ANSWERS TO OPPOSE MODERN FOOTBALL

Just putting this up to hopefully start a healthy debate, so let's all try and get our points over civilly and debate them.

There are several posts alluding to be against modern football and even Tee shirts on sale,

but what do people see as modern football,

what is it they see is wrong about it,

what would they like to see changed

and how do they see football progressing in a different direction.

There are lot's of things that piss me off such as the money involved at the very top level as opposed to spread out down the Leagues, but if you were a player, would you behave differently or would you get what you could while you could?

If the old days such as at Cardiff were that good, why were our crowds so low, was it the trouble and hostile atmosphere, was it the crap facilities, was it the poor performance of a team made up of poor players because we could not afford the wages of better ones.
Some of the few thousand there were there out of blind loyalty, some were there out of sheer habit, some were there simply for the football, no matter how shit we were, some were there for a bit of trouble or confrontation,.

I think at different times in my life, I have been there for all of the above at different times in my life, some still look for that, but they really are in the smallest of minority and it will never get back to that, those of us who lived through it can wear it as a badge of honour or even shame that we were sad enough to be there but we cannot go backwards.

Football has changed and it is now about families, facilities, advertising, even sport, things have changed and not just at our level, the rampaging do what you wanted to or could get away with days have long gone from every level of football.

You got more chance of a good square up at the racing nowadays

Modern football to me is the end off 50/50 hard but fair sliding tackles as carried out by the likes of Phil Dwyer etc .... in today's game a fair tackle from the 70's or 80's will be deemed a red card by today's bunch of strict refs and namby pamby wusses of footballers

Money the wages players get paid is obscene and this has resulted in the price of season tickets and ground admission charges going out of reach of many 'ordinary fans' which results in places like Chelsea and Highbury becoming libraries.

I have supported City over 40 years and having survived the Durban years and 3 trips to Cold Blow Lane then it is definitely blind loyalty that keeps me going however i do genuinely fear that if we get to the Premiership and start paying Premiership wages then the cost of our season ticket may stretch beyond the budget i could afford

So it's definitely the money that i am opposed to and i believe that is the curse of Modern Football

For me! The start of modern football was when we stopped using inflatable pigs bladders as footballs.
In all serious though! The only thing that bugs me about todays football is the obscene amount of wages players now demand. How players like wayne rooney can hold there clubs to ransom if they don't get there own way. The attitude of todays footballer pisses me off. Arrogant spoilt bratts most of them with little or no love for the club they play for! Oh and fekin football agents need to be brought down a peg or to. Player agents have to much power and influence for my liking

I've had a good look but I'm missing the book with a quote from Stanley Rous, I think at the time of writing, he was the head of FIFA. Anyway, the general idea of his foreword in the book is bemoaning the state that football had found itself in, and it involved a player joining Lazio for £40,000.

I wish I could find it and give you the direct quote but it says to me that the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Modern football to me is the end off 50/50 hard but fair sliding tackles as carried out by the likes of Phil Dwyer etc .... in today's game a fair tackle from the 70's or 80's will be deemed a red card by today's bunch of strict refs and namby pamby wusses of footballers

My dad used to say the same about the players in the 80's and how it wasn't the game for men that he remembered in the 50's and 60's! That's a perfect example of how "modern football" is all about perceptions.

For me, FIFA and UEFA need to clean house, both corrupt and rotten to the core and it's working its way right through football, that would be the place to start. Get people who are respected throughout the sport into the important positions.
Next up, send a delegation over to Germany and actually do something about it, it works, the national team haven't suffered and the public get a much better deal than we do over here.

That's just for starters, I could go on all day.

I think a wage limit has to be brought in. £50k/wk max for premier league and league clubs pay the whole squad what they can afford up to a % of their income. I'm glad a big club like rangers has gone bust because It's obvious clubs can't continue to operate as they are. Also how are clubs able to run up 100's of thousands pounds tax bills? No other business could, the tax man would be them after the first couple of grand was late?

For me! The start of modern football was when we stopped using inflatable pigs bladders as footballs.
In all serious though! The only thing that bugs me about todays football is the obscene amount of wages players now demand. How players like wayne rooney can hold there clubs to ransom if they don't get there own way. The attitude of todays footballer pisses me off. Arrogant spoilt bratts most of them with little or no love for the club they play for! Oh and fekin football agents need to be brought down a peg or to. Player agents have to much power and influence for my liking

Totally agree with you, but I don't have any answers how to prevent it. I think the Bosman rule seen the situation change hugely in favour of the players and they stood to make the money not the clubs.

We as fans are to blame in a big way, because most of us want success, we want the best team, we want to win every game and every title, we all have ambitions to improve and get to the very top, no matter what level you play at, don't tell me Yeovil fans don't dream sometimes that they may win the FA cup, without dreams or ambition we may as well watch some lads playing five a side in the street.

We want to have the best players, best players demand huge wages, if we can't pay them, then some one else will.
If as fans we would put up with players who couldn't earn high wages, then occasionally you may strike lucky, but those players would then demand higher wages saying how good they were, this is (and not sour grapes) how Swansea will struggle in time, their better players will always look for greener pastures as they do at every club.

to me modern football stands for:

- low passion levels
- pop&crisps fans (buy your ticket, buy the programme, eat ur crisps, clap your team, shut the f**k up (no criticism ever) and go home - see you next week) at the same time there are...
- Ultras, as they start to dominate the scenes, who are fans of themselves and dictate whats ok and whats not
- Ultra-style monotone permanent singing (not even caring about the action on the pitch)
- commercial decisions how to market the "brand" of a football club
- far too high players' wages
- far too high ticket prices
- low club identity
- new plastic grounds, far away from towns, pubs and civilisation...
- new all seater stadiums (which all look basically the same)
- kick off times to suit TV

Good question Gwyn.

I think money is the issue for me with "modern football".

Players wages are astronomical, but not through any fault of their own as football is a global business that generates billions. It's only fair that most of it goes to the players rather than the suits at the top. I just find it difficult to have much affiliation to the players now who are worlds apart from the average fan. Why should we love and respect the players when they wouldn't have the time of day for us? Why should we put our lives and money to the players when they earn in an day what I earn in year? Why should we be loyal to them when they are not loyal to us?

The olympics has hit it home to me the past few days. Young men and women putting their lives into lonely training for years. Blood, sweat and tears at 5am on a cold winter morning for one day of events. The emotion and pride on show has been a delight to watch ie Jess Ennis, Mo Farah, Gemma Gibbons, Pendleton, the rowing team. That is what sport is about.

Then this morning I tune into talksport and the debate is about RVP and Luka Modric wanting to move on to get beter wages than their 100k a week.

The more I think about the subject of this thread, the more thoroughly depressed about this sport I feel

Good question Gwyn.

There are plenty of things that I preffered back in the day such as:

3pm Saturday kick-offs
Paying on the gate
Not telling the police you have hired independant transport
Taking hundreds away on a train
Having change from a tenner when you buy a pie and a pint
Aggresive atmospheres
Knowing if you drew the big boys in the cup you would play their firxt XI not their kids
Plotting up in someones City / Town centre
Standing on the terraces
Visiting different grounds and ticking them off the list was more unique and something to be proud of, like a collection. Each one was different, not like todays souless identikits.

I could go on all day

However the root of all whats wrong with the modern game is the obscene wages paid to players, money clubs cannot afford, whilst pricing the working class man out of the game.

Theres players in League Two earning enough money to set them up for life ffs. That kind of privelage should eb reserved for the games top players.

Sadly though its gone to far to ever get it back to how it was. You cannot suddenly say the top earners in the PL can only earn 20k a week. Its just not going to happen.

Us football fans as much as we disagree with it have simply got to like it lump it. Much the same as the rebrand.

Gwyn Just read this post whilst (coincidentally) listenintening to Paul Weller....'Thats entertainment'. Thats what I believe has changed with modern football. When the Business people came in and ran clubs and forgot that this is after all an entertainment business. When I watch a game I want to come away having been ENTERTAINED!!!!!!! above all else. Even though last season can be considered to be quite successful I can't honestly say I saw many entertaining games. I remember a time when EVERY team had a character......Stan Bowles, Frank Wortington,Billy Bremner, Francis Lee etc etc etc Don't honestly see those days ever coming back whilst WINNING means everything.