RIP football.

[Justin time 182]

Football in this country has been dying slowly for many years but for me last week it drew its last breath.

It is understood that the tv rights to the premier league will increase to something like £ 10 billion for the next three years. We all know the so called big fish will want as much of that as possible and the small clubs might get a token amount.

Saturday evening even the most die hard supporter will have attended Carrow road expecting that we would lose by at least three or four. Gone are the days when you might expect an upset but those days have become as rare as hens teeth.We knew we would lose because of the expensive team that Man City had assembled and that even their bench and some kids would probably beat us.

Now we have the latest billionaire club buying their way up the league, and no I would not want that at my club, and will probably in the near future circumvent ffp in the same way that the other big clubs manage to do.

Then we have the latest fiasco at West Ham where a highly paid footballer can somehow abuse his family pets and still be seen to be backed by his club, two weeks wages to him is a spit in the ocean, other players have committed crimes , I know, and have been forgiven by their football clubs.What message does that send to up and coming youngsters in the game?

There also seems to be a worrying trend appearing that football hooliganism is on the rise again involving many youths as young as fifteen being involved. As someone who experienced this in the seventies , eighties and beyond , being attacked in Leicester, Birmingham and Millwall, I would hate to see those days return .

In some ways I wish the big six would have joined a European super league although you would then probably create another big six in the teams that were left.gone are the days when football was about the game and not a business.

So after 60 years of playing, coaching and supporting I have decided not to attend , or watch , anymore. I love my club but unfortunately I no longer love the beautiful game.

OTBC.

 

[dylanisabaddog 4,911]

Try Wroxham, Dereham or Mulbarton. 

I agree with you about the European Super League. It will happen eventually and when it does we'll get hopefully get our game back. 

I also remember the 1970's and 80's when hooligans ruined the game. It was a social problem then the same as it is now. 40 years ago the Government blamed football and they'll do the same again. 

[sgncfc 1,227]

I did try and tell anyone who cared to listen at the time that the proposed Superleague would be a "good thing". I truly can't wait for them all to go away and let us play in a proper league pyramid, with appropriate salary caps. I have zero interest in European competition or watching European/Asian/African leagues and zero interest in watching rich people's playthings.

I just wish there was some decent media coverage of the vast part of the world game which is not represented by billionaires.

[Google Bot 3,273]

11 minutes ago, dylanisabaddog said:

I agree with you about the European Super League. It will happen eventually and when it does we'll get hopefully get our game back. 

It won't because transfer fee's will be artificially reduced and wages increased (See Ronaldo/Messi as examples) - This way they can control the pool of players in their favour.  Short term contracts will become more mainstream, stars can 'tour' around the biggest clubs and this will ripple down to the existing leagues.

Meaning that when a club like ourselves lose a player to a ESL club you will get **** all for it.  They're not dumb.  i.e. a player like Max Aarons would be offered 200k/week and while playing for us would be no more than a 2 year contract if it appears ESL interest exists.  

The only choice you have is to take the pittance offered, or just let his contract expire. It would be an absolute mess, and would kill the championship and below. 

What's left would be a training ground for the rich, with players out on loan with a feeder club arrangement which would establish a new elite in the existing system that can't be competed with either. 

Financial fair play should be better enforced, how we're still looking at clubs like Chelsea over 1.5 billion in debt is just ridiculous.  How in any world is that sensible?  Officials and sporting ministers should be embarrassed, trouble is there's millions that would happily watch this elite bs as neutrals.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Google Bot

[Steve White 24]

Glad to hear that someone else feels exactly as I do. Started watching in the mid 60s, Hugh Curran my early hero. Even in those days football was steered by money, continuing into the 90s when even when City were challenging in the top league players still left for a ”bigger”club. However, it is now a very uneven playing field, and I only watch out of habit rather than desire. And don’t get me started on what athletes they are nowadays - with squads of 25 players they complain about 2 games per week. Looking in my Rothmans Annual 73/74, teams like Leeds and Liverpool played 42 league games, 3rd replays in the FA cup and League Cup plus European matchens and Internationals - using about 18 players (only 1 sub then). And on ****ty pitches and players on a diet of pies, beer and cigs. Marvellous Ron!

[Son Ova Gunn 165]

I wonder if Reading or Huddersfield fans were saying the same thing last year when we turned up and smashed them with a team full of players paid for with parachute money. Or indeed if the poster felt bad about thrashing them.

footballer does something immoral and disgusting but gets away with it… not sure that’s something new

Agree about the return of hooliganism, hope it’s just a short term increase rather than any trend but still a million miles from the hay day anyone following footy for more than 30yrs would have experienced

funny how things don’t matter so much when results on the pitch are there. The massive sums of money involved in the game maybe obscene but I think the game is cleaner and less corrupt now than it’s ever been, coverage and accessibility better than ever and if the PL wasn’t the best and most exciting league in the world then why the heck does it generate so much worldwide income?

[Midlands Yellow 3,974]

13 minutes ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

I wonder if Reading or Huddersfield fans were saying the same thing last year when we turned up and smashed them with a team full of players paid for with parachute money. Or indeed if the poster felt bad about thrashing them.

footballer does something immoral and disgusting but gets away with it… not sure that’s something new

Agree about the return of hooliganism, hope it’s just a short term increase rather than any trend but still a million miles from the hay day anyone following footy for more than 30yrs would have experienced

funny how things don’t matter so much when results on the pitch are there. The massive sums of money involved in the game maybe obscene but I think the game is cleaner and less corrupt now than it’s ever been, coverage and accessibility better than ever and if the PL wasn’t the best and most exciting league in the world then why the heck does it generate so much worldwide income?

Quite right, I bet Rotherham fans love us and believe the Championship is a level playing field too. 

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,219]

Our sustainable model has only been competitively sustained by Murdoch’s millions.

Parma 

[raunds canary 215]

Sadly agree about the hooligans returning and I dare say it will get worse before it gets better. Ian culverhouse is now manager of a side local to me Kettering town. They attract crowds of around 800 at best but still have idiots who abuse away players in a disgusting way and the chairman in the past week has had to appeal for genuine fans to report a yob who threw a lighter at a visiting goalkeeper. It would be easy for every club to make it clear that anyone found guilty of throwing anything on the pitch or going on the pitch will receive a lifetime ban . The FA could also remind players to celebrate a goal with their own fans and never to leave the field of play and jump into the crowd after scoring. 

As for being able to compete the days of the bottom teams being able to suprise the big boys seem to have almost disappeared for good..I was there when a John deehan goal beat Liverpool back in 1981 . In those days u genuinely went to the ground expecting to at least give the top sides a game. Now it's wondering if it worth spending £120 + for me and my boy to attend. Much better to pick game's against teams we might beat ie had a great night at Watford.

[Justin time 182]

33 minutes ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

I wonder if Reading or Huddersfield fans were saying the same thing last year when we turned up and smashed them with a team full of players paid for with parachute money. I’ll Or indeed mii if the poster felt bad about thrashing them.

footballer does something immoral and disgusting but gets away with it… not sure that’s something new

Agree about the return of hooliganism, hope it’s just a short term increase rather than any trend but still a million miles from the hay day anyone following footy for more than 30yrs would have experienced

funny how things don’t matter so much when results on the pitch are there. The massive sums of money involved in the game maybe obscene but I think the game is cleaner and less corrupt now than it’s ever been, coverage and accessibility better than ever and if the PL wasn’t the best and most exciting league in the world then why the heck does it generate so much worldwide income?

I preferred my football competitive.

As for footballers doing something disgusting, your last point about media coverage surely exaserbates the problem. It’s not new but that does not excuse it.

[WD40 720]

I agree it’s sickening but looking at it from a Norwich perspective, doesn’t that make our club more attractive for an owner with wealth that can actually compete to get a slice of the pie? If when we go down we’ve got a much better chance of coming back up especially with more investment. 

[hogesar 9,657]

55 minutes ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

I wonder if Reading or Huddersfield fans were saying the same thing last year when we turned up and smashed them with a team full of players paid for with parachute money. Or indeed if the poster felt bad about thrashing them.

But our parachute payments derive from sporting success - in that we got promoted in the first place, without a billionaire owner with dirty money fronting it all to begin with. And with the OP's angle, the aim would be that parachute payments wouldn't be required as promotion wouldn't require you to have a wage bill of £70 million +, just to be barely competitive.

 

 

[chicken 2,624]

1 hour ago, dylanisabaddog said:

Try Wroxham, Dereham or Mulbarton. 

I agree with you about the European Super League. It will happen eventually and when it does we'll get hopefully get our game back. 

I also remember the 1970's and 80's when hooligans ruined the game. It was a social problem then the same as it is now. 40 years ago the Government blamed football and they'll do the same again. 

My experience of local football isn't hugely better to be honest.

A lot of the Ang Comb sides have teams in the Sunday Leagues as well. When I first started playing Sunday League football in and around Norwich, the vast majority of teams involved were either pub teams, teams linked to businesses and largely made up of work colleagues or village teams. What I would call proper working men's teams.

That was the late 1990's when I was 16-18.

From the perspective of a new club getting established in the Sunday league it was almost impossible. The cost was almost prohibitive. We had one of the cheapest pitches about at £50 for the game. Getting a training pitch was around £45 for an hour. Refs were £25+ travel costs. Fines for cards were something like £30 a shot.

There were incentives, you could apply for funds, but you had to meet all of these criteria to get them. The big clubs, the clubs with Ang Comb sides, already met all of the criteria so could easily get the funding. Smaller clubs, less chance.

These prices were a good 5yrs ago now, so no doubt most have gone up. It's not an easy to access game anymore. You have to have more than an hours training session, or two hours training to be able to drill and compete, or hope you can find a player who plays for an Ang Comb side without a Sunday side.

I see Wroxham are tying to get enough support together for a new club-house. Good on them, I hope they can do it. Football is not in a good way at the moment though. The Sunday League has lost a great number of sides. As I say, most of them are what would have been those teams of chaps who perhaps could only train once a week if you were lucky. Sad times, those were fun days. Up against chaps in their late 30's a bit worse for wear after boozing the night before and trying to keep up with a 16yr old who wasn't as skilful as them but was certainly nippier than their hangover would allow! 

[spencer 1970 207]

As an "occasional fan" now, its been 10+ seasons since my days of week in week out, so it doesn’t affect me as much, but I do feel your pain. Look at the 5th, 4th and 3rd finish seasons of the late 80's/early 90's we had and how utterly unrealistic that is now even for a team with far more resources than us. Sad indeed. lets see what happened in the next few yera with Newcastle...and indeed, I wouldnt have been sad to see the 4 or 6, er, F**...get the ***...er? "do one."

When bigger club supporting fans used to ask me “what’s the point/you never win anything” question when playing in the Prem I usually reply with, “we always get a scalp”…I just can’t see it now (…but please let it be Chelsea at Home, please?!).

For some balance it’s not just us lower level Prem teams losing the love. My Spurs 25+ year season ticket holding pal binned them off this season as “it’s just not football anymore” and he now follows Croydon FC where its not uncommon on away days for players to share the coach with the fans for a sing song. Sounds amazing. The straw(s) that broke the war battered camels back were a fellow Spurs supporter he half knew wearing an England shirt to a Spurs game. No crime except he had chosen “Mount” on the back as he liked him. The final one was seeing 2 suited Banker/Hedge-funder types in front of him open a hamper, then sharing a Victoria Sponge at half time. #gosoccer!

 

[Son Ova Gunn 165]

21 minutes ago, hogesar said:

But our parachute payments derive from sporting success - in that we got promoted in the first place, without a billionaire owner with dirty money fronting it all to begin with. And with the OP's angle, the aim would be that parachute payments wouldn't be required as promotion wouldn't require you to have a wage bill of £70 million +, just to be barely competitive.

 

 

Fair point but as the 7th goal smashed home the terriers fans contemplating the fairness of the championship we’re probably not too fussed about if our money had been earned two years previously or given to us, I would guess.

if the money wasn’t in the PL, neither would many of its top players, they would follow the money to some other league. That would make it a more competitive competition? Not on the evidence of many poorer leagues (ie Scotland) which are even more predictable but it is possible I guess. Personally I would rather hope that we got better instead of hoping everyone else got worse.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

1 hour ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

Our sustainable model has only been competitively sustained by Murdoch’s millions.

Parma 

You must not say that. Too many think its because its the way we are run.

[sgncfc 1,227]

I think you'll find that both Huddersfield and Reading are owned by very wealthy people - they choose not to spend too much on their hobbies but could if they wanted to. So when we were hammering them with players bought from money earned by sporting success, they could easily have bought those players from us but chose not to. I'm glad they choose not to. That's the right way to run a football club (even though Reading have about £130m of legacy debt from their PL days).

We all know that even in the Championship the owners are much wealthier than ours.

On the face of it, parachute payments are iniquitous; but they recognise the monumental financial commitment required in the PL, which just keeps getting higher and higher. Something's gotta give.....

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,135]

I'm not as old as you but very close to walking away as well, I'm embarrassed to call myself a football fan to be honest and keep it quiet within my social group, with everything you've mentioned plus all the other nonsense that's been going on I'm just sick of it all. I've said before that it's only my attachment to this club that's keeping me going, I kind of hate football in general. I hate every other club, hate the players and how now they're now they're own brand and how obvious it is that their entire image and social media personality is controlled by a PR team, hate the owners and all the sportswashing BS, hate the media side of it and the circus it's become, I hate how it's now a contest of who has the most money, the atmosphere at every ground is terrible and I hate how expensive it's become, hate the media and refereeing bias etc etc

I'm very close to being done and it's not just because of how much we've struggled this year, I think a lot of us would be much happier if we just jacked it all in.  

[Mengo 822]

53 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

You must not say that. Too many think its because its the way we are run.

Ssssshh. Its a Model. 

Sadly bouncing between the premiership and championship as a yo yo club city are living a hand to mouth existence and relying on the parachute payments to survive.

It is now being suggest that these payments stop and a great amount paid to the EFL to be shared to all the 72 clubs so that survival fund could soon end.

In life there are many great ideas that fail and there is the have and have nots and unfortunately NCFC is viewed as the have nots with no ambition.

Could never be us surely. Self funding with huge help from the Murdochs of the world . Yo yo forever or big ambition??

 

[DraytonBoy 147]

The proposed 'Super League' was unacceptable because the invitees etc wanted to carrying on playing in their national leagues as well as the new competition rather than disappear off into the sunset on their own. I'm not convinced a 'breakaway' league is inevitable given the fan opposition last year but a competitive 're-balance' is sorely needed especially in the PL.

[yellowrider120 762]

2 minutes ago, Christoph Stiepermann said:

I'm not as old as you but very close to walking away as well, I'm embarrassed to call myself a football fan to be honest and keep it quiet within my social group, with everything you've mentioned plus all the other nonsense that's been going on I'm just sick of it all. I've said before that it's only my attachment to this club that's keeping me going, I kind of hate football in general. I hate every other club, hate the players and how now they're now they're own brand and how obvious it is that their entire image and social media personality is controlled by a PR team, hate the owners and all the sportswashing BS, hate the media side of it and the circus it's become, I hate how it's now a contest of who has the most money, the atmosphere at every ground is terrible and I hate how expensive it's become, hate the media and refereeing bias etc etc

I'm very close to being done and it's not just because of how much we've struggled this year, I think a lot of us would be much happier if we just jacked it all in.  

Blimey! ''Hate' is an extremely powerful and emotive word. It should never be used lightly. You appear to be throwing the term around in almost every sentence. Why on earth do you 'hate every other club'?? Sorry but that's just plain weird! What have Brentford or Brighton for example ever done to you may I ask? 

[essex canary 495]

The Crouch Report is trying to do something about it. At that point all 20 Premier League clubs stick together like glue to water down the recommendations and despite it supposedly being fan led nobody asks us. 

 

[Highland Canary 76]

All things change over time. The ability to compete without beneficial owners being one of them. I suspect you’d be hard pushed to find more than a handful of Newcastle fans unhappy with their new owners. Similarly, we will only be able to compete with new investment in the club. 

[nutty nigel 7,528]

3 hours ago, Son Ova Gunn said:

I wonder if Reading or Huddersfield fans were saying the same thing last year when we turned up and smashed them with a team full of players paid for with parachute money. Or indeed if the poster felt bad about thrashing them.

footballer does something immoral and disgusting but gets away with it… not sure that’s something new

Agree about the return of hooliganism, hope it’s just a short term increase rather than any trend but still a million miles from the hay day anyone following footy for more than 30yrs would have experienced

funny how things don’t matter so much when results on the pitch are there. The massive sums of money involved in the game maybe obscene but I think the game is cleaner and less corrupt now than it’s ever been, coverage and accessibility better than ever and if the PL wasn’t the best and most exciting league in the world then why the heck does it generate so much worldwide income?

I don't know how Huddersfield fans could have complained being as they were also getting parachute payments.

 

 

[Robert N. LiM 4,330]

1 hour ago, Christoph Stiepermann said:

I'm not as old as you but very close to walking away as well, I'm embarrassed to call myself a football fan to be honest and keep it quiet within my social group, with everything you've mentioned plus all the other nonsense that's been going on I'm just sick of it all. I've said before that it's only my attachment to this club that's keeping me going, I kind of hate football in general. I hate every other club, hate the players and how now they're now they're own brand and how obvious it is that their entire image and social media personality is controlled by a PR team, hate the owners and all the sportswashing BS, hate the media side of it and the circus it's become, I hate how it's now a contest of who has the most money, the atmosphere at every ground is terrible and I hate how expensive it's become, hate the media and refereeing bias etc etc

I'm very close to being done and it's not just because of how much we've struggled this year, I think a lot of us would be much happier if we just jacked it all in.  

Word for word how I feel. Great post

[chicken 2,624]

1 hour ago, Mengo said:

Ssssshh. Its a Model. 

Sadly bouncing between the premiership and championship as a yo yo club city are living a hand to mouth existence and relying on the parachute payments to survive.

It is now being suggest that these payments stop and a great amount paid to the EFL to be shared to all the 72 clubs so that survival fund could soon end.

In life there are many great ideas that fail and there is the have and have nots and unfortunately NCFC is viewed as the have nots with no ambition.

Could never be us surely. Self funding with huge help from the Murdochs of the world . Yo yo forever or big ambition??

 

That's not quite accurate though is it? The first two seasons with Webber and Farke we had no parachute payments and we we cut out cloth accordingly. We did need to sell Maddison etc the first summer but that was largely due to overspending on the likes of Naismith who bled us dry with wages.

We don't "rely" upon parachute payments in the way you suggest. We actually use it as intended, or at least, a lot closer to it was intended. For starters, it's never going to be an extra income for us for FFP for example. The majority of it is likely to go on wages.
 

[WD40 720]

1 hour ago, DraytonBoy said:

The proposed 'Super League' was unacceptable because the invitees etc wanted to carrying on playing in their national leagues as well as the new competition rather than disappear off into the sunset on their own. I'm not convinced a 'breakaway' league is inevitable given the fan opposition last year but a competitive 're-balance' is sorely needed especially in the PL.

Absolutely the proposal for those clubs to remain in the other competitions was absolutely laughable. Go off an earn a few extra billion in your exclusive little cabal to then still come home and dominate. No, eff off and stay effing off. Terrible for the fans for these clubs of course but when did football care about the fans. 

[Mengo 822]

6 minutes ago, chicken said:

That's not quite accurate though is it? The first two seasons with Webber and Farke we had no parachute payments and we we cut out cloth accordingly. We did need to sell Maddison etc the first summer but that was largely due to overspending on the likes of Naismith who bled us dry with wages.

We don't "rely" upon parachute payments in the way you suggest. We actually use it as intended, or at least, a lot closer to it was intended. For starters, it's never going to be an extra income for us for FFP for example. The majority of it is likely to go on wages.
 

Yes I would say correct with the first two seasons as you say. But now it's an impossibility task to survive at this level. Players are more mercenary these days without a doubt. Greedy with agents jumping on the bandwagon. Wages I would say are also a huge problem for Norwich . So yes the model we use is to be applauded but in reality in the world of the premier league we will always be struggling. if the landscape of parachute payments was to change dramatically it could make it even harder . If we survive this season then we have a chance of holding our own . If not I feel we could slowly fall away . I hope not. Everybody could benefit from financial help throughout their life at some point. Personally I want to stay in the premier  league even if it means we just hang in there for a few seasons. It's really the only league to be in I feel. Long live Norwich City . 

 

[Justin time 182]

1 hour ago, Highland Canary said:

All things change over time. The ability to compete without beneficial owners being one of them. I suspect you’d be hard pushed to find more than a handful of Newcastle fans unhappy with their new owners. Similarly, we will only be able to compete with new investment in the club. 

Then you fall into the trap of who can sh** the most money again.

 

 

[Coneys Knee 952]

2 hours ago, yellowrider120 said:

Blimey! ''Hate' is an extremely powerful and emotive word. It should never be used lightly. You appear to be throwing the term around in almost every sentence. Why on earth do you 'hate every other club'?? Sorry but that's just plain weird! What have Brentford or Brighton for example ever done to you may I ask? 

Figure of speech? No? As in “I hate eating liver”, I don’t “hate” it as such but I strongly dislike it as it leaves a horrible taste in the mouth. Actually, bad example, I genuinely do hate liver but you must see my point, no?

As it happens I confess to feeling a bit like this. I feel trapped by my love for my club, my city, my county, but find myself “hating” football and footballers in general. 
 

It’s a weird place to be. You so desperately want football of old back, but you know it will never happen, but you can’t choose to turn your back on City. You’re stuck with it. Purgatory in a way I suppose.