Has football ever been so morally bankrupt as it currently is?

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3859]

With the report into slavery in Qatar for the 2022 world cup. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/world-cup-qatar-2022-appalled-slaves-report-111532959--sow.html

 

Also with the money awash in the English game, teams not bothering to compete and just wanting constant mediocrity bypassing the wishes of the honest fans.

 

Was there ever a time football was so bad or do we look on the past with rose tinted glasses?

[Christmas Tree 4711]

No

[Gemmill 44498]

One man's slave is another man's Games Maker. You're looking at this all wrong.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Element of truth in the OP, element of rose-tinted glasses.

In the past we had widespread racism (albeit that was not exclusive to the football), hooliganism and stadiums were a lot less safe to be in.

[Tom 14011]

In other countries certainly - but England seems to be reaching an Apex of twatfullness, from The Hull City Tigers to the Cardiff Mighty Dragons or whatever with Man City inbetween.

[Christmas Tree 4711]

I suppose you could tie the opening question to society in General.

 

I was pondering yesterday how many of today's "working class" would strike like the miners and whether these days the scab would outnumber the picketer.

[Tom 14011]

They're too busy being stay at home dads the bastards

[Meenzer 15432]

It'd be easier to imagine the answer to that if we had any kind of industry of note. In Germany? They'd still strike, if they had to, but then they also have unions and rights and outdated stuff like that.

[Christmas Tree 4711]

It'd be easier to imagine the answer to that if we had any kind of industry of note. In Germany? They'd still strike.

Striking a one thing but I'm thinking of the real hardship striking the miners went through.

 

Cutting up your Barker and Stonehouse table to throw on the fire. Etc

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Football would be so much better if Chelsea and Liverpool ceased to exist.

[hostile_statue 0]

I think the answer to the OP is no. Football today is of course more money driven than ever.

 

In the past we had widespread racism (albeit that was not exclusive to the football), hooliganism and stadiums were a lot less safe to be in.

There's still racism (Russia, Italy and some other countries being the clearest examples) and hooliganism, although successful work has been done in England to remove it from the stadiums.

[Meenzer 15432]

Striking a one thing but I'm thinking of the real hardship striking the miners went through.

 

Cutting up your Barker and Stonehouse table to throw on the fire. Etc

 

Bedroom tax. It's brewing.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

I think the answer to the OP is no. Football today is of course more money driven than ever.

 

There's still racism (Russia, Italy and some other countries being the clearest examples) and hooliganism, although successful work has been done in England to remove it from the stadiums.

Agreed, I should have said I was referring to the English game really.

[PaddockLad 17124]

Football has been corrupt since the first player was paid to kick a ball. Its just the sums involved nowadays that are obscene, slightly less so than the rule changes in 1991 that have ultimately allowed the likes of Abramovic and the Qataris to come into the English game. They are just the tip of the iceberg though; think of all the fuckers who came into the game in the 90s and fuckin ruined dozens of clubs..Wimbledon, Sheff Weds, Leeds etc etc all ruined by cunts who wanted to line their own pockets.

 

Having said all that, the biggest case if corruption in the English game is undoubtedly the Hillsborough disaster which was just three years before the Premier League was formed, which sort of made the general public forget that 96 football supporters had died a short time before Murdoch ushered in the era of "a whole new ball game". You can fuckin say that again Rupert...the truth about Hillsborough only properly came out earlier this year,24 years on. Abramovich doesn't really come close tbh.

 

The Qatar slavery thing is something different, its pretty common in that part of the world for immigrant labour to be exploited to the point if death. Human rights organisations had been lobbying Fifa about this since it was announced that Qatar would be hosts yet they only act when the story that 44 Nepalese labourers have died this summer when it made the front page of the Guardian this morning. No change there then.

[trophyshy 7073]

Replace football with society.

[The Fish 10779]

Replace football with society.

Replace morally with financially

[trophyshy 7073]

Been with being.

[Meenzer 15432]

Baked beings on a buttered slice?

[Happy Face 29]

I would have thought there is much less corruption in football these days. Its a shiny glossy multi billion industry with greater scrutiny but plenty of space at the trough.

 

Brown bags in lay-bys are a thing of the past...and that would have been rife.

 

Honest small time graft back in the day I suppose. Kept quiet. Now the signing on fees and agents fees and kick backs are legitimised and out in the open it has a sourer taste.

[McFaul 35]

With the report into slavery in Qatar for the 2022 world cup. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/world-cup-qatar-2022-appalled-slaves-report-111532959--sow.html

 

Also with the money awash in the English game, teams not bothering to compete and just wanting constant mediocrity bypassing the wishes of the honest fans.

 

Was there ever a time football was so bad or do we look on the past with rose tinted glasses?

Has life?

[CleeToonFan 1]

People coming out to support any potential gay footballers, racism being singled out and reprimanded, minute instances of hooliganism, all of which end with heavily fined/arrested teams and fans. Automatic relegation to he conference meaning owners can't keep their buddies in the league no matter how badly they play and the possibility for literally anyone in the pyramid to eventually make it to the Premiership, also leading to teams like Yeovil doing the unthinkable, even if teams like Stockport conversely end up so hurt from it. A real World Cup with more national teams than the UN (plus Israel AND Palestine), women's places finally seen as on the field, the Ivory Coast national team helping end their civil war, making poor people rich, many of whom are horrible bastards, but many of whom being working class lads who have no other opportunities, a greater amount of money spent on wages, meaning these working class lads profit from the game and the rich owners can't just sit their reaping the profits (unless they're a certain bastard from Hertfordshire), refugee football, blind football and it still has a certain magic to it, unless you become a bitter cunt about football in general because of one dickhead owner.

So, yes.

Edited September 27, 2013 by CleeToonFan

[trophyshy 7073]

Paragraphs man. Twitchy.

[CleeToonFan 1]

It's like what, 2 sentences? Which isn't odd, my twitch is off the radar.

[Kitman 2204]

It's telling that our Board now quite openly state that their only objective is to stay in the PL, as if that was an end in itself. It's a manifesto for perpetual mediocrity.....and underlines what we already knew, that we have no interest at all in competing for anything other than survival from year to year. The cunts.

 

I suspect most PL clubs are the same.....no ambition beyond keeping their snout in the PL trough. We would love to be in Spurs position, yet their main ambition imo is to break into the top 4 because that's where the CL riches are. Because these days that's the definition of a successful club.....if you're not in the CL, you can't compete because of the money the CL clubs earn. Which will always make you an also ran.

 

In the meantime we watch cup games treated like training matches for second string wannabees and an exercise in avoiding injuries. No wonder the players don't give a shit and every year see our hopes pissed on usually by the third or fourth round. Why take the cups seriously, the Board doesn't, the players don't and the manager doesn't, because his focus is the league and avoiding the sack......so we're only ever competing to stay in the league against the other also rans. Where's the fucking hope?

 

I think the general hopelessness and apathy of supporters together with swingeing prices will sooner or later kill the spectacle that made the PL prime TV fodder in the first place. I think hope is the biggest underestimated currency in football and in that sense we are heading for bankruptcy, no matter how much the directors fap over the balance sheet behind closed doors.

 

In fact I wouldn't be surprised if in the future Sky use canned chants and fan footage to add atmosphere and compensate for the empty seats and dwindling support. So in answer to the OP, imo the answer is no.

[diogenes 0]

Good read this.

personally,I'm growing disenchanted with football, so I'm not sure I can look at the whole issue objectively, but I really think there is a worry for the future of the game.

sky only pays the big bucks for a 'product' (i hate that word)that people want to see.they will not pay the morally reprehensible money that they are paying to broadcast games from a half empty stadium.

and neither will the sponsors pay the dosh for a poorly attended world cup in Qatar.

ladies and gentlemen, the football south sea bubble, may be about to burst