I'm Fed Up To The Back Teeth

[WTFiGO!?!]

Haven't got the means or time right now to read through everything but feel compelled to add that if football brings people together then football is a good thing, if football divides people's. and brings the worse out Them = not so good.

I love a good sag bashing session, due to natural reasons, but wouldn't support a City child molester over a sad sag **** that.

[stephenkibby.]

Some fantastic, heart felt posts above, sadly fellas, they got us by the balls, or should i say murdock, our money is not the issue these days in the top leauges, it's all about income across the world from blue chip companys that will pay massive, crowds sadly are just wallpaper

sorry,the fans will never be wallpaper,thats the attraction.

the day the fans stop going,the tv deal stops.

[Dorset_Cider]

Bristol City is fan owned.

It's just one fan that owns it though!

No, Just one fan does not own it, there are other shareholders but Steve Lansdown is it the majority shareholder etc.

[TBW]

Change football to be like American sports are. My favourite NBA team the Indiana Pacers were poor years ago and were the third best team in the league last season and then in NFL my favourite team the Colts won the Superbowl a few years back and two years back finished the league with the worst record in the league. So much more intriguing.

[EastvilleErn]

Cheers fella.

I dont know if its the same for you but I'd rather see people in the blue and white quarters walking round than some Prem/foreign shirt. Do you rather seeing a city shirt than the glory shirts.

2 years ago I saw a guy with a gas shirt on and congratulated him on wearing is local teams kit. We had a bit of banter and went off

I'd rather associate with proper City fan than a Plastic Manc, by proper I mean those that will continue following the City regardless of Division they are in. Without the diehards both clubs could possibly of folded, so a bit of banter is great but a bit of mutual respect is also warranted.

City and Rovers have genuine fans, as you go up the foodchain fans are replaced by customers. If you take Swansea as an example, of the 20k they get week in week out in the Prem how many would remain if they did a Bradford and dropped sharply to the basement league?

Its all feast or famine, and the FA and FL have given it their blessing for too long. Luckily the FFP rule will help redress the balance back to sanity.

Regards Rich utg

[Toblerone]

Fed up now to the back teeth of modern football and how it is dominated in this country by money and greed.

There was once a time when a clubs largest income was its gate receipts. The masses would pour in on a saturday afternoon at 3pm to watch their local side battle it out against another. But such days are gone. The Premier League has meant that gate receipts are 3rd or 4th biggest income for some clubs. With TV money, Sponsorship and prize money contributing more. Football is targeting the arm chair fan more and more, and with the availability of big games on TV, most young people wouldn't know who SO'D or John Ward are.

The money that these big clubs have is forcing smaller clubs to spend beyond theirs means. We are a prime example, and with any other owner than SL, we would probably be in administration and in L2 or fighting to stay in L1. But others are not so lucky. Coventry are forced to play at Sixfields despite the Rioch offering them to play there for Free. Portsmouth have gone from FA cup winners and European football to L2 in a few seasons. Cardiff city, despite my dislike of the club have been stripped of their identity and history because it would suit the Malaysian arm chair fan.

When I talk about football to my friends, it is normally about the Prem title race as they dont know the first thing about City, they don't care. Football needs to change. Too many clubs going into administration, fans are being overcharged, not by the clubs fault, but to exist in this footballing world, prices have to be that high. When will it be our turn again? When will '82 happen again? No club is immune from the disease that is modern football, unless for are MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man C etc, you have no chance anymore.

This disease incorporates blood thirsty agents, owners who don't care and too much of a focus on the present, without long term plans. Well enough is enough. What are we going to do? The FL needs reforming...it needs 4 tiers with 24 sides in each tier, like before. Clubts should be fan owned. Financial rules should be hugely strict, forcing clubs to take relegation in order to correct their finances. Clubs should own their own grounds to stop whats happening with Coventry. Fans should be the forefront of everything. All domestic games should be 3pm on a Saturday, or 7:45 on a tuesday. The FA cup should be the last game of the season (after the CL) and no one is bigger than any club.

Unfortunately the FA, the FL, and the PL will never agree. Those in charge are too busy lining their own pockets, doing **** all to further football. But clubs can vote, our clubs can change it all. If all fans of all clubs pulled together to say no to modern football and armchairs, and yes to shivering on a tuesday night watching L1 football in January.

Had to get that off my chest after getting wound up over the last few hours. Work again

I agree 100% but it won't change quickly. I played golf a few years ago with a former pro (div 1 in his days) who was managing a conference side. He spoke of the 'economics of the asylum' throughout football and how TV was destroying the game.

The FA, FL and PL sold their souls to TV and sold the fans down the river at the same time.

[ThamesRed]

I agree that football is not what it used to be and for many people like us who enjoy the excitement and emotion of supporting your local team football is being ruined. The majority of "consumers of the football product" are not like us. Most people would rather spend 30 or 40 quid a month to pay for Sky and sit at home and watch football than use that money to watch their local team once a month. I am too far away to get to many City games these days but I do try to go and see my local team a couple of times a year and make a point of never paying to watch football on TV as the willingness of fans to pay is what drives up the TV rights money and this is what kills football. The only way I can see this changing is if we can start a revolution to make those armchair fans realise that watching in a packed stadium with your fellow fans is a much richer experience than sitting in front of the TV watching millionaires roll around pretending to be injured. Unfortunately, I can't see this ever happening as the number of people that are willing to pay is just too high. I don't know any of the data but I imagine the number of armchair fans is at least 100 times the number of fans who have ever been to a match. Football has changed from a sport where a small (but significant) minority of people enjoy it by going to see their local team, to a sport enjoyed by the masses from their sofa. My only hope is that one day people will realise that it's just not worth paying that much for Sky Sports and this will slowly reduce the amount of money coming in to football through TV rights money, and create a more even playing field where sky (paid for by Sky TV and it's subscribers) high premier league salaries would ripple down to cause unsustainable salaries at clubs like ours.

[In the Net]

Very good points from the OP.

It's sad that the days of the "casual" fan deciding to pop down to take in a game are now virtually non-existent, due to the cost of admission. There are so many other things you can spend the same amount of money on, and not have to take the risk of coming away full of frustration and disappointment. These fans only tend to take a chance for the big name games nowadays.

Agree with EE, I much prefer to see somebody wearing a City shirt, rather than one of the plastic premier outfits - at least you know they are a "proper" football fan, and not just somebody who has jumped on the glory bandwagon.

[Fodbarmyarmy]

The "greed is good" of the Thatcher era laid the foundations for the game to become the money machine we all now see.....we saw it happen with Gas / electric /Telecom / Railway sale offs, where profit is the king and not the service or the workers or even the future of the business.... and now the tories are at it again with the Royal Mail...

The thing was, in order to achieve this, football as an industry needed to attract investment from outside the football world, and this meant the customer base HAD to change.... no one was going to invest in a sport with such a bad reputation...

Tragedies like Heysel / Hillsborough (and others) plus the actions of the mindless thugs at nearly every match helped convince the doubters & achieve the goal of the prawn sandwich, sterile experience we have today , not to mention the assistance of "silent" partners like Murdoch ....who ...surprise surprise...went on to make obscene amounts of money from sky's involvement in Football while with the other hand poured scorn & blackened the common football supporters reputations through his publications.... (a most evil person but that's another topic)

We are all to blame....we all went along with it.......

[JammyOne]

So who wants to buy the club?

I pledge £3000... how much more do we need?

[myol'man]

Fed up now to the back teeth of modern football and how it is dominated in this country by money and greed.

There was once a time when a clubs largest income was its gate receipts. The masses would pour in on a saturday afternoon at 3pm to watch their local side battle it out against another. But such days are gone. The Premier League has meant that gate receipts are 3rd or 4th biggest income for some clubs. With TV money, Sponsorship and prize money contributing more. Football is targeting the arm chair fan more and more, and with the availability of big games on TV, most young people wouldn't know who SO'D or John Ward are.

The money that these big clubs have is forcing smaller clubs to spend beyond theirs means. We are a prime example, and with any other owner than SL, we would probably be in administration and in L2 or fighting to stay in L1. But others are not so lucky. Coventry are forced to play at Sixfields despite the Rioch offering them to play there for Free. Portsmouth have gone from FA cup winners and European football to L2 in a few seasons. Cardiff city, despite my dislike of the club have been stripped of their identity and history because it would suit the Malaysian arm chair fan.

When I talk about football to my friends, it is normally about the Prem title race as they dont know the first thing about City, they don't care. Football needs to change. Too many clubs going into administration, fans are being overcharged, not by the clubs fault, but to exist in this footballing world, prices have to be that high. When will it be our turn again? When will '82 happen again? No club is immune from the disease that is modern football, unless for are MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man C etc, you have no chance anymore.

This disease incorporates blood thirsty agents, owners who don't care and too much of a focus on the present, without long term plans. Well enough is enough. What are we going to do? The FL needs reforming...it needs 4 tiers with 24 sides in each tier, like before. Clubs should be fan owned. Financial rules should be hugely strict, forcing clubs to take relegation in order to correct their finances. Clubs should own their own grounds to stop whats happening with Coventry. Fans should be the forefront of everything. All domestic games should be 3pm on a Saturday, or 7:45 on a tuesday. The FA cup should be the last game of the season (after the CL) and no one is bigger than any club.

Unfortunately the FA, the FL, and the PL will never agree. Those in charge are too busy lining their own pockets, doing **** all to further football. But clubs can vote, our clubs can change it all. If all fans of all clubs pulled together to say no to modern football and armchairs, and yes to shivering on a tuesday night watching L1 football in January.

Had to get that off my chest after getting wound up over the last few hours. Work again

Are you really Richard Scudamore?

[downendcity]

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. Football is still a very young sport, circa 100 years in the modern form, and it will continue to develop. It may not be to some tastes, however we are a long day from the half day off at the factories and stuff so people could go and pursue leisure activities such as watching football en mass. The game has changed tactically and it's availability has changed as well.

Football from decade to decade is different with the game changing beyond everyone's expectations from the likes of Chapman's new methods in the 1930's through to the total football approach and in modern times Barcelona. The point is that the football that people hanker for,will not return. Even if they get all they wish for as the feelings they have for the game are linked inextricably to the time when it meant something to them and that is down to the individual and will be rarely if ever replicated. Sure there are reasons to go or drift away from the game, but irrespective what people hate about the modern game is something that will continue to be there, meaning that what they really want is unachievable.

I think that most fans accept that the game we all hanker for will never return and that game has evolved, and will continue so to do.

However, I also think that older fans ( who were supporting the club 40/50 years ago) felt that they had a real stake in their clubs back then. These days, especially with bigger clubs , fans feel that the have been relegated to the role of mere customers - the fodder to whom the club can market their range of merchandise, generating the additional revenue necessary to keep the overpaid players in luxury cars.

Since the advent of the premier league, it is impossible to put the financial genie back in the bottle, but I hope the powers that be never allow the money men at the top of the game to move the game so far from the proper fans so that it looses everything that gave/gives the game it's soul.

[SimplyRed]

Move on... football is not and never will be 'like it was', so what's the point in bemoaning the fact...?

There are many footballers of yesteryear who would disagree with your assessment, when there was a wage cap and top footballers earned a pittance. It's a short career and many of the world's top players were forced to try and make ends meet when their football career was over. Some of our World Cup stars have even been forced to sell their winner's medals to earn a shilling.

It is easy to look through rose-coloured specs at the 'good old days' and ignore the hardship that many footballers found themselves in after retiring at 35. Have you ever tried to change your vocation in your 30's? - I have and, believe me, it's tough - VERY TOUGH!

While I agree that there is maybe too much money awash in professional football these days and too many parasites living off the backs of talented players, I do believe it is a much better presented and professionally run sport now - more than it ever was.

OK - poor clubs get poorer as rich clubs get richer - but that's life! Unless you are a communist or left-wing socialist, there will always be the have's and the have-not's. Capitalism, while not perfect, works - whether you like it or not. Supply and demand makes the world go around.

Nobody complains about the obscene amounts of money large corporations, russian oligarchs and internet entrepreneurs make, but when a few football players start earning the sort of money that will see them set up for life and not have to scratch around to make a living after retiring, and everybody moans about 'greedy players'!

For me, there is one other glaring point about the football of yesteryear that is immediately forgetful and that is the violence. The senseless, meaningless posturing of rival fans and sickening violence meted out to each other is a shameful legacy of british football. It was brutal and inhuman and I, for one, would never wish to see a return of that glorified, mindless thuggery.

[AshtonGreat]

I can empathise with the sentiments in these posts but while it's a nice idea that everyone should support their local team, the world has changed.

For one, thanks to the internet and Sky TV, people are now able to watch sport from around the globe - it's not a case of having to visit Ashton Gate or the Rovers ground to see live football. And more to the point, the standard of football on telly is considerably better than what's served up by the local clubs. So of course young, impressionable kids are going to be attracted by watching icons like Rooney, Gerrard, Messi et al, rather than venture down the road to watch people they've never heard of playing sub-standard football.

Secondly, the days when a football club was made up of 'local lads born a stone's throw from the ground' are long gone, so exactly how local is Bristol City? Our current players come from Ghana, Scotland, Ireland and various other far-flung places.

It might seem like an unusual analogy but just because you come from Bristol, does that mean you should only watch Bristol bands like The Blue Aeroplanes and not venture further afield to watch one of the more global acts? In these days of austerity, I guess you can't blame people for choosing carefully where they spend their money. And let's be honest, the performances at AG last season didn't represent value for money.

I'm just playing devil's advocate really. I'm a huge fan of Bristol City and have enjoyed many years of going to AG and cheering on my team. If I ever have kids, I will encourage them to do the same. But I thought it was worth throwing the above points into the mix.

[cider-manc]

Manchester United and Liverpool had half of their games in the prem shown on sky and espn. When you throw in cup games/sucessful European season etc and they can be on tv more times than we are at home in a season. When you look at it from that point of view it is easy to see why more people end up supporting them as they can see (in the loose sense of the word!) Those teams more often.

I used to share a flat with a Liverpool fan and we would go the pub at least once a week to watch them during their successful champions league seasons. It's because of this and the money that tv generates that coming 4th in the prem is now like winning a trophy. I hate it.

I take a great amount of pride in supporting city and I will do until either I or they cease to exsist. I cant see how anyone can feel that same emotion if they never had any connection to the team before they chose to support them. That is what I think is killing football more than the money. This is what is responsible for killing atmospheres in stadiums and separating the players from the every man.

I can't see it changing anytime soon.

The game is dead, long live the game.

[Taylor10]

Manchester United and Liverpool had half of their games in the prem shown on sky and espn. When you throw in cup games/sucessful European season etc and they can be on tv more times than we are at home in a season. When you look at it from that point of view it is easy to see why more people end up supporting them as they can see (in the loose sense of the word!) Those teams more often.

I used to share a flat with a Liverpool fan and we would go the pub at least once a week to watch them during their successful champions league seasons. It's because of this and the money that tv generates that coming 4th in the prem is now like winning a trophy. I hate it.

I take a great amount of pride in supporting city and I will do until either I or they cease to exsist. I cant see how anyone can feel that same emotion if they never had any connection to the team before they chose to support them. That is what I think is killing football more than the money. This is what is responsible for killing atmospheres in stadiums and separating the players from the every man.

I can't see it changing anytime soon.

The game is dead, long live the game.

Spot on.

[Sixtyseconds]

What's needed is philosophy and acceptance of what BCFC has become.

For all the rhetoric of visions and pillars BCFC are balls deep in modern football they are part of the tapestry that creates Bristol loyal United reds.

City DID vote for the EPPP, City did vote for parachute payments and they vote that way in the hope for cash and knowing tuther West Country clubs can't afford academies like City = Cash rules again.

You don't have to buy the star trek shirts, you don't have to buy the one with bog roll on its arms chosen for fans by chaps who don't support this club.

You don't have to go MK Dongs.

You don't have to consume ALL of the brand as one director calls BCFC.

Fans got the Eastend open.

An empty away end at a televised match or not one pint sold in the DEH would have the bean counters on the bush wanting to know what's up with the consumer fans.