The constant analysis, the constant transfer noise, the constant over analysis by fans of everything the club does, the constant worrying about finances and what clubs are spending etc..

It's hard not to be dragged back in. It's alos hard just to engage in watching games and not all the other stuff. It's almost a trickle effect. You look at a few things to see news on a transfers and it's almost like a black hole that drags you in.

In the last 5-10 years, the biggest drains on my enthusiasm for watching Liverpool and PL/CL football have been:

1) increased influx of funding for sportswashing purposes (and the likely bending of rules to do so)

2) through social media the realisation that large proportion of our global fanbase (including some locals) don't really care about the culture of the club, the city it's from, the history of the club etc.. The be all and end all is winning trophies and not else matters. The journey, what the club stands for, what the supporter base stands for and against. Not of that really matters. Just winning.

In the past I always felt it was Liverpool FC versus the world. That we were a collective, that shared a culture, principles and goals that whilst rooted in the city the club represents was embraced by our global fanbase. Even when we were rubbish in the 90's that was still there. It was definitely present in the CL run in 2004/05. A bit like after Istanbul, in recemt years we've seen a surge, that is now more obvious due to social media, of fans who have either forgotten those core principles or have never embraced or even considered them as part of supporting Liverpool.

This will come off as sounding a bit like an old man shouting at the clouds - the 'it was better in my day' type narrative. There's aspects of football that are so much better now. It's just spoilt a bit by how it's become a 24/7 365 days of the year media circus that has worn me down in parallel with the sportwashing aspects skewing the landscape considerably.

[Red Beret]

I didn't really know where to put this as it wasn't really suitable for most threads and would be quickly lost in the transfer thread. It's just a tin foil hat rambling and isn't true at all - but the fact it even popped into my head is, I think, emblematic of where football is right now.

The rumours of Saudi targeting Ali are, of course, BS. But then I had this vision of Saudi clubs making offers for our players that they or us couldn't refuse; and then on the flip side I saw sportswashers hoovering up elite talent - sometimes even only potential elite talent - on long contracts and wages that we can't possibly hope to match.

And then it popped into my head: having good money to spend on players is pointless if we can't spend the money. And if we can't realistically compete for the top talent, we tend to hold onto our money. It's as if our own business model was being weaponised against us.

When you see the basket case club that is Chelsea, treating signings and even potential signings with such contempt, and yet players are still willing to join them? Then it seems to me that no matter how good the player is, he's happy to cash in his career now. Money matters more than memories.

I'm sure they will make memories - eventually these clubs will stumble across something that works, a team that clicks. But for us... we're left to face the prospect of paying stupid money for scraps. A world where a Ricky Lambert would cost £35m.

At some point, we will give up. We'll except top eight because we've been relentlessly priced out of the market, and the risk to reward ratio becomes unsustainable. It's all very bleak and looks set to get bleaker.


I don't know if we're being deliberately targeted, but I do know most rival fans won't miss us, and revel in our misfortune. Turning LFC into a punchbag seems to be a pretty sure fire way of getting on the good side of a lot of people in the game.

It's beyond banter; it's hate. And I don't have any time for it. After Klopp, I don't know what I might do.

[Jookie]

At some point, we will give up. We'll except top eight because we've been relentlessly priced out of the market, and the risk to reward ratio becomes unsustainable. It's all very bleak and looks set to get bleaker.

I agree with a lot of what you have said.

On the point quoted above I have similar feelings. I do wonder though if supporters of clubs outside the traditional Top 6 would just say this is what they have been experiencing over the last 20 years. A more gradual realisation that if you are not in a bracket of clubs with financial power then being successful is difficult. Or what you define as success needs to be changed.

Whilst I think the current football financial situation is changing rapidly by the spending of Saudi League and a few other clubs, it's not quite at the stage where I feel Liverpool will need to re-assess their goals and aims on a more permanent basis. It's possible though. Maybe Top 6 will become our goal. Maybe it won't.

I do wonder what would happen if that was the case. Most football fans who go to games support clubs who have either won nothing or only had fleeting success. How do these supporters enjoy football? Why do they continually go and invest time and money if the chance of 'success' is small? In a doomsday scenario for Liverpool, where Top 8 finishes become the height of our ambition, would we still retain the global fanbase? Would local supporters (and others) lose interest in going the game?

[PIPA23]

Money can buy players that is true, even coaches... but it can not buy traditions, fans, atmosphere...

I will never watch the Saudi Arabia League.

[Red Beret]

I do wonder what would happen if that was the case. Most football fans who go to games support clubs who have either won nothing or only had fleeting success. How do these supporters enjoy football? Why do they continually go and invest time and money if the chance of 'success' is small? In a doomsday scenario for Liverpool, where Top 8 finishes become the height of our ambition, would we still retain the global fanbase? Would local supporters (and others) lose interest in going the game?

Well if you're an Everton fan, not at all seemingly. They revel in Chelsea snatching Lavia at our expense, and I think that's where football is going now. It's not about winning - it's about watching others fail so you can point and laugh and distract yourself from how your own team is doing.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: I'd be happy to see the football league bin off PL promotion and reorganise itself back into four smaller leagues, and I would love it if we said, "fuck this shit", quit the PL and dropped down.

We wouldn't be top tier earning millions, but it would be competitive and exciting again. We could enjoy the thrill of winning stuff whilst not having to bother with the collective media circle jerk over blood soaked clubs buying trophy after trophy.

It's not about being a big fish in a small pond. I just want to get away from the stink of this corrupting money.

[Mr Grieves]

Most football fans who go to games support clubs who have either won nothing or only had fleeting success. How do these supporters enjoy football? Why do they continually go and invest time and money if the chance of 'success' is small? In a doomsday scenario for Liverpool, where Top 8 finishes become the height of our ambition, would we still retain the global fanbase? Would local supporters (and others) lose interest in going the game?

Fans of the lower league clubs can probably stand / sit together with their mates at the match  a luxury which we can only dream about - should we fortunate enough to get a ticket in the first place.

[Yorkykopite]

Football's simply too good to walk away from. It's a great game to play and a great game to follow. In terms of skill it gets better and better. I sometimes wonder what my dad - a huge follower of football who died many years ago - would have thought of the pace and intricacy of today's game. He'd be amazed and enthralled.

But I also find myself nodding at practically all the criticisms that have been levelled at the sport above. That's the paradox. That's the tragedy. There are so many reasons to give it up and maintaining one's self-respect is difficult if you ignore them all. And yet....

...My life would be emptier without it. Many, if not most, of my friendships would lose a dimension if I obstinately turned my back on the game. 

And I like following Liverpool. I simply cannot imagine a situation - short of severe dementia - where I'm alive and uninterested in how we fare.

[Son of Spion]

Football's simply too good to walk away from. It's a great game to play and a great game to follow. In terms of skill it gets better and better. I sometimes wonder what my dad - a huge follower of football who died many years ago - would have thought of the pace and intricacy of today's game. He'd be amazed and enthralled...

This is something I think about too. There is so much about the modern game to loathe. We all know what those things are, so no point listing them all again. But if we could somehow strip all that away, a lot of the football is actually sensational. I remember the last time I had a ticket for a seat right by the touchline, and seeing the play close up, the skill and the speed of thought and execution of movement is stunning.

In its purest form, removed from the bullshit circus that surrounds it, the football on show from teams like ours is simply stunning. That is difficult to leave behind, although the circus that drains the soul from the game is so very easy to want to leave behind.

[GreatEx]

I agree with everything Yorky says above, and should caveat my unrequited desire to bin football with the sad fact that football has become a mostly solitary and online pursuit for me since returning to Australia, then moving away from the suburb where I played a couple of seasons, then having kids, etc. If I was still meeting the gang at the pub to watch nearly every match, there's no way I'd give that up even if we were rebranded as the Riyadh Reds.

[Black Bull Nova]

Football's simply too good to walk away from. It's a great game to play and a great game to follow. In terms of skill it gets better and better. I sometimes wonder what my dad - a huge follower of football who died many years ago - would have thought of the pace and intricacy of today's game. He'd be amazed and enthralled.

But I also find myself nodding at practically all the criticisms that have been levelled at the sport above. That's the paradox. That's the tragedy. There are so many reasons to give it up and maintaining one's self-respect is difficult if you ignore them all. And yet....

...My life would be emptier without it. Many, if not most, of my friendships would lose a dimension if I obstinately turned my back on the game. 

And I like following Liverpool. I simply cannot imagine a situation - short of severe dementia - where I'm alive and uninterested in how we fare.

Yup, football itself there is nothing wrong with, more than enjoyable when it tunes with yourself. More important that you don't walk away with your own principles. As long as LFC don't cross the big lines then I can stay in touch with football at the very highest level, as others have said, if that is not possible there are levels you can find where you can stay in touch with reality.
I feel quite sorry for those principled Newcastle fans who had to re-think things whilst all they have ever wanted is coming true in front of their eyes

[Indomitable_Carp]

I am in a very weird place with football right now. There is so much I hate about it, and it's even impacting on my love for LFC.

The digusting amounts of money, the complete lack of financial regulation, the distortion of competition, the footballing authorities that don't even pretend to care about fans, the expense, the difficulty of getting tickets, the commercialisation of everything, the distance between fans and super star players who are happy to gobble up Saudi money at the first flash of ankle, twitter armies, general internet fandom and all the hangers on.

Football is so far from all the stories I grew up with of football from a bygone era, and even though I was brought up with commericalisation it had not hit anywhere near the heights it is now at. The Saudi thing feels like a real nail in the coffin - to the extent I didn't even bother watching our first game of the season for the first time ever.

I live abroad now and even though it's always said with the best of intentions, I despair whenever anyone tells me they HAVE to go to Anfield once in their life. I just think one more tourist taking up a seat for crazy money expecting to be entertained by some mythical atmosphere that won't materialise, and LFC one step further away from the city that made it. Maybe that's unfair - but it's just the way I feel.

All that said, I know I'll get sucked back into watching us this season. Part of my distance from football is that I am now geographically distant from my mates, family and footballing routines. I know as soon as I visit home I'll be desperate to get to a pub to watch the football - maybe even scratch a ticket from somewhere if there's one going. The sport itself is still as exciting as ever, even if the romance is dead.

Aussie Rules is appealing to me now. Used to watch it for a while years ago. What happens when the season ends? Like if I wanted to watch it are there lower leagues or tournaments to see so I can to get my fix? I suppose I might be able to watch this season from the start in order to be ready for next?

I spent a year in Melbourne and used to love going to the Aussie Rules. But what really sold it for me is when me and my mate, on a spur-of-the-moment decision, stopped off at the MCG on the way home from work to watch one of the playoff finals. Hawthorn-Geelong, AUS$20 in, bought the tickets on the door for a packed-out 100,000 strong MCG with a great atmosphere (amazing game too with a last minute winner).

There was a time when you could do that for top flight English football, but those days are long gone and I never got to experience them.



Edit: Just saw this post:

I agree with everything Yorky says above, and should caveat my unrequited desire to bin football with the sad fact that football has become a mostly solitary and online pursuit for me since returning to Australia, then moving away from the suburb where I played a couple of seasons, then having kids, etc. If I was still meeting the gang at the pub to watch nearly every match, there's no way I'd give that up even if we were rebranded as the Riyadh Reds.

This has also been my experience since departing for Spain.

[Only Me]

The game is fucked.

Name another sport where cheating/playacting on the pitch has become so endemic that nobody even mentions that its quite weird when a grown man, who is also a highly trained athlete, can experience so much pain from a minor collision that he has to writhe around on the ground screaming.

His injuries are apparently so significant, that the only known cure is for one of his mates to kick the ball out of play. Miraculously, he will then recover completely, although he will of course have to wince and limp a bit when he takes his first two steps after getting up. Thereafter, he is able to run around again like a spring chicken.

His manager will consider that his player was "entitled" to fall over because he "felt contact".

Fans will scream for a yellow card. Unless it happens to a "cheating bastard" on the other team.

Then they bring in a concussion protocol, which is immediately used as another way of cheating. "Oh my team's under pressure and holding on to a one nil, so all I have to do is collapse after a routine header and the game will stop for five mins while they examine me. Best thing is they wont even make me go off the pitch to have a doctor examine me like they do in every other sport in the world, because they all know there's nothing actually wrong with me".

Fans will scream for a yellow card. Unless it happens to a "good honest defender" on their team.

Then there's:

The cost
The inept officiating
The corrupt administrators
The billionaire and/or despotic owners
The obscene wages
The sports washing
The modern day football fan, and his love of all things bantz.
The football punditry circus [life is far, far too fucking short]
The kick off times

Other than that its boss.

I turned by back on it all during H&G. Haven't spent a single penny on the club since. Dont miss it, and have saved myself thousands of pounds, which I've used to buy stuff and experiences which make me happy in the way that footy used to.

Don't even go out me way to watch on the telly now. Made us all a nice roast dinner on Sunday when the Chelsea game was on. Genuinely wasn't arsed. The powers that be have let certain clubs run roughshod over the rules, and without a level[ish] playing field, sport becomes pointless because there's no competitive element if teams are able to simply ignore the financial rules and win everything.

Its a shame because Liverpool was a massive thing in my life for many years, and a source of huge pride that my team from my city was one that everyone else was jealous of. And we did it all when the financial playing field was level. That's why we never won everything every season. And that was ok.

Bottom line is that football is now as boring and predictable as it is depressing and dishonest.

I'll never go back to watching.

[ShatnersBassoon]

i think i will always follow liverpool, it seems impossible to break that connection entirely. but ive shut out almost all of the surrounding noise for a while now. i pretty much only watch our games. i dont have commentary on. i dont pay attention to other fans, media etc. i follow the wider sport in a more results and news sense, rather than peoples opinions.

theres just so much toxic shit surrounding it all. and the greed is just nauseating. when i was living in the uk 5+ years ago i was already being priced out of going to most matches.

moving to north america i got into baseball. can go to games for under $20. its super chill and no toxicity at all. and it suits my statistical nerd side

[koptommy93]

I'm massively disheartened with the way football is headed, but going to Anfield is still my favourite thing in the world to do. When Liverpool score I still lose myself in the joy of it. Pretty much everything outside of the matches depresses me but the game itself I am hopelessly enthralled with just as when I was a kid.  I'm choosing to believe there will be a point where the oil states etc lose interest, probably just a coping mechanism but I need something to hold on to.

[mikeb58]

The game is fucked.

Name another sport where cheating/playacting on the pitch has become so endemic that nobody even mentions that its quite weird when a grown man, who is also a highly trained athlete, can experience so much pain from a minor collision that he has to writhe around on the ground screaming.

His injuries are apparently so significant, that the only known cure is for one of his mates to kick the ball out of play. Miraculously, he will then recover completely, although he will of course have to wince and limp a bit when he takes his first two steps after getting up. Thereafter, he is able to run around again like a spring chicken.

His manager will consider that his player was "entitled" to fall over because he "felt contact".

Fans will scream for a yellow card. Unless it happens to a "cheating bastard" on the other team.

Then they bring in a concussion protocol, which is immediately used as another way of cheating. "Oh my team's under pressure and holding on to a one nil, so all I have to do is collapse after a routine header and the game will stop for five mins while they examine me. Best thing is they wont even make me go off the pitch to have a doctor examine me like they do in every other sport in the world, because they all know there's nothing actually wrong with me".

Fans will scream for a yellow card. Unless it happens to a "good honest defender" on their team.

Then there's:

The cost
The inept officiating
The corrupt administrators
The billionaire and/or despotic owners
The obscene wages
The sports washing
The modern day football fan, and his love of all things bantz.
The football punditry circus [life is far, far too fucking short]
The kick off times

Other than that its boss.

I turned by back on it all during H&G. Haven't spent a single penny on the club since. Dont miss it, and have saved myself thousands of pounds, which I've used to buy stuff and experiences which make me happy in the way that footy used to.

Don't even go out me way to watch on the telly now. Made us all a nice roast dinner on Sunday when the Chelsea game was on. Genuinely wasn't arsed. The powers that be have let certain clubs run roughshod over the rules, and without a level[ish] playing field, sport becomes pointless because there's no competitive element if teams are able to simply ignore the financial rules and win everything.

Its a shame because Liverpool was a massive thing in my life for many years, and a source of huge pride that my team from my city was one that everyone else was jealous of. And we did it all when the financial playing field was level. That's why we never won everything every season. And that was ok.

Bottom line is that football is now as boring and predictable as it is depressing and dishonest.

I'll never go back to watching.

Wow...love every word of this post, agree with it all. The cheating and playacting on the pitch is embarrassing, I'd be ashamed to say I parted with good money to watch that unpunished shite week in week out...seriously why bother, then moan about it (during or after) the event!

Too many dislikable players these days, po faced petulant, shithouse wind up merchants.

The on pitch antics are an accepted (even applauded) part and parcel of the game now...football has now  become a farcical laughing stock of a sport now.

[Agent99]

Really good post.

[meady1981]

Despise banter, Twitter, Sky, BT sport, Neville, Carragher, Fan TV, Paddy Power, GOAT, Penaldo, Saudi, VAR, Fantasy football, BEST XI, Pre game, half time, post game, Talk Sport, owners, XG, transfers, heat maps, stats, digital advertising boards, seats, wools, replica tops, concourse filming, 3rd kits, streamers, bloggers, vloggers, YouTube, sportswashing, Simon Jordan, Rio, Mcmanaman, retro kits, Matterface, spread bets, gambling, time wasting, FIFA, Infantino, net spend, FFP, contracts, tactical fouls and on and on and on.

Winning the league was both exhilarating and depressing for me. I realised I’d been obsessed with doing it for 30 years and when it was over I just felt flat because I realised how distant I was from the game. I didn’t particularly enjoy the ‘quadruple’ season.

I can not wait for Klopp to leave because that will be that for me. Well I hope it will be. And I’m only 41.

I watched a clip of Bergkamps goal against Argentina at France 98 the other day. Beautiful football, played in beautiful kits, with Barry Davies commentating over it. The perfection nearly made me shed a tear for what we’ve lost.

[Riquende]

Winning the league was both exhilarating and depressing for me. I realised I’d been obsessed with doing it for 30 years and when it was over I just felt flat because I realised how distant I was from the game. I didn’t particularly enjoy the ‘quadruple’ season.

I can not wait for Klopp to leave because that will be that for me. Well I hope it will be. And I’m only 41.

I've just turned 42 and had very similar feelings about the league win, and agree with the rest of it. I've never been sure if it was the unique circumstances of the Covid season but the joy wore off quite quickly and I've been pretty disengaged since, with pretty much all of it. The direction of travel is set with football and it's not somewhere I want to go, yes you can find a local lower league club to adopt but ultimately it's all still part of the same ecosystem and the teams and players are trying to get themselves up into the level you've tried to leave behind.

[mullyred94]

I'm enjoying Aussie Rules (AFL) way more than PL/CL football these days. Fast, skillful, tough, and way less fucking around. Regional, and thus free from sportswashing and hypercapitalism. Season ends in 7 weeks so I guess I will watch a bit more football after that.

I'm Aussie and its the other way around lol

AFL was in its peak in the 90s-00s for me.