50 Worst Things About Modern Football

gerd said:
You have to blame the FA, UEFA and FIFA. They should guarantee fair competition but they don't (although since Platini is at the helm, it seems he's trying to make a more fair competition).
My single main gripe with football is that the big clubs do everything they can to make the most unpredictable game predictable.. and that they come away with it because the bobo's (the suits) let them...
I've already said it a thousand times (sorry): FIFA and UEfa should learn from the big American sports... a huge club like Ajax doesn't have achance to win the CL. That is a disaster for football in the long term.
I prefer a sort of pan European super league with (for example) 64 clubs (or 40) with salary cap, a draft system like in the USA than what is now the case.
In my system clubs like for example Stoke City, Siena, Valenciennes, Cottbus, Gijon and others will disappear (which would be a shame) but between the reamining clubs ther ewould be a fair and attractive competition. Now we know which teams dominate the big competitions:

Man Utd
Milan or Inter
Barcelona or Real Madrid
Lyon
Bayern Munchen

Add Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus and maybe As Roma and you got the teams who will win the CL...
That is not good...
It would be intersting to do a poll about the favourite (English) club of the evo-web members...i'm pretty sure at least 75% of the members support one of the big four teams...
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i don't think Platini is trying to make it fair, it's clear he hates England and is so obviously racist against the English i can't understand how he got the job in the first place.

(read this: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/colum...nd-fa-must-challenge-him-now-115875-21139704/ )

As for the reasoning behind the shear amount of glory hunters i don't think it's 100% correct either, i mean, over the past 50-60 years there haven't been that many clubs who won the leagues and the big tournaments, in the 70s and 80s it was Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Leeds who were the big 4 the rest of the league still sold out every week, in the 90s the Premier League came along and the amount of games being televised as increased every season since then.

So now people all over the world can watch the Premier League, and as the top 4 are more televised than the rest, people from miles away decide that they'd rather pick a team that means nothing to them personally but who are successful because they can sit on their arse wearing the replica shirt at home and call themselves a supporter, rather than supporting their less successful local team and going the match regularly to show their support.

I'm sorry if i've offended some glory hunters but i'm old fashioned, i've always lived less than a 5 minute walk away from Anfield and i couldn't imagine supporting Chelsea or Arsenal simply because they were winning, or United because they were successful when i was a kid, i supported Liverpool one because they are my local side and two because my dad and brother support them and brought me up on the tradition and history of the club, just like i have started doing with my son.
 
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The thing is mate, living in Liverpool is very different to living in say somewhere in the home counties where there are either no local teams to watch or no nearby league team. I doubt there are many people in your area who support United or Chelsea (maybe a few young kids), why would they when they have a choice of 2 top 10 Premiership teams plus a few other league teams? Same in Manchester, most people support City or United not Arsenal or Chelsea.

Also, some people will support a Premier league club and still go to watch there local team. It's nice to be able to follow your team online and on TV to keep up with the latest news etc as well as going to matches. That's England, now imagine living in Malaysia for example where the league is of a much lower standard and they get our Big Four in their faces all the time, they're bound to be attracted.

And that article is a load of shite. He's not got a single bit of hard evidence that Platini's a racist. The Mirror is hardly a respected news source is it? Using it to support your argument is asking for trouble really :LOL:
 
Jumbo_ said:
And that article is a load of shite. He's not got a single bit of hard evidence that Platini's a racist. The Mirror is hardly a respected news source is it? Using it to support your argument is asking for trouble really :LOL:
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I agree with that...
 
But not the rest?

Dont get me wrong, it's much better to support your local team.. I'm just saying I can see the other side of the argument and can see that the situation is very different to someone who lives in a big city compared with someone in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

Gerd - I remember reading about one of your kids supporting Chelsea and not a Belgian team and I agree this is silly but remember they are only young and kids follow what the other kids do and maybe when they are older will see the benefit of following a local team.
 
They both support foreign clubs: my son Bacelona (he loves Eto'o) and my daughter Chelsea.
I am to blame for my daughter: every sunday afternoon i watch MOTD and my daughter became fascinated with Petr Cech's helmet...she also love a black player: Drogba.

My son is a victim of the merchandising...

When i was a kid we only could see Belgian football on television. Now we hardly see any Belgian football.
 
I agree with salary cap, but draft makes to me, I mean where would they draft from? Small clubs would be forced to let their players go.

They need to add salary cap asap, I'm sure it will balance things up.
 
Jumbo_ said:
The thing is mate, living in Liverpool is very different to living in say somewhere in the home counties where there are either no local teams to watch or no nearby league team. I doubt there are many people in your area who support United or Chelsea (maybe a few young kids), why would they when they have a choice of 2 top 10 Premiership teams plus a few other league teams? Same in Manchester, most people support City or United not Arsenal or Chelsea.

Also, some people will support a Premier league club and still go to watch there local team. It's nice to be able to follow your team online and on TV to keep up with the latest news etc as well as going to matches. That's England, now imagine living in Malaysia for example where the league is of a much lower standard and they get our Big Four in their faces all the time, they're bound to be attracted.

And that article is a load of shite. He's not got a single bit of hard evidence that Platini's a racist. The Mirror is hardly a respected news source is it? Using it to support your argument is asking for trouble really :LOL:
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no don't get me wrong i know why people in small towns with no clubs support a club they have regular access to on television. It's just when people in towns like Leeds, Nottingham, London, Sheffield, Wigan, Warrington, Chester etc. etc. choose to support a top Prem side rather than their local team. There are literally thousands of Liverpool and United fans in London and that is ridiculous imo.


and as for the article, fair enough the Mirror's not a respectable paper like the Indepenant but Brian Reade is a respectable journalist and is honest and to the point. I believe a lot of what he said shows Platini to be very much against the English leagues. So you don't think his attitudes over the Kaka thing were very hypocritical? He's never once had a good thing to say about English football and is constantly critical, even though we have the strongest league in the world, the man is a joke.
 
Being a glory hunter is one thing but I don't get why people associate that with supporting a team that arent local to you. A glory hunter by definition is someone who supports a team because they are successful and want to "be on the winning side". Now what if I was from London but supported a random League One side who arent doing so well? Would you still call them a glory hunter? Or what if I was born in Madeira in Portugal and supported Man Utd because they have Cristiano Ronaldo who is my home town hero? Is that more acceptable?
I don't see why a person who was born or lives in a different part of the world should be deprived of the choice to support a top team. Its not like they were able to choose where they were gonna be born.
People shouldnt be criticised for who they support, they should be questioned for why they support them. If you were born in Manchester and supported United because of their success and not City, in my eyes that makes you a much bigger glory hunter than those living on the other side of the planet.
 
Well i can understand why people get frustrated and call the fans of the big four glory hunters...all the attention goes to those big clubs and when a lesser clubs plays good football they don't get the attention they deserve.

An example.

Wednesday in the match against Wigan, West ham United scored one of the best goals i've ever seen. That goal was as good as the famous Cambiasso goal in the last world cup...it wasn't mentioned here...if one of the big clubs would have scored that goal, it would have had his own thread.

In autumn i started a thread about a superb goal of Moussa Dembélé in the Dutch competition. Most people pointed out that it was a good goal because of bad defending in a bad league...that is bullshit.

Maradonna's famous goal against England (not the hand of God) was also due to bad defending, every goal is the result of "bad defending".

Now somebody who i rate high reacted in that thread by saying that if Cristiano Ronaldo would have scored that goal against the same team, it would be considered as a great goal...
 
RuneEdge said:
Being a glory hunter is one thing but I don't get why people associate that with supporting a team that arent local to you. A glory hunter by definition is someone who supports a team because they are successful and want to "be on the winning side". Now what if I was from London but supported a random League One side who arent doing so well? Would you still call them a glory hunter? Or what if I was born in Madeira in Portugal and supported Man Utd because they have Cristiano Ronaldo who is my home town hero? Is that more acceptable?
I don't see why a person who was born or lives in a different part of the world should be deprived of the choice to support a top team. Its not like they were able to choose where they were gonna be born.
People shouldnt be criticised for who they support, they should be questioned for why they support them. If you were born in Manchester and supported United because of their success and not City, in my eyes that makes you a much bigger glory hunter than those living on the other side of the planet.
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If you're from London and support a random side that aren't doing so well, no you're not a glory hunter, but i don't see what that has to do with anything as i already defined a glory hunter as someone supporting a top 4 side that they have no connection to simply because they're a top side.

like people in England who think they're Barcelona or Madrid fans, or people in Scotland who are Man Utd fans, or people in Thailand and China who are Liverpool fans. They're not supporting them because they have a bond with the club like real supporters, they're doing it because their local team isn't a top side and they want to cling to the success.

As for the Ronaldo example, i don't really see that as being the same thing, if you support a foreign team because they have one player you like then you really need to have your head examined to check the real reasons you like football, it's not about one player (particularly that arrogant cheating cunt), it's about the team.


No offence to you, but i'm assuming you're not from Manchester and don't go to the game often, i could be wrong but that's the impression i get. Well i'm from Liverpool and i do go to the game as often as i can, and i can tell you first hand how frustrating it is to go the match and have people sat around you from all over the world who sit silently and look at you like you're a criminal because you want to sing and shout. I hate fans who go the game and sit quietly and won't contribute to the atmosphere and at the minute Anfield, Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge are full of them every week. It's really frustrating to be sat by people who think that because they spend £100 in the club shop on LFC branded dog-bowls and towels they're better fans than you. I have literally had arguments with people from Ireland in the past who had the opinion that because they spend more in the club shop on merchandise, they were better fans than me. That's the kind of attitude we have to deal with from these glory-hunting pricks.
 
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So if you are not from Liverpool you can't be a real Liverpool fan ???
Come on, give me a break...
I'm from Brussels and my favourite went bust and doesn't exist anymore. Becoming a fan of Anderlecht is not an option (that would like a Liverpool fan would support Everton or Man Utd...); so i don't have the rigth to support any teams in your opinion ????
OK...but that means that those people won't buy merchandising goods and English clubs would be much poorer.
If people from Thailand would not be interested in English football, the television riights would be much lower...
Come to think of it, i hope more people would have the same opinion as you, that would even things out...soon the best players would go to Spain and Italy and English football would no longer dominate...
Then you would only find the "real" fans at Anfield and Liverpool would be eliminated by Belgian and Dutch clubs and would never win the Cl again...if that's what you want...OK by me.

I think RuneEdge who is a Man Utd fan will also agree...soon Liverpool will be fighting relegation...

One more question: why don't you support Everton ??? They have less "fake" fans.
 
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gerd said:
So if you are not from Liverpool you can't be a real Liverpool fan ???
Come on, give me a break...
I'm from Brussels and my favourite went bust and doesn't exist anymore. Becoming a fan of Anderlecht is not an option (that would like a Liverpool fan would support Everton or Man Utd...); so i don't have the rigth to support any teams in your opinion ????
OK...but that means that those people won't buy merchandising goods and English clubs would be much poorer.
If people from Thailand would not be interested in English football, the television riights would be much lower...
Come to think of it, i hope more people would have the same opinion as you, that would even things out...soon the best players would go to Spain and Italy and English football would no longer dominate...
Then you would only find the "real" fans at Anfield and Liverpool would be eliminated by Belgian and Dutch clubs and would never win the Cl again...if that's what you want...OK by me.

I think RuneEdge who is a Man Utd fan will also agree...soon Liverpool will be fighting relegation...

One more question: why don't you support Everton ??? They have less "fake" fans.
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another person who simply doesn't get it...
 
A pan European league to make the bigger clubs even richer and fatter and pose more of a threat to international football than ever before ? Are you sure Gerd ?

Do away with clubs like Cottbus,Stoke ? Sorry but every club has its history and traditions and supporters.

Each one is precious and enlivens the fabric of the game.

Platini is nearly bad as Blatter. He still refuses to introduce technological aids and he always criticises the English clubs while other clubs on the Continent who commit similar offences escape scot free.

And he will not dare challenge the G14 and return the CL to its original format or get the smaller Eastern European league champions automatic qualification.

How many more time will it be acceptable for a team like Spain to be knocked out of a World Cup because of the linesman or Romania in Euro'96 go out to France because even though Munteanu's shot crossed the line the goal was not given ?

Its unacceptable considering all other sports are introducting technology.

Armchair fans and the invasion of fans who can afford to go but know nothing of the history of a club are ruining atmospheres ie Liverpool or my team Watford where stewards threaten to eject supporters who make excessive noise, certainly in England as is seating only.

I'm sure as in Germany controlled terracing could be re-introduced .
 
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I've seen a lot of Platini's words twisted around in the English press over the last few years. He wanted to remove the whole G14, he was successful too. He is also re-creating the prestige of winning domestic cups by giving them CL qualification. He's also trying to stop clubs exploiting youth players around Europe. These are things that need to be looked at deeply, and it will piss off big clubs.

I'm a big Platini fan.

I also think the argument about having to live around your club to be a supporter is unfair... I was born in Hong Kong to an Italian dad, but my whole family support Milan since theyre from there... does that make me any different from an Italian born Milan fan? I know just as much about the players, the tactics and the history.
 
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So to sum up UJSupanova's post, the only bond you can have with a top team is a geographical one. :CONF:
 
RuneEdge said:
So to sum up UJSupanova's post, the only bond you can have with a top team is a geographical one. :CONF:
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when did i say that you ignorant dick?

Tell me where i said that you cannot have a bond with a team that's not local?!

All i said was that there are too many people who only support a team just because they're a top side.

If any of you read back on a couple of my posts you'll see i didn't say anything like what you and gerd have twisted it into.


I never once said "if you're not from Liverpool you can't be a Liverpool fan" or anything like that.
 
gerd said:
So if you are not from Liverpool you can't be a real Liverpool fan ???
Come on, give me a break...
I'm from Brussels and my favourite went bust and doesn't exist anymore. Becoming a fan of Anderlecht is not an option (that would like a Liverpool fan would support Everton or Man Utd...); so i don't have the rigth to support any teams in your opinion ????
OK...but that means that those people won't buy merchandising goods and English clubs would be much poorer.
If people from Thailand would not be interested in English football, the television riights would be much lower...
Come to think of it, i hope more people would have the same opinion as you, that would even things out...soon the best players would go to Spain and Italy and English football would no longer dominate...
Then you would only find the "real" fans at Anfield and Liverpool would be eliminated by Belgian and Dutch clubs and would never win the Cl again...if that's what you want...OK by me.

I think RuneEdge who is a Man Utd fan will also agree...soon Liverpool will be fighting relegation...

One more question: why don't you support Everton ??? They have less "fake" fans.
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Have you ever thought about a career in journalism? Because this kind of sensationalist, over-the-top bullshit is perfect for the Daily Mail, they'd snap you up.
 
I know exactly what you said but whatever. I don't see why its bothering you so much in the first place cuz my original post wasnt even a direct response to yours.
No need to get mad and use foul language. Maybe this is why those so called "glory hunters" are looking at you like you're a criminal.
 
Simple fact is, football is a global business now selling a product. The bigger teams get the most customers because they provide better merchandise.
Maybe you are from Liverpool, Manchester or North London. Do you think the club cares? Who would they choose to sell the ticket to? A guy who just wants to go to match and sing or the guy from far away who is going to spend shit loads at the club shop?
Why should someone pay a lot of money to see shit like Bolton when they can watch great or exciting football in a huge stadium? Tickets aren't cheap these days so you want your money's worth.
What ties have someone from London got to Oasis? They should just watch their local bands.

I can see both sides of the argument and I'm pissed off that I was priced out of getting tickets a few years ago, but these 'glory hunters' money is what pays for all the great players that allow us to keep a winning team.
 
The bigger teams have engineered a situation through the Premier League and selling the rights globally which has got them to where they are.

Teams with large support such as Wolverhampton cannot even compete with a miniscule club like Wigan because of the revenue from Sky which shows how skewed the game has become.

I don't have so much a problem with overseas fans supporting a club abroad but those living in the country should support their local side instead of jumping onto a bandwagon.

I had a neigbour down the road who supported Newcastle, Watford (1998/99) , Arsenal in three different seasons. This is the sort of johnny come lately that is typical of many new fans.

And the argument re music bands is ridiculous.I mean I cannot listen to Beethoven because he is German or Shostakovich because he is Russian. A trite and fallacious argument indeed. Sport in many respects differs from any other facet of life.

Football has always traditionally been tied to the local community, but it would appear as communities here in the UK split apart that is being lost.

Regarding Liverpool there are large numbers of fans on the waiting list and they are all local unlike the visiting goons who gawp at the stadium and are often unable to participate in chants (football tourists if you will).

When the new stadium is built (shame they had to destroy a precious area of green space in Stanley Park) perhaps tickets will be cheaper so local fans can afford it.

Its a disgrace they are priced out esp.young kids.

It would be nice I reiterate if fans overseas actually supported their local sides whether it be the A-League or J-League and kept an overseas side as a team to follow. I for instance follow Internazionale and Atletico Madrid but not as a genuine fan.

Platini hopefully will enforce the rule on academies and pinching of young players and get this 6+5 rule introduced so that the bigger clubs instead particularly in England pay more emphasis on their own academies instead of scouring the world of talent hoovering it up for their own or ie Chelsea stealing kids from Leeds, Oldham , Millwall and so on.
 
The rock band argument is just as ridiculous as not being allowed to support a team from another country or city and that's the only reason I mentioned it. As you said, sport has traditionally been linked to the community, but it isn't anymore for these big clubs. It would be nice if people supported their local clubs, but they shouldn't be forced to. Blame the clubs for courting them in the first place, not the fans.

Mot sure about the 6-5 rule myself. I think it would be better for the European competitions by making the leagues more even, but I also think it would make the gap between the bigger and smaller clubs even bigger. All the best English players play for the top 5 teams and all the teams below would end up having to play Championship standard players to fill their quota. If a team like Wigan brought a good player through, the top clubs would just take them.
 
Not that I have read through all the last posts but is it not true that kids, unless their dad takes them to see his club, always end up supporting the top four or five teams or the highest ranked local side...
 
Albicelste:

I think it would be a pity if clubs like Cottbus or Stoke would disappear.
But i prefer that to the current situation. Today there are only 4 or 5 clubs who can win the Cl.

The usual suspects win their national league's.

That is not good for sports. Sports needs fair competition. There is no fair competition.

The clubs who were succesfull (not huge, but succesfull when the big boom came, will stay succesfull).

If the boom would have come ten years earlier then Man Utd would not have been successfull (Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Everton would be giants). If the boom would have come 5 or 6 years earlier then there would not be a single English club be succesfull, the Old Firm would have been bigger than English clubs...

As a huge but neutral football fan i don't think it's good for football that the difference between the Man U's, Real Madrid's, Milan's and the rest grows bigger and bigger. I would say the same thing if it was about Forest by the way...some if you know that i was avery big Man Utd fan when the boom came...

UJSupanova, i merely made the same reasoning as yours, but i think it's better to agree that we disagree. No need to start flaming. It's only football...
 
Not sure about what you said about Forest and Everton. Leeds and Sheff. Wed. were big when the boom happened and look what happened to them.
 
Leeds and Sheffield were never that big, i'm talking about Eurocup winners here...Sheffield never came even close and Leeds were big but in the '70's.

Forest won the Eurocup for Champions twice in the 80's...where was man utd then (i should know because i was big Man Utd fan then...).
 
It might not be fun seeing the same teams dominating every year but thats just the way things are. If you do well one season then you recieve the benefits in terms of revenue, which then builds the foundations for more success, and the cycle goes on and on. Teams like Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea will only be on top as long as they're succeeding. Lets say Sir Alex left in 5 years time, and the team started underachieving, they'll start to lose out on money recieved for winning competitions, which would mean fewer transfers, which then leads to the team dropping in standards and eventually dropping out of the group of "elite" teams. The way I see it is that even though top teams have such an advantage over lower teams, they're only up their because they got themselves up there. And who are we to tell them to stop succeeding and trying to progress? Are those teams supposed to hold themselves back to give the others a better chance?
Unless I'm missing something very important here (Gerd?), I don't see what the problem is.
 
gerd said:
Leeds and Sheffield were never that big, i'm talking about Eurocup winners here...Sheffield never came even close and Leeds were big but in the '70's.

Forest won the Eurocup for Champions twice in the 80's...where was man utd then (i should know because i was big Man Utd fan then...).
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Forest won the European Cup but they were never a big team really. They only won the title once. Leeds and Sheff. Wed. were bigger, so were Villa, Everton and Spurs. Even when Forest were the best in the country their crowds were shit and they got no glory hunter fans.
As for European Cup winners, you wouldn't call Steaua Bucharest or Red Star Belgrade big. Other teams that were runners up when Forest were good included Malmo, Bruge and St. Ettiene.
During that time, United generally finished in the top 4 or so, so would have qualified for the CL.
 
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