Is Money Ruining The Game?

[Toffee1993]

Having been an avid football fan for many years now, I can’t help but notice how different the game is now in comparison to when I first became interested. Football has become a huge commercial money-making machine, and I, for one, believe this could be having a negative impact on our beloved game, Over the past decade we have seen clubs such as Chelsea and Man City being taken over by new billionaire foreign owners causing massive changes in these clubs and the culture of the game, from top to bottom.

I believe these people are destroying the heart and soul of these clubs. I see glory-hunting fans from all parts of the world supporting clubs like Chelsea and City who would have had little interest in them before the investments. One of my mates is a die-hard City fan; who’s supported them through the hard times, and he is embarrassed by these new supporters and thinks they are ruining not only the atmosphere at home games, but the reputation of the club. This is just one example, think about the recent antics of the Hull City owner and the takeover at Cardiff, forcing the team to now wear red instead of blue. These owners are completely disregarding club traditions, it is unacceptable.

I would be interested in hearing:
1) Your experiences with this new influx of foreign fans.
2) Whether you feel they belong, or can ever belong as true fans.
3) Whether you think money is ruining the game.

Your responses may be quoted in my study; but not to worry, any responses I use will be anonymised so they can’t be traced back to you.

Cheers.

 

[Allezfan]

"Football has now developed into a degrading commercial spectacle. Players requiring no birth or residential qualification are bought over the counter like sacks of beans. If the richest club fails to come out top of the league it must be that the directors are bad business men. There is nothing else to it.

"It is a most astonishing mystery why 40,000 people should collect on a football ground in London and shout themselves hoarse with enthusiasm for a team which labels itself Chelsea, or Arsenal, or West Ham, or Fulham, when everyone knows that these teams are almost exclusively made up of Scotchmen or Lancastrians, who have never been to Fulham or West Ham, never heard of Woolwich, never eaten a Chelsea bun! They might just as well label themselves Hampstead, or Honolulu. Where is the esprit de corps, the tribal sense, the love of one's soil, which is the very essence of sport?

"The whole game is riddled with corruption and the worst kind of shoddy commercialism, because it has ceased to be a sport, and remains only a spectacle."

Stacy Aumonier: writing in 1925. Half a century before we were born.

Want to talk about changing names? Ask Newton Heath or the Wednesday.

Want to talk about changing club colours? Ask Leeds United who only started wearing white in the 1960s.

T'was ever thus.

 

[canuckblue]

Wrong tense in the topic, if you ask me. The game's already been ruined by money.

 

[Big Doug]

its always been there but its naïve to say the gap isn't widening on a scale never seen before, yes we were the Merseyside millionaires but with some luck you can combat a team of millionaires, but what about Man City and their multi billions? their owners whose SWF has assets of £550 BILLION!

PSG owned by the state of Qatar, these guys have unlimited cash and have evolved on from the rich owners of Abramovich

 

[dholliday]

1) Your experiences with this new influx of foreign fans.
2) Whether you feel they belong, or can ever belong as true fans.

Before answering this, you first have to define "foreign fans" and "true fans".

For example:

Foreign fans = non-scouse? fans resident outside of England? Fans with English as a second language?
True fans = Season Ticket holders? Fans born into Everton due to their blue Dad? Fans with the badge as a tattoo?

 

[obc]

Your experiences with this new influx of foreign fans.

Damn foreigners. YANKS OUT!

 

[Toffee1993]

Foreigners as in supporters from outside the area of where the club is based, could be within England, could be fans from outside of England. For example, Man Utd have a large Asian following.

When I said 'true supporter' I was referring to how some fans (typically local fans) feel as though they have more of a right to support their club/attend games etc. than people from outside their community and so label themselves true fans.

The question I was asking was whether the typical white working-class fan can ever accept a fan from say China as equal and overcome racial barriers that are clearly still evident in the game

 

[dholliday]

Foreigners as in supporters from outside the area of where the club is based, could be within England, could be fans from outside of England. For example, Man Utd have a large Asian following.

When I said 'true supporter' I was referring to how some fans (typically local fans) feel as though they have more of a right to support their club/attend games etc. than people from outside their community and so label themselves true fans.

The question I was asking was whether the typical white working-class fan can ever accept a fan from say China as equal and overcome racial barriers that are clearly still evident in the game

The scouse Evertonians I've met here in Germany accepted my woolly self, the chinese blue we used to play football with, and the three german brothers who were also staunch Evertonians.

Hardly make it to live games myself, so leave that one open to the regular matchgoers.

I think we're all equal fans regardless of anything, but I'll bow to the regular matchgoing supporter in terms of understanding the local culture and team cohesion (can't beat a live full-field view when analysing your team).

 

[nsno-chris]

Money is ruining the game.

Not one person is worth a salary of £100k a week, plus bonuses and endorsements.

It's a false business that relies on one thing, TV rights which is paid by, guess who, fans. It will implode sooner or later

 

[Rook]

If the FA had a salary cap or even a soft cap like baseball and the NBA does the answer is no.

 

[ilikecheese]

I would be interested in hearing:
1) Your experiences with this new influx of foreign fans.
2) Whether you feel they belong, or can ever belong as true fans.
3) Whether you think money is ruining the game.

1. As an American, I would qualify as a foreign fan. I started supporting this club in 1984, so 'new' doesn't really fit me...unless we are doing this on a geologic timeline which would make me a zygote at best as an Everton fan.

2. As 'one of them', I defo think there are loads that belong. However, if I'm being objective, and using the sample size of GOT as my data, just in the last few months alone, we've seemed to pick up more lids than usual. Glory hunters? Probably not...more like more excited about the club than they have been in ages, and looked for a place to connect with other lids who know and love the club.

3. Money ruining the game? Hmm...that's a tough question, innit? Let's look at Citeh...I reckon their fanbase ain't complaining much about money ruining the game...or the likes of Chelski. Money hasn't ruined the game...the TV ratings don't lie. As an American, I will give two examples. We have two very successful leagues that are structured very differently in terms of money. Major League Baseball and the NFL. MLB is mostly a league of the 'haves' and have nots', it's not quite as clear at European Football, but it's about as close as we get. Deep pockets win the day 7 of 10. The NFL, however, is built on the word 'parity'...the salary cap in the NFL is very strict, and very harsh. It makes clubs make tough decisions...and in both, the worst teams always have first shot at signing the best lads coming up.

Ultimately, I am comparing Apples to Pineapples here, as the structure of those leagues are so different. Parity in in Europe seems almost like a four letter word. Why on Earth would we want plucky Everton winning the league...the horror! That general 'tude has rubbed me wrong for ages now. Why do Europeans hate an underdog? We bloody love it over here!

 

[riddick]

I would be interested in hearing:
1) Your experiences with this new influx of foreign fans.
2) Whether you feel they belong, or can ever belong as true fans.
3) Whether you think money is ruining the game.

Your responses may be quoted in my study; but not to worry, any responses I use will be anonymised so they can’t be traced back to you.

Cheers.

1) foreign as can be mate. Born and raised on Long Island(NY).
2) I know more about premiership football as a whole(hell, most of Europe too) than the vast majority. If Liverpool Everton people dont want me as a fan i could give two ****s. There wasnt a choice when i watched my first game. I sympathize about ruining football over there but I am and have been completely in this since i started(a relatively short decade+ ago).
3) Money isnt ruining, its ruined. The Premiership games i watched were awesome because it was absolutely end to end. Give the ball away? Thats fine, you'll get it back. But I will say ive never been as optimistic as i have been under Martinez(unless he signs Kenwyne ****ing Jones).

 

[degsy]

Foreigners as in supporters from outside the area of where the club is based, could be within England, could be fans from outside of England. For example, Man Utd have a large Asian following.

When I said 'true supporter' I was referring to how some fans (typically local fans) feel as though they have more of a right to support their club/attend games etc. than people from outside their community and so label themselves true fans.

The question I was asking was whether the typical white working-class fan can ever accept a fan from say China as equal and overcome racial barriers that are clearly still evident in the game

I think you're ( maybe unknowingly ) trying to get the right type pf proof / reponses to co-incide with what you already think the answer is.

money has been ruining football since the first ever brown paper envelope found it's way into a boot - so work on from there.

 

[dead_soft]

If we go on the general view, rather than just my personal opinion as to what I'd like (whether that is 3 o'clock kick offs, less speculation about wages etc) then most fans prefer it with the influx of money. They might disagree, it might go counter to everything they think they believe but more fans go to the game, more people watch it on TV, more people read and talk about it than ever before. Money has raised the actual quality of players and teams because, well, it matters more as a career and as a financially rewarding sport.

I might disagree, but on the whole, people prefer the sport with money. Even the unequal spread of money.

 

[WA Toffee]

I would say that no, money is not ruining the game. Greed is having a much bigger impact.

As an example, we have recently heard that Martinez wants to reward Coleman with a new contract in the summer which we can safely assume will give him more money. That is fine, Coleman has been immense this season and is probably not one of our top earners at the moment. I don't think anyone is going to begrudge him getting a bigger contract.

However, if Coleman had gone to the papers every second week saying that he wanted a payrise, we would probably be quite pi55ed off with him.

That is the difference