Falling out of love with football (warning - miserable moaning post)

I think it might be happening to me, I look at the future of football and don't see much good.

It might be because United are shit too, but elsewhere it's just becoming hard to see the integrity in the sport, and the institutions which govern it become even more corrupt.
 
Completely with you, It’s varball now. Didn’t bother going back in for the second half. It’s over.
 
Definitely happening to me. Season ticket holder who doesn’t get to go much these days due to having started a family, and honestly, I don’t miss it all that much.

I get more enjoyment from the Caf than the once beautiful game.
 
I don’t agree that var is ruining the game.

I can’t imagine city fans thinking var is ruining the game.

It’s more likely just a coincidence that var has been introduced whilst we’re an absolute bag of s h i t to watch.

football is being ruined by Utd being terrible. Captained by a p r i c k, a petulant 85m right winger. Jonny f e c k i n Evans still playing at CB. A heavily unbalanced squad. We’ve been a graveyard for players for years and there’s no sign of it stopping.
 
Var is absolutely ruining the game. It sucks. Football is nowhere near as much fun as it used to be, we’ve been boiling the frog. It got crap slowly so we didn’t realise. It’s nothing to do with United being bad, I feel the same when watching games that have nothing to do with us. Var is a part of it but not totally responsible. The game is just boring now, no escaping it.
 
Pughnichi said:
I don’t agree that var is ruining the game.

I can’t imagine city fans thinking var is ruining the game.

It’s more likely just a coincidence that var has been introduced whilst we’re an absolute bag of s h i t to watch.

football is being ruined by Utd being terrible. Captained by a p r i c k, a petulant 85m right winger. Jonny f e c k i n Evans still playing at CB. A heavily unbalanced squad. We’ve been a graveyard for players for years and there’s no sign of it stopping.
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It’s ruining the game and my team is good. An era is over and it’s not coming back.
 
VAR has ruined the game. I said it before but my 5 year old son is obsessed with football but he doesn't celebrate a goal until he's seen it being allowed and by then the moment has dwindled.
 
Pughnichi said:
I don’t agree that var is ruining the game.

I can’t imagine city fans thinking var is ruining the game.

It’s more likely just a coincidence that var has been introduced whilst we’re an absolute bag of s h i t to watch.

football is being ruined by Utd being terrible. Captained by a p r i c k, a petulant 85m right winger. Jonny f e c k i n Evans still playing at CB. A heavily unbalanced squad. We’ve been a graveyard for players for years and there’s no sign of it stopping.
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I'm a City fan and I don't think VAR is ruining the game but I do think incompetent officiating is absolutely ruining the game. VAR has just made it more obvious and takes longer.
I don't think the fact you guys are shit and we're great affects it at all. For the 40 years I've been alive football has been getting worse and worse even though the standard of play has been getting higher and higher.

To the point where whilst it's always been about money, it is more about money. Whilst it's always been about tactics, it's more about tactics, whilst it's always had dodgy decisions, it's more about dodgy decisions. I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
 
I just want to watch Manchester United for for 5-10-15 games in a row & be entertained. The fact is we spend more than 99% of the football world so any level of competent recruitment & coaching will result in winning something so that’s secondary.

The game as a whole has been fecked for some time, when I was younger I would watch more non-United games than I do now. I find the discussions around the game more frustrating than ever, I think that leads me to stay away unless United are playing.
 
Obviously United being pretty terrible doesn’t exactly make me excited for our matches but also the way VAR technology is being used for me is ruining the sport, it’s being used for all the wrong reasons most of the time and even the people making these decisions are not consistent. You almost feel scared to celebrate a goal because it could be ruled out for the most small nitpicky thing.
 
KD6-3.7 said:
Obviously United being pretty terrible doesn’t exactly make me excited for our matches but also the way VAR technology is being used for me is ruining the sport, it’s being used for all the wrong reasons most of the time and even the people making these decisions are not consistent. You almost feel scared to celebrate a goal because it could be ruled out for the most small nitpicky thing.
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The way it was utilised today being in direct contradiction of the way it wasn’t used versus Arsenal is honestly something EtH should be staging a 5 minute rant in his presser about.
 
padr81 said:
I'm a City fan and I don't think VAR is ruining the game but I do think incompetent officiating is absolutely ruining the game. VAR has just made it more obvious and takes longer.
I don't think the fact you guys are shit and we're great affects it at all. For the 40 years I've been alive football has been getting worse and worse even though the standard of play has been getting higher and higher.

To the point where whilst it's always been about money, it is more about money. Whilst it's always been about tactics, it's more about tactics, whilst it's always had dodgy decisions, it's more about dodgy decisions. I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
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I think this sums up where I'm at pretty well.

I think a good title rivalry would help. There needs to be a team that are genuinely hateable, and not just due to being rivals.
 
padr81 said:
I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
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This right here is a massive part of it for me also.
 
United being rubbish and var being annoying don't come close as to why the sport is becoming a pain for me because I have always enjoyed football outside of United regardless of our results.

Cheaters prospering. That's the big thing for me. At least, back in the day, when it was Arsenal or Liverpool winning the league, it sucked but they genuinely earned the success. This is just blatant cheating and you can't respect that. Or invest that much into the sport outside of your own club when it gets overlooked and even championed.
 
Yagami said:
United being rubbish and var being annoying don't come close as to why the sport is becoming a pain for me because I have always enjoyed football outside of United regardless of our results.

Cheaters prospering. That's the big thing for me. At least, back in the day, when it was Arsenal or Liverpool winning the league, it sucked but they genuinely earned the success. This is just blatant cheating and you can't respect that. Or invest that much into the sport outside of your own club when it gets overlooked and even championed.
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Cheating is the big one for me too. The giant elephant makes it hard to take the wider league seriously so my interest is pretty much minimised to individual games. Which tends to go out the window when the referee makes yet another feck up. Everything else in football seems to be utterly corrupt so it becomes hard to take it in good faith that they're just inept
 
I’m in the same boat now. Can’t really be bothered about our games or any other games to be honest. Even when I do watch, I’m don’t have any emotions about any of it.

Things that are ruining it for me:
1. United being shit and the whole club rotting
2. VAR, refs and a lack of accountability over their decisions
3. State owned clubs
4. Stupid money that’s in the game (transfers, wages, agents etc)
 
Lay said:
VAR has ruined the game. I said it before but my 5 year old son is obsessed with football but he doesn't celebrate a goal until he's seen it being allowed and by then the moment has dwindled.
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With my team Leicester getting relegated I have been watching Championship football & I'm finding no VAR extremely enjoyable . I still love the game but next season could be a problem !!
 
I didn't watch the game against City. I think I'd have hated it. I watch about half of our games now.
 
jeff gurr said:
With my team Leicester getting relegated I have been watching Championship football & I'm finding no VAR extremely enjoyable . I still love the game but next season could be a problem !!
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I think I'd like to support a championship club. More surprising than the PL at least.
 
I agree with those talking about the lack of flair players, how it's more functional or robotic compared to how it once was.

Data science and analysis and it's application to football has come on leaps and bounds. It's very evident when watching.

Teams are better drilled than ever, more disciplined and they're superior tactically as a whole. Players are fitter than ever etc. Football is closer to being perfected or solved than it ever has been. It's inevitable how that will happen as time progresses. That makes it better theoretically but we've lost something as a spectacle. Chaos, unpredictability and naivety is fun!

Many of the coaches of today would be apoplectic if their side played like a 90s Fergie team. They'd probably beat that team though. The much more open 442 with big spaces in the middle of the pitch would get picked off and punished.

Us being shit doesn't help, I definitely don't see much entertainment in our performances but it's across the board really.

The funny thing is, I've started playing fantasy football this season and I've got quite into it. I'm paying a lot of attention to stats and data too now with that albeit completely different ones that would help a football team. It's helped me take a little more interest.

Maybe it is just me getting older too. I definitely heard older generations moan about how it's not the same as it once was when I was younger. My turn to be a grumpy middle aged bloke.
 
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The integrity of the sport has been eroded nothing has happened this is the result. As soon as a sport begins to lose its integrity the appeal drops hugely and this is exactly what’s happening with football. Money was chosen over everything and this is the result.

The league’s as one sided as ever, got one team which every other team in the land knows is guilty of cheating to a huge advantage and all you hear from the media is Everton should get -12 points.
 
This is the first time in 20 years that I switched off my TV before it was full-time. The first time, I was not pumped up or nervous before the derby. I also didn't feel any pain from the result (I thought it was as expected); I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
 
jeff gurr said:
With my team Leicester getting relegated I have been watching Championship football & I'm finding no VAR extremely enjoyable . I still love the game but next season could be a problem !!
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Me too. I'm finding football far more enjoyable this year. We're winning a lot more though so I'm not convinced it's just the lack of VAR
 
jeff gurr said:
With my team Leicester getting relegated I have been watching Championship football & I'm finding no VAR extremely enjoyable . I still love the game but next season could be a problem !!
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I've known a number of football fans who supported relegated sides (when Villa were down for instance), Fulham too, who enjoyed the Championship a LOT more. Said there was no point being in the Premier League when the difference between the likes of Man City and Chelsea's owners meant they could just take any of your players at any time, and you would just go there and get thrashed a few times a season. I saw their point too.

Secretly when we were down near the bottom I wondered if we wouldn't have been better off going down for a season or five - in the hope the Glazers might feck off forever. Because even we can't really compete with our neighbours unlimited funds and propensity to simply cheat in every way with impunity. I'm proper sadsack games gone nowadays though so I doubt I'm representative of anyone else.
 
For me, if I had been a dad 20-15 years ago I'd love my kid to grow up playing football and dreaming of making it to a big club, being a professional football player.

These days, having a kid, I'd actually be just great if that's not one's kid's dream. The players are shallow and out of touch with reality, the conditions they play under are insane too. Way too many games and too much pressure caused from that too. Are the kids supposed to look up to players from City and Al-Nassr now? Beckham taking a shit ton of money from Qatar? It's basically a World driven by money, algorithms for signing players and little else that made football the beautiful game. In the words of Stacie fecking Orrico: There's gotta be more to life.

And feck the cnut Gianni Infantino for doing a terrible job at FIFA too - that organisation is now a complete festering of all terrible things.

Please kids, just become educated and benefit society in a World that is burning instead would be my greatest advice.
 
I have a theory that an outrageous number of first or second goals this season have come from penalties - the goals that change shape of a match. Anyone have any idea of a good source to find that? It feels to me like so much of football now is possession for possession sake, followed by attempts to win a penalty, then the match begins.

VAR is a disaster, but as I've said before, it works a treat for those that really run football: the media. VAR decisions are the best thing to ever happen to Sky Sports, the back pages and so forth. Football tactics are hard to analyse, but getting to two tribes riled up about a slow-motion replay - that's the stuff that brings in the ad dollars.
 
Ekkie Thump said:
Me too. I'm finding football far more enjoyable this year. We're winning a lot more though so I'm not convinced it's just the lack of VAR
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The championship is a great league. I mean that with total lack of irony. I hate the premier league. I hate it with every fibre of my being. There is no point me hating it because it's not going to change. It's probably going to get WORSE, if anything. But I hate it. I hate that we were a front for Russian laundry. I hate that we are now a middle Eastern battleground. I hated their statement about Manchester city's 115 charges and the government white paper "we want to protect investment": no, cnuts, protect the GAME, that's your job. I despise VAR and believe genuinely that it is garbage on purpose: that the bosses WANT controversy, and there's nothing more convenient to stir a narrative than giving a penalty against Manchester United. All those likes and subscribes, fantastic! All toxic engagement, great for the sport!

And most of all I hate that I still give a shit. Morning rant over its time to go outside I think...
 
Oil money and VAR have put a real dampener on the sport for me.

I can handle us being shit. I'd still be around if we were relegated into the lower leagues. But I can't handle cheating, corruption and incompetent refs spoiling the very essense of what makes sport compelling; that being fair competition
 
VAR has fecked it and there are two reasons for me.

The first is consistency being applied. The penalty was so soft and incidents like that happen on a weekly basis but aren't given. We have seen other cases be given and then not the next week (Handball examples).

The second is what gets chosen for VAR use and what doesn't. It doesn't make sense to me that you apply VAR for red cards but not yellows and you apply it for other types of opportunities and not others. It needs to really be utilised for everything or nothing because these incidents that aren't looked at can still influence the outcome of a game.
 
Utd being a bit rubbish is fine. My only issue with football is VAR. Killed 75% of the fun of going to the match for what?

Made it a tv show.

Id think the same if they got every decision spot on BTW. Don't agree with those of you moaning about inconsistency, that's just another cherry of shitness on top.
 
padr81 said:
I'm a City fan and I don't think VAR is ruining the game but I do think incompetent officiating is absolutely ruining the game. VAR has just made it more obvious and takes longer.
I don't think the fact you guys are shit and we're great affects it at all. For the 40 years I've been alive football has been getting worse and worse even though the standard of play has been getting higher and higher.

To the point where whilst it's always been about money, it is more about money. Whilst it's always been about tactics, it's more about tactics, whilst it's always had dodgy decisions, it's more about dodgy decisions. I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
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Agree with all of that.
 
Definitely not feeling great about football and united right now. We left after the third goal yesterday - couldn't stand watching us any longer. People moaning in the stands about others leaving early - but it's a two-way contract, the team has to give us fecking something to go on. I'm not wasting my weekend watching some of those utter wasters try and kick a ball around.
 
Not watched us vs city or Liverpool in years. Literally on netflix when the match is on with zero motivation to watch it. I am not into pain and suffering. Just glance at the score on my phone from time to time wondering at what number it will stop. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0... at least it's not 6. Small mercies.
 
i have uncovered the direct scientific link, but football became shit the moment they got of the norks on page three in the sun.
 
I've been a supporter since the 70s and had a LMTB in the Stretford end throughout the 80s and even when we were gash in the late 80s it was still fun and exciting following United. Now I live in Wales and don't go to games very much , we are rubbish and have been for a while but the game has changed incredibly with money being at the centre of it.
I started going to watch my local Welsh League side a few years ago and it reminded me why I fell in love with football years ago, going to the game with your mates, standing and not being ripped off by the club. No Var and seeing lads give everything for the badge.
I'm still gutted after yesterday's result but we all expected it and actually feared worse.
 
padr81 said:
I'm a City fan and I don't think VAR is ruining the game but I do think incompetent officiating is absolutely ruining the game. VAR has just made it more obvious and takes longer.
I don't think the fact you guys are shit and we're great affects it at all. For the 40 years I've been alive football has been getting worse and worse even though the standard of play has been getting higher and higher.

To the point where whilst it's always been about money, it is more about money. Whilst it's always been about tactics, it's more about tactics, whilst it's always had dodgy decisions, it's more about dodgy decisions. I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
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Good post.

I have no problem with VAR, but the officials in charge have been found to be incompetent, time and time again. I would have no problem if the ref gave it in the game and the consistency applied. That incident yesterday is just completely re-reffing the game and then just dipping out whenever it happens again during the game.
 
padr81 said:
I'm a City fan and I don't think VAR is ruining the game but I do think incompetent officiating is absolutely ruining the game. VAR has just made it more obvious and takes longer.
I don't think the fact you guys are shit and we're great affects it at all. For the 40 years I've been alive football has been getting worse and worse even though the standard of play has been getting higher and higher.

To the point where whilst it's always been about money, it is more about money. Whilst it's always been about tactics, it's more about tactics, whilst it's always had dodgy decisions, it's more about dodgy decisions. I also think there's a more toxic element to fans brought on by increased coverage, over analysis and social media allowing people to spout all kinds of shite unpunished.
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Now that I think about it yeah this sums it up pretty nicely.
 
I wouldn’t say I’m out of love with the game but I’m past caring like I used too. A bad result for United would genuinely ruined my weekend, now I expect us to be shit and just don’t care all that much.

I remember 10 years ago when the results started to dip and everyone (myself included) used to say ‘we’re too big to fail’….well the finances are completely fecked, the stadium is falling to bits and the squad is an overpaid cesspool

How to ruin one of the biggest sports ‘franchises’ on the planet in just a few years. They’ll make documentaries on our failure.
 
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