It’s Not Football...

[Bladesman]

While ever diving is tolerated we're at a disadvantage not doing it. Faking injuries and going down on slight contact is a must to compete in the Premier League.

It will be until such time the football authorities clamp down, same goes for timewasting.

Is a bit odd as Wilder has alluded to the dark arts, makes you wonder why we are still being so honest.

I don't want to see us do it ideally but it seems like a needs must situation now.

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

I'm finding football very very difficult to watch these days. Ever since the return after shut down to be honest.

It feels numb and dull. The ref blows his whistle every 2 minutes, players falling everywhere, political signs all over the grounds, VAR in the way of absolutely everything.

I'm rapidly losing interest

You're not alone. I feel the same too and speaking to most football fans they also feel the same for all the reasons you just mentioned.

I cling to the hope that football can go back to a state of good entertainment when crowds can safely return and the rules around VAR are improved because I sincerely believe the technology is very good but how it's being applied is inconsistent and confusing.

 

[hidesbehindapseudonym]

You're not alone. I feel the same too and speaking to most football fans they also feel the same for all the reasons you just mentioned.

I cling to the hope that football can go back to a state of good entertainment when crowds can safely return and the rules around VAR are improved because I sincerely believe the technology is very good but how it's being applied is inconsistent and confusing.

Your'e very generous to VAR. I think its shite.

 

[Sheff de party]

You're not alone. I feel the same too and speaking to most football fans they also feel the same for all the reasons you just mentioned.

I cling to the hope that football can go back to a state of good entertainment when crowds can safely return and the rules around VAR are improved because I sincerely believe the technology is very good but how it's being applied is inconsistent and confusing.

it will never change because people inside football don’t want it to. They’re on a massive gravy train and it’s just become about maintaining that by winning.

Somewhere along the line, football became only about winning. Play 4-5-1, cheat, time waste, dive, sit on 1-0. £40+ a ticket, £50+ a replica shirt, children paying to be mascots.

And they can keep doing it because we keep paying it. Cinemas are playing the poverty card but it’s because people won’t pay for a ticket that costs the same as a DVD. They arrogantly assumed people would always do it and they were wrong.

But until we say it’s too expensive, until we say we’re not watching this any more because the players cheat and throw themselves to the floor, until we demand that players get a red card for yelling at referees, until time wasting is so tiresome we stop going, it will never, ever change.

Football has become a shadow of the spectacle it was. I’m just trying to enjoy what’s left, which I very much have under Wilder. He gets it - we want to watch our team attack, get the ball wide and in the box, go for the win instead of a draw. He’s a rare breed and if he takes us down, so be it.

 

[Muttley]

The Premier League is just a pantomime. It has little bearing on proper football. VAR is still assessed by humans, who have an agenda which appears to be corrupt, as match officials also seem to be. As said in the above posts, the diving about and cheating has to stop for the sake of the game. It is so geared up towards the "bigger" clubs. Officials must have been told to favour certain teams, it is getting increasingly obvious.
I have high regard for the stance that CW takes on all this, but he is just pissing in the wind. Nothing will change until people actually take a stand and don't pay to watch it.
I feel like an idiot by moaning about being in the top league in British football, the place where I have always wished the Blades to be, but I am becoming more detached from football as every game passes by.

 

[Mumbo]

Martial sent off for daring to touch Lamela’s face after he elbowed him in the throat, but Shaw staying on after trying to remove Lucas’s lower body but Lucas laughs and jumps back up. Burke and Lunny staying up, when rolling around would likely have got a red card and a pen. Sander staying up before Leeds scored, if he goes down it’s a foul.

This is fucking Hollywood. Say what you like about the Yanks but American footballers couldn’t walk down the street if they behaved like most of the girls that are playing our game. Make refs publicly justify their decisions - I sent him off because he touched his face which was clearly painful because he lay down and screamed!!!

If this were still a proper sport Egan stays on, Leeds goal is disallowed Arsenal are down to 10 and we have a pen. Villa are down to 10 when they give us the pen.

This is what we compete against, but the day we start to play their game is the day I terminate 50 years membership.

Managers are as much to blame - Mourinho could publicly say that he is suspending Lamela for clear fabrication - and Bielsa could have told Bamford to find another club after his fiasco against Villa in the Champ.

Magic Tufty - Keep Football Honest

Unfortunately these days theatrics win games.
Prem ‘stars’ have become highly paid actors and It sucks but it ain’t going away because of the insane money at stake and unless we participate in the charade we will always get the shitty end of the stick.
Maybe Wilder could send us out in knee length shorts and moustaches harking back to when the game was honest but them days are gone
forever.

 

[PTBlade]

I’m 5 years football will be like WWF all theatrical and no realism. Football fans will be like WWF fans, and I will NOT be one of them.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Moan, moan, moan, moan.

The never ending juggernaut of paranoid nonsense and martyrdom continues.

Football and the Premier League will be the best thing sliced bread again when we start winning.

Only in S2.

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

It is always the smaller clubs that get desitions against them. never Arsenal.Man City Man Utd.Liverpool.etc.wonder why?.

They're the big money men. They spend the millions. They keep the PL the 'product' it wants to be. We try and do things a bit more sensible. Build bottom up, don't spend billions. Who wants that? The world wants superstars!!

 

[A Storm of Blades]

I agree with the sentiment but let’s put it in context, it’s hardy a modern day problem, or only football that has a problem with cheating.

• Klinsmann’s ‘dive’ celebration was 1994.
• Rugby’s ‘bloodgate’.
• Cricket’s betting and ball tampering scandals.
• American Football has a continuing issue with illegal PED use, ‘deflategate’ etc.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Your'e very generous to VAR. I think its shite.

but the alternative is far worse. People have short memories of the injustices pre VAR.

There are 2 big advantages of VAR that don’t get mentioned. Dissent and ref intimidation has virtually stopped.....also diving and cheating has drastically reduced because everything is caught on camera and reviewed.

Some of the players know there’s no point in diving because it won’t work and will damage their reputation.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

but the alternative is far worse. People have short memories of the injustices pre VAR.

There are 2 big advantages of VAR that don’t get mentioned. Dissent and ref intimidation has virtually stopped.....also diving and cheating has drastically reduced because everything is caught on camera and reviewed.

Some of the players know there’s no point in diving because it won’t work and will damage their reputation.

I think VAR has also lessened, though not eradicated, the bias of big clubs (especially Man U) getting the advantage in marginal decisions.

 

[Carlton Blade]

 

[kevreedy]

What's the point having a line persons who should flag for offside etc.only to get overruled by var.
Get rid of var and let the ref and line persons do the job as they use too. only need the referee to have the watch to let him know the ball is over the line.
For a goal.fourth official is a complete waste of time. Football is a simple game now spoiled. with stupid tech.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I think VAR has also lessened, though not eradicated, the bias of big clubs (especially Man U) getting the advantage in marginal decisions.

Agree...although the “big club” bias is a bit of a red herring.

The truth is the teams that attack more and spend more time in the opponents penalty box tend to be awarded more penalties,
So it’s logical that as a general rule....the better clubs (which is often the bigger clubs as they have more money to buy better players) are awarded more penalties.

 

[Badger Blade]

The FA looks on football as a business and not a game to be administered, to me a wrong decision on their behalf.
The clubs are looked upon as clients and as with commerce the client with the biggest financial clout gets the better service, hence the "big six" get all the better deals over all aspects of their affairs.
The attitude seems to be systemic to all organisations that don't generate their own income but rely on given finances, even down to ones who are there to assist in seeing people have a decent standard of life.
I believe the trend is not new but has been developing over the last 20-30 years and will only reverse, if ever, when the people in charge treat the money they handle as not being earned by them.
It's one thing to handle others money and another to earn money then make that money sustain a business.

The FA and the Premier League must have been shitting themselves when little old Leicester won the league and were leading English football into the Champions League when all the big global partners would likely not have a clue who they are. When Catalan Dragons won the rugby league challenge cup, the RFL asked them to pay a £500k bond (big money in a minority sport) to play in the 2019 tournament to cover the losses made from the previous year because of a smaller crowd at Wembley and a decreased TV audience, needless to say the frogs told them where to stick it.

All we want is an honest game played by honest people but the more money is involved, the more people want and they'll go to whatever lengths it takes to get a slice of the ever growing pie. The Germans have it right where it is all about the supporters first and foremost which is why Leipzig get so much of a panning from everyone over there where its all about flogging "that yellow stuff in tins" as Alan Partridge put it.

VAR won't get sacked off because
1. Jobs for the boys
2. Contracts signed with various companies providing the infrastructure behind it that they'll be tied into for x number of years, GSCOP etc etc.
3. SAVING FACE. Very few people in football or any other walk of life for that matter are willing to put their hands up and say "sorry everyone, we fucked it up". They'll find a way of justifying their decision regardless of how shit the outcome might be. They can't have Mike Riley suddenly end up as an Asda delivery driver now can they...

Sky are as bad, they treat football like some sort of bloody soap opera, trying to get someone like Mourinho to say something controversial in a post match interview or winding Roy Keane up knowing that it'll give them something to fill some airtime on Sky Sports News and drive traffic to the rest of Murdoch's media empire.

The comment about wrestling is pretty poignant because it used to be entertaining but has been sanitised and people who were fans don't watch it anymore, myself included. Football is in danger of going the same way where only kids will be interested in it and they'll have their John Cena doll on the shelf next to their Neymar doll, but will one day reach an age where they grow up and realise what a load of shite it is.

Best football on Sky Sports at the moment is Premier League years back when it was a spectacle worth getting excited about. Maybe it'll change when we can all get back in the stadium again but for now we might as well be watching two spotty oiks playing Fifa against one another because it all feels so detached and is now nothing more than a TV show on a subscription channel where if you miss it, it doesn't really matter.

 

[XM657]

The FA and the Premier League must have been shitting themselves when little old Leicester won the league and were leading English football into the Champions League when all the big global partners would likely not have a clue who they are. When Catalan Dragons won the rugby league challenge cup, the RFL asked them to pay a £500k bond (big money in a minority sport) to play in the 2019 tournament to cover the losses made from the previous year because of a smaller crowd at Wembley and a decreased TV audience, needless to say the frogs told them where to stick it.

All we want is an honest game played by honest people but the more money is involved, the more people want and they'll go to whatever lengths it takes to get a slice of the ever growing pie. The Germans have it right where it is all about the supporters first and foremost which is why Leipzig get so much of a panning from everyone over there where its all about flogging "that yellow stuff in tins" as Alan Partridge put it.

VAR won't get sacked off because
1. Jobs for the boys
2. Contracts signed with various companies providing the infrastructure behind it that they'll be tied into for x number of years, GSCOP etc etc.
3. SAVING FACE. Very few people in football or any other walk of life for that matter are willing to put their hands up and say "sorry everyone, we fucked it up". They'll find a way of justifying their decision regardless of how shit the outcome might be. They can't have Mike Riley suddenly end up as an Asda delivery driver now can they...

Sky are as bad, they treat football like some sort of bloody soap opera, trying to get someone like Mourinho to say something controversial in a post match interview or winding Roy Keane up knowing that it'll give them something to fill some airtime on Sky Sports News and drive traffic to the rest of Murdoch's media empire.

The comment about wrestling is pretty poignant because it used to be entertaining but has been sanitised and people who were fans don't watch it anymore, myself included. Football is in danger of going the same way where only kids will be interested in it and they'll have their John Cena doll on the shelf next to their Neymar doll, but will one day reach an age where they grow up and realise what a load of shite it is.

Best football on Sky Sports at the moment is Premier League years back when it was a spectacle worth getting excited about. Maybe it'll change when we can all get back in the stadium again but for now we might as well be watching two spotty oiks playing Fifa against one another because it all feels so detached and is now nothing more than a TV show on a subscription channel where if you miss it, it doesn't really matter.

Recon we're on the same hymn sheet.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

Agree...although the “big club” bias is a bit of a red herring.

The truth is the teams that attack more and spend more time in the opponents penalty box tend to be awarded more penalties,
So it’s logical that as a general rule....the better clubs (which is often the bigger clubs as they have more money to buy better players) are awarded more penalties.

True enough, but I was thinking in terms of all over the pitch, with free kicks, yellow/red cards, playing advantage, doubts about goal kick or corner, as well as penalties.