Why am I falling out of love with Football?

[HV71]

I have said it many times Carborundum- you should write. Are you entering your Mills & Boon period ? Think of the money ........£££££

[Carborundum]

Are you entering your Mills & Boon period ?

A period of endlessly recycling formulaic pap for an aging and diminishing audience? 

I've been rumbled.

[KJS]

Football is no longer for the fans, after 40 years of having one this is my last season ticket and I will then follow my local team Worthing where at least VAR doesn't ruin the afternoon 😌

If it wasn't for VAR, Villa would have had a penalty in the first few minutes.

So what it is still getting it wrong even after looking at an incident for 5 minutes!!

[Twig]

Both Free Elvis H and Carborundum make important points and make them very well. I used to be able to live with the occasional refereeing decisions and I can live with VAR, although I do dislike very drawn out decisions (if a clear decision can't be reached in 2.5 mins then it's not a clear and obvious error so move on). The two things that have spoiled top flight football for me are blatant corruption and utter disregard for the loyal supporter. It's a shocking state of affairs.

[Snibbo]

And it's been going on for years:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/15/chelsea-fc-face-new-questions-over-how-roman-abramovich-funded-success


Chelsea FC face fresh questions over how its former owner Roman Abramovich funded the club's success, after leaked files revealed a string of secret payments that may have breached strict football rules, including those on "financial fair play".

Experts said the transactions, uncovered through a joint investigation by the Guardian and international partners, could lead to the Premier League imposing punishments on Chelsea, such as a deduction of points.

The files reveal a series of payments worth tens of millions of pounds over a decade, routed through offshore vehicles belonging to Abramovich. The transactions in question appear to have been for Chelsea's benefit, raising questions about whether they were declared in accounts submitted to football's governing bodies.

Beneficiaries appear to include the agent of the star player Eden Hazard, an associate of the title-winning manager Antonio Conte and Chelsea FC officials. Other payments appear to have been connected to the purchase of the players Willian and Samuel Eto'o.

The payments have come to light thanks to an international investigation known as Cyprus Confidential, a cache of 3.6m offshore records leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Germany's Paper Trail Media, which shared access with the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and other media.
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And more in the link above

[Twig]

Nothing surprises me anymore in the world of top flight football. Neither do I expect anything to be done anymore. The authorities hide behind twin fig leaves of FFP and Fit & Proper test. Both hopelessly inadequate and they know it but do nothing.

[WindyCity]

The OP raises some interesting perspective, but I suspect his spin might be much different if FFC was having a successful season, on the heels of last years' endeavor, and sitting comfortably mid table.

[Twig]

The OP raises some interesting perspective, but I suspect his spin might be much different if FFC was having a successful season, on the heels of last years' endeavor, and sitting comfortably mid table.

I take your point but I don't think it's that simple. Apart from the issue around how clubs (and FFC in particular) treat their loyal supporters, the  disillusionment stems from much wider problems. Take me for instance; my disgust at the endemic corruption amongst the top levels of football administration has been increasing for several seasons. These sort of concerns get bigger as layer upon layer of greed and mismanagement gradually build up, then there comes a sort of tipping point where the bad outweighs what we enjoy. At best I would describe myself as a loyal supporter disaffected with the sport.