The future of football?

[jdmufc]

Firstly lets go back 25 years and take a little peek at what football was like back then....shitty stadiums,shitty pitches,lots of drunk players,some great games but you pretty much had to go to the games as the only other way to watch a game back then was stood in the pub trying to get a view of the 22 inch tv screen that resided in a far flung corner of your local pub whilst being mesmerised by jimmy hills chin on match of the day,occasionally a FA cup game would be shown live on tv but that was it. If you wanted to read about a game back then you had to either wait till sunday morning and get the newspaper or stand around till about six o´clock on a saturday night to get the "pink".
Most clubs back then were privately owned by moderately wealthy cigar smoking scrap metal merchants.

now lets fast forward to the present day, magnificent stadiums,perfect pitches,players at the peak of physical fitness,football is everywhere and is accessible to everyone in some fashion or other,i cant get to live games anymore but i can stream games on my pc or nip down to a pub with a dodgy satellite dish from eygpt that can show the game live on a saturday afternoon. I can also read about the games now as they happen,or see the goals two minutes after they´ve scored on numerous websites.
Players now earn the kind of money that us normal people simply cannot comprehend, and with these new super rich owners coming into the sport who are prepared to spend amounts of money that is so obscene it is just beyond belief.


Now here is the whole point of this post........

How do you see football of the future?

lets fast forward another 25 years,how do you see football going??

Is this rise of the superclubs with super rich owners going to kill football or is it just going to lead it in another direction?

Could it lead football to look more like american football in the respect that there will only be a certain amount of teams left that can compete at the top level,what i mean by this (and i may be wrong here) but it seems to me that there are only about 25 teams that play american football and they are all massive franchises, the little guy sports teams just dont seem to exist in a professional capacity over in america, so could we see the likes of leagues 1, 2 and 3 completely disappearing and just being left with the "big teams".

also, could live football overprice itself to the point that people turn their backs on actually going to the match in favour of watching it on the tv/pc?

has football been over-exposed??

anyway, where do you see football in 25 years time??

 

[esmufc07]

I think that children have something to do with it.

 

[Stanley Road]

Personally i've lost a lot of interest in football and a lot of it is down to over exposure

Never thought i'd say this but i prefer the EC and the WC simply because they dont happen that often

On any give saturday i can see any PL game i want and if i find myself doing nothing i tend to zap between games

I have no interest in going to live games, 25 years ago i spent most of my dosh doing just that

 

[Stookie]

I think the working man is becoming more and more distant from football- certainly top level football. It is not a sport anymore it is a business and I cant see it changing within the next 25 years. There are pros and cons for both yesterdays and todays game, but two things that stick in throat are the cost of going to a mtach now for a bloke and his son- and the other is diving... these two need to be remedied in my opinion.

 

[jdmufc]

Personally i've lost a lot of interest in football and a lot of it is down to over exposure

Never thought i'd say this but i prefer the EC and the WC simply because they dont happen that often

On any give saturday i can see any PL game i want and if i find myself doing nothing i tend to zap between games

I have no interest in going to live games, 25 years ago i spent most of my dosh doing just that

i understand a lot of this and in some ways feel the same.

 

[Stanley Road]

For the last few years before i left England, i used to go to non league games

It was good fun and felt like a natural progression for a football fan

My old man was a big PNE fan when he was young, he can just about watch 45 minutes of football now without getting bored

 

[PTME]

I think the working man is becoming more and more distant from football- certainly top level football. It is not a sport anymore it is a business and I cant see it changing within the next 25 years. There are pros and cons for both yesterdays and todays game, but two things that stick in throat are the cost of going to a mtach now for a bloke and his son- and the other is diving... these two need to be remedied in my opinion.

Diving? feck me, on the list of modern football's problems it's not even in the top 500!

 

[jdmufc]

Diving? feck me, on the list of modern football's problems it's not even in the top 500!

aye it was a strange thing to say

 

[shaydun]

Diving? feck me, on the list of modern football's problems it's not even in the top 500!

Diving is well up there.

Fannies and thugs are ruining the sport as a spectacle.

There are other, more immediate problems. But a lot of those problems are off the pitch.

Whatever about those external forces, it's extremely worrying that the game is suffering from internal damage too (ie the players persistently cheating).

I'm struggling to think of any other sport that has cheating ingrained so deeply in its culture.

It's gone to the point where people either don't recognise the problem, or they just don't acknowledge the problem.

Either way, it's bad news.

 

[jdmufc]

Diving is well up there.

Fannies and thugs are ruining the sport as a spectacle.

There are other, more immediate problems. But a lot of those problems are off the pitch.

Whatever about those external forces, it's extremely worrying that the game is suffering from internal damage too (ie the players persistently cheating).

I'm struggling to think of any other sport that has cheating ingrained so deeply in its culture.

It's gone to the point where people either don't recognise the problem, or they just don't acknowledge the problem.

Either way, it's bad news.

i´d say ice hockey is up there,but at least when cheating has happened they then just punch it out for five minutes like real men

 

[Stack]

The ever improving quality of artificial playing surfaces will start to have an impact in the next 25 years. More kids will learn to play the game on artificial surfaces as councils etc all over the world start to put them in as the price drops.

 

[IBleedRed]

Baseball players pumping themselves full of steroids makes diving look tame in comparison (not that I condone diving I hate it!)

 

[jojojo]

25 years ago was probably about the lowest point for my interest in football. Partly an age thing - you know the stuff: mortgage, job, family - all at their most intense. But then it all came rushing back, a second childhood really.

25 years on. I think we'll see robot players and we'll get to the match by personal flying machines. The viewing visors we'll have fitted in our baseball caps will show instant action replays of the best bits. Games will last for 6 halves for advertising break reasons (the periods will still be referred to as halves though as a matter of cultural respect). All referees will wear goggles and assistant refs will be genetically reengineered to have laser alignment systems and 4 eyes.

Or not.

More likely it will be commercialised into a high end product with maybe 16 professional teams in the UK and TV will have been overrun by internet streaming.

 

[jdmufc]

25 years ago was probably about the lowest point for my interest in football. Partly an age thing - you know the stuff: mortgage, job, family - all at their most intense. But then it all came rushing back, a second childhood really.

25 years on. I think we'll see robot players and we'll get to the match by personal flying machines. The viewing visors we'll have fitted in our baseball caps will show instant action replays of the best bits. Games will last for 6 halves for advertising break reasons (the periods will still be referred to as halves though as a matter of cultural respect). All referees will wear goggles and assistant refs will be genetically reengineered to have laser alignment systems and 4 eyes.

Or not.

More likely it will be commercialised into a high end product with maybe 16 professional teams in the UK and TV will have been overrun by internet streaming.

this i can see happening

 

[Team Brian GB]

Football as a whole in less atmospheric than it was even five to ten years ago let alone longer and I doubt where we are now is the nadir.

Even though this is England who always gets renowned support when tournaments come around it is still special.

 

[Stookie]

Diving? feck me, on the list of modern football's problems it's not even in the top 500!

Maybe not- its just something that really fecks me off- not just that but the rolling round on the floor trying to get other players booked.... I fecking hate it. I hated it when Ronnie used to do it- theres no need. Ruining the game in my opinion.

 

[shaydun]

Baseball players pumping themselves full of steroids makes diving look tame in comparison (not that I condone diving I hate it!)

Does steroid use actually impact upon the game as a spectacle? Because diving makes soccer look pathetic.

 

[kf]

Well obviously players are getting too expensive and the answer is already there in the embryonic stage...

 

[Plan M]

I blame the internet LOLz

 

[Team Brian GB]

I blame the internet LOLz

It isn't the internet, it is Sky Sports - 115 live games this season and for every season the last twenty years, live football involving premier league sides some weeks this year will be on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - the World Cup is great for having games every day but you don't want that continuously.

 

[SharkyMcShark]

Fitness (especially from a sports science angle) will increasingly play a large part in the sport

 

[oleonenumber20]

money will ruin it.

Might even see a rebel league with just the big sides or something daft.

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

Well one thing is for certain Arsenal will be the best team in the land. Their kids will have grown up.

 

[peterstorey]

You won't have to wait 25 years for that, eight or nine months should do it.

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

You won't have to wait 25 years for that, eight or nine months should do it.

Nine months? Is Arsene now impregnating women with super babies after his 16 years or younger policy seems to be baring no fruit.

 

[Team Brian GB]

As OTT as sky can be now, when they first got the rights to the premier league they would have fireworks after the game whilst playing land of hope and glory and had cheerleaders.

 

[Sam.G]

Football, like all things capitalist, is gradually becoming elitist.

If, as a club or fan, you are bereft of money, you are being left behind.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

[Team Brian GB]

The difference between football here and the major sports in the United States is ours are steeped in local folklore and have a community aspect to them - there are over 100 professional football clubs in England serving a population of fifty million in a very small landmass whilst there are 32 professional American football teams serving 300 million people over the area of a continent - the number of people over one hundred miles from the nearest NFL team is probably greater than the entire English population. As such the US is naturally suited to an armchair, fan from a distance culture as far as the professional game goes whilst each and every town in England retains their team and their direct disposal and that looks to be changing no time soon. If you look over the last ten years the conference has gone professional and the quality of the championship has much risen to make it the fifth most valuable league in Europe - not to mention the meteoric rise of the top flight.

 

[Sam.G]

If you look over the last ten years the conference has gone professional and the quality of the championship has much risen to make it the fifth most valuable league in Europe - not to mention the meteoric rise of the top flight.

What do you mean by the last sentence, Brian? The 'meteoric rise' bit.

 

[Team Brian GB]

What do you mean by the last sentence, Brian? The 'meteoric rise' bit.

How far the standing of the premier league has come in the last decade, in 2000 it was just about reaching the level of La Liga and Serie A and not just in football terms but commercial ones, whilst now the premier league is looking over it's shoulder.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

In 25 years football will be played by robots, highly paid robots who will be completely out of touch with supporters.

Not much will have changed, except for the robots of course.

 

[Sam.G]

How far the standing of the premier league has come in the last decade, in 2000 it was just about reaching the level of La Liga and Serie A and not just in football terms but commercial ones, whilst now the premier league is looking over it's shoulder.

The top flight of English football was always huge and surely had a bigger worldwide following than either of La Liga or Serie A. Maybe the top flight was slow to capitalise on it's commercial value but it's worldwide standing was always fairly prominent.

 

[Team Brian GB]

The top flight of English football was always huge and surely had a bigger worldwide following than either of La Liga or Serie A. Maybe the top flight was slow to capitalise on it's commercial value but it's worldwide standing was always fairly prominent.

Are you sure about that? Considering the strength and depth of Italian football throughout the nineties as opposed to English football coming out of the dark ages I would be surprised if the premier league was the most popular league internationally though I can imagine the big clubs were a draw to our game.

 

[Sam.G]

Are you sure about that? Considering the strength and depth of Italian football throughout the nineties as opposed to English football coming out of the dark ages I would be surprised if the premier league was the most popular league internationally though I can imagine the big clubs were a draw to our game.

English clubs got left behind to an extent when they were banned from Europe in the late 80's and it took a while to recover from that. But in terms of profile, English football was always prominent on a worldwide scale and at least the equal of the two other leagues.

The money poured into the game by the likes of Sky then enabled PL teams to compete for the very top players. And then came your man Roman and the bar was lifted again.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Are you sure about that? Considering the strength and depth of Italian football throughout the nineties as opposed to English football coming out of the dark ages I would be surprised if the premier league was the most popular league internationally though I can imagine the big clubs were a draw to our game.

I reckon the Commonwealth makes it so, at least in numbers. Hong Kong retained strong ties with English sport as no doubt many other Commonwealth countries have. The Italian diaspora really only exists in pockets of the US and Canada.

That said, I'm not sure how popular La Liga is in Central and South America, potenitally a lot of fans there.

 

[Waltraute]

I'm very pessimistic regarding the future of top-level club football as a competitive sport.

25 years from now I fear it will be purely an entertainment spectacle. Some clubs will be owned by entertainment conglomerates like Time Warner (the Glazers or Hicks & Gillett being pioneers), some will be owned by billionaires a la City, Chelsea or Inter today. Not one of them will have any kind of connection to the local community apart from providing minimum wage jobs selling fast food & flat pints in the 'matchday experience enhancing food outlet' in the ground, working in the Megastore or cleaning the toilets.

Players will change clubs at the drop of a hat, loyalty being an old, old joke. That won't stop them from kissing badges, bleating in the press about their horrible mistreatment by their former club or declaring their undying love for their current club. The less sincere the emotions, the more dramatic the 'storylines' in the press.

Terrace culture will be dead. We'll see a horribly distorted faux version of it as the 'matchday experience; what a fun day out for the family' crowd wave their plastic flags, participate in the 'tifo', or sing along to the tinned songs from the songbook provided with every ticket.

The club with the most money wins. Then they have a three hour victory ceremony including tons of confetti, fireworks, complimentary jester hats, cringeworthy speeches delivered by every single player, and Susan Boyle singing 'Jerusalem'.

We're almost, almost there. (Barcelona did everything described in the last paragraph after they won the league, barring wheeling out Susan Boyle.)

 

[EvilChuck]

I'm very pessimistic regarding the future of top-level club football as a competitive sport.

25 years from now I fear it will be purely an entertainment spectacle. Some clubs will be owned by entertainment conglomerates like Time Warner (the Glazers or Hicks & Gillett being pioneers), some will be owned by billionaires a la City, Chelsea or Inter today. Not one of them will have any kind of connection to the local community apart from providing minimum wage jobs selling fast food & flat pints in the 'matchday experience enhancing food outlet' in the ground, working in the Megastore or cleaning the toilets.

Players will change clubs at the drop of a hat, loyalty being an old, old joke. That won't stop them from kissing badges, bleating in the press about their horrible mistreatment by their former club or declaring their undying love for their current club. The less sincere the emotions, the more dramatic the 'storylines' in the press.

Terrace culture will be dead. We'll see a horribly distorted faux version of it as the 'matchday experience; what a fun day out for the family' crowd wave their plastic flags, participate in the 'tifo', or sing along to the tinned songs from the songbook provided with every ticket.

The club with the most money wins. Then they have a three hour victory ceremony including tons of confetti, fireworks, complimentary jester hats, cringeworthy speeches delivered by every single player, and Susan Boyle singing 'Jerusalem'.

We're almost, almost there. (Barcelona did everything described in the last paragraph after they won the league, barring wheeling out Susan Boyle.)

I feel exactly the same as this, except I think it'll happen alot sooner than 25 years from now

 

[Devils Advocate]

Football as a whole in less atmospheric than it was even five to ten years ago let alone longer and I doubt where we are now is the nadir.

Even though this is England who always gets renowned support when tournaments come around it is still special.

wouldnt it be mint if we did get the world cup. sadly i dont think we will and, even if we did, thanks to the f.a.'s absolutely disgraceful use of wembley i fear it wouldnt be the same as that.

1996, the last time the country was genuinely falling under a wave of optimism - tories on their way out, new labour looking like they'd be a good thing, britpop, euro 96, nothing like the military situation of the 'noughties'. oh, and cantona, fecking CANTONA

 

[Ivor Ballokov]

Football Manager 2036 will make real football redundant.

 

[Waltraute]

I feel exactly the same as this, except I think it'll happen alot sooner than 25 years from now

I agree -- we've more or less hit that stage now. The wages offered by City, the 'investiture ceremonies' over at Real, the 'Believe!' tifo, the 'Welcome to Manchester!' poster, the plastic flags at Stamford Bridge...

My point was simply that I think there is almost no chance we'll see any kind of drastic change within the forseeable future. There will always be new punters there to put bums on seats. There will always be people there buying the TV packages, no matter how many boycott or watch illegal streams.

The bubble won't burst. We're stuck in corporate hell.