I was football mad. As a kid I was one of the few footballers in a rugby focused school. I played for years and gave my left knee to the cause. I coached school footie after school and ran matches at weekends, even though I wasn't a pe teacher. I coached girls football at school in the early 90s before it was anything like common, I even came 30th out of 1 5 million globally in one of the early telegraph fantasy league competitions, in which I was 2nd among all the Everton fans. Back then I would know most names in most squads in the top flight.
Now I've got to the point that I didn't even know it was the league Cup (or whatever an advertiser pays other people to call it) final this weekend. I couldn't tell you more than 1 players name in any other club ... in fact I think I'd struggle to do this outside of Man C & Man U and is Firminho still at the rs? I'm relegated to looking up team selection and the result of Everton games after the event - a nasty habit I would like to be able to break.
That's how little of my time and interest I invest today. The game has become a vile cesspit of corruption with clearly obvious choreographing. Its there to feed gambling markets and create brands to sell to overseas sofas so sky can collect yet more cash. The money is so flooded the market, I provably have mire in common with an opposing rs fan than I do with the millionaires who play for Everton.
Our game has been robbed by the wealthy and greedy and sold back to those who can either afford the subscription without blinking, or the hopelessly addicted. I'm not buying into it, because its not the game I grew up with, it's tedious and stagnant with endemic cheating clear from every angle. I refuse to invest interest because 1. they destroyed the historic meaning I had invested in when "football was invented by the prem in 92" and 2. I have some self respect and don't want to look like an utter mug by being taken in.
(Not reading all that.)
