Modern football is rubbish – Here’s the proof (again) | OneFootball

Isn’t modern football great.

You know, ever since Sky Sports invented it in the early 1990s.

How did we ever manage before that?

We should all bow down and give our thanks to the football gods who delivered us to what we see today.

The thing is though, is it really all that?

Yes, we are told by the gods of football that we should look at all that money and all the brilliant players that it buys, how much better the ‘product’ is.

Hmmm, I have my doubts.

Have we all been brainwashed and actually football is anything but better now?

On Monday, I had an article published on The Mag, which seemed to go down really well.

So as a follow up to ‘Modern football is rubbish’ (read that HERE).

I now give you…

Modern football is rubbish – Here’s the proof (again)

The price on the ticket

As I said in that previous article, I started going to watch Newcastle United in the 1970s.

In the mid-1970s, when taken by my dad and other family, I know for sure that at one point it was definitely 50p to get into watch Newcastle United.

We are talking fifty years ago roughly, so of course things have gone up in price.

However, the last Premier League match the cheapest adult tickets were £50 for the Man City match, which is the starting price for ‘top’ games, whilst against ‘lesser’ PL opposition it is ‘only’ £47 for the cheapest PL tickets at SJP.

Roughly speaking, we are talking about a rise from 50p to £50 in 50 years, it now costs 100 times as much to watch Newcastle United for somebody paying for a single match.

Having done a search on what other things cost fifty years ago, I found the following from 1974:

22p for a pint of beer

7p for a can of coke

14p for a loaf of bread

10,000 average house price

Now I don’t know about you, but I am not sitting in my £1m house eating a £14 loaf of bread, washed down with a £7 can of coke. Before popping down the local to get a round of £22 a pint beers in.

Obviously some things have gone up in price more than others and yes we all have a seat now at St James’ Park if we can get in. However, how can anybody think it is a good or fair thing, that going to watch your football team is now 100 times more expensive than it was 50 years ago? Checking on the rate of inflation from 1974 to now, things on average should cost around 13 times as much now. NOT 100 times as much!

Discrimination

Linked in with the above to a large extent.

It used to be very much open for all, in terms of getting in to watch your team play. So long as you had the entrance fee, you turned up and paid your money over to the 103 year old bloke manning the turnstile and that was that.

I know technology cuts across all parts of life these days but I do think when it comes to Newcastle United and football in general, a lot of people are discriminated against, due to the technology needed. Yes, I know NUFC and other clubs will have various assistance that is offered to fans who might struggle with technology and so on. However, it often seems to me like you pretty much then need technology to access the help, or even find out that it is there!

Then even if those who struggle with technology for whatever reason, if you don’t have anybody to help, how do you even enter the match by match ticket ballots and ticket sales? If you don’t know anybody who can help and you don’t have a laptop, a smartphone and so on, how would you apply for tickets?

Whilst even if you do find a way or get help to apply, those who are more clued up when it comes to technology, still have a massive advantage. Especially when it comes to online queuing ‘cheats’…

Seven days a week

When I was a lad, or even a young man…

Newcastle United played at St James’ Park on only two days of the week.

They either kicked off at 3pm on a Saturday, or 7.30pm on a Wednesday night (some clubs had Tuesday as their nominated night for midweek matches).

Before we see 2025, this season Newcastle United will have played at home on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at numerous different timed kick-offs. Not a Friday home match scheduled as yet this season but as per previous seasons, very likely to happen, as this is one of the TV slots that gets used at times now.

As always now, everything is geared towards those who sit at home, rather than those going to the matches.

Which can’t be right.

Money

Cash is king. Look at what a success the Premier League is, we are told.

Is it really?

Yes, more and more money comes into Premier League clubs collectively every season BUT even more then gets paid out, most of it on transfer fees and wages.

Whilst at the same time ticket prices go up and up.

So how exactly do we as fans gain from all the extra money coming into football and our clubs, when we then still end up paying more and more???

Knowing too much

Heroes.

This isn’t just for football. It is all sports really and our heroes in all walks of life.

Back in the 1970s for example, you had the likes of Pele, Muhammed Ali, Steve McQueen and so on. They had an air of mystery about them and it was a massive occasion when say Ali was interviewed by Michael Parkinson back in the day.

Now we know too much. We are subjected 24/7 to every detail of every famous person’s life. Whether you like it or not!

Search online for any famous footballer, boxer, actor and you will get a million search results, or what feels like a million.

I want my heroes to have that distance, to have a bit of an air of mystery, to feel almost untouchable.

Those days are gone.

Fixture list

Yes, it is a bit linked to some of what I have said above.

However, I believe it also deserved its own slot.

In days gone by, the fixtures came out and you could plan the next year of your life.

Nowadays, when the Premier League fixtures are released in June, it is a case of ‘so what’?

You might as well just write ‘subject to change’ across your entire calendar/diary.

VAR

This is not what you think…

For me, it is a no-brainer to HAVE VAR.

My problem is with the absolute mess that the Premier League have made, when it comes to how they implemented it.

You see, back in the 1970s and 1980s, you watched football in the flesh and/or in football highlights shows, likes of Match of The Day and Shoot! Full matches live on TV were as rare as whatever, certainly for a lot of my childhood it was only the FA Cup final and England v Scotland in the home internationals that you knew for sure would be live on TV.

ON MOTD and other highlights programmes, things like mistakes on offsides were rarely, if ever highlighted, even if somebody was five or ten yards off! It just wasn’t talked about. What was the point? Nothing you could do about it was there, other than rely on match officials with their naked eye on the pitch.

Similarly, nothing was really made that much of mistakes that led to goals wrongly given, penalty decisions and no penalty decisions wrong either way, missed red card offences and so on. What could you do to help the match officials back then? Have other people watching with their naked eye, say up in the stands, then they could run down to the pitch and wave at the referee saying they thought he had got it wrong? Plus, maybe they had got it wrong with what they thought they saw with the naked eye from up in the stands!

The problem came when suddenly you couldn’t move for live football on TV and instant replays. Those of us sitting at home or in the pub, would instantly be shown that shocking mistakes had been made by the match officials, that often decided the matches.

Legions of pundits and other ‘experts’ queuing up to say how unacceptable this all was, as well as fans of every club.

It became impossible to have this go on, to have match officials allowed to make shocking mistakes every week, simply because they didn’t have the assistance of the technology that we all had watching at home or in the pub.