Football, in terms of money and the business side of the game, has changed quite dramatically over the last 20-30 years.
The premier league is currently without out doubt the most entertaining exciting league in the world, highlighting the conclusion of last season how City won the title.
I wonder when and what time football just won't be interesting anymore and when it would have had it's day.
The beautiful game has lost a lot of fans already regarding how clubs are run these days and with the feeling that it's now "More of a business than a sport".
There are plenty of other reasons why fans might be getting put off by it as it is today.
This is more of a prediction for the future of the game in general. I think, in roughly 150 years time football will be almost on it's way out, people won't play it anymore and just won't bother, I don't know what those reasons would be, perhaps, just 'bored of it' would be the final answer.
I personally still love it as it is today, love going Charlton and watching the team I support.
What do you think? What kind of changes will football go through in the next 20-50 years and when will football not even exist as a sport?
Hard to predict really
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Not healthy predictions .... please can someone paint the healthy things!
I remember Roy Keane wanting a pay rise to 52k a week , and thinking that was disgusting , Rodney Marsh was on Sky Sport Soccer Saturday at the time saying it wouldn't be long before we had our first 100k a week player , now they are two a penny at the top end.
It saddens me that so much money flows through the game without massive improvements in the quality of homegrown players.
I have a season ticket as have done for years and have missed the last few games for various reasons but not missed it in the slightest. It's not just down to us not winning or being in the lower leagues...i started getting disillusioned with it when we were in the premiership.
I find it very sanitised, the atmosphere either depressingly flat or overly manufactured. Not just at The Valley but everywhere. I have sky sports and rarely find the enthusiasm to watch any games, even the games with " a bit of spice" I usually turn off or lose interest in.
As great as the last day drama was and as pleased for the long suffering man city fans i was it had just been bought. That could have been villa, forest or stockport county lifting that trophy had the billioanaire ego trippers decided to invest in those clubs.
I know it's a lazy cliche but I do think the post Euro 96 mob have taken over. Maybe it's inverted snobbery but I hear the hooray henrys at work (nice people as they are) talking about The Arsenal or whatever big team they have aligned themselves with and feel cheated. Feel like it was my game and the same type of people who looked down on you for being into football a couple of decades ago have now taken over with their £2k season tickets and dinner party chat about the Premiership.
The crowds have seem to have changed at football and I loved the tribalism, partisan crowds and rawness that I experienced as a youngster but it seems sometimes almost quaint nowdays from the shaking hands on the pitch before games to the welcoming of the away supporters and opera singers.
Not saying it should return to bananas being thrown on the pitch or darts being thrown in the stands but it is just feels very pre packaged, diluted and soulless to me nowdays and has done for a few years. It also seems to me to be more geared towards the soap opera and celebrity or this weeks latest scandal which in the bigger scheme of things really means very little. The game and going to it has changed for the better in a lot of ways in many areas which was needed but it feels like it has sold out its soul in the process.
Of course many on here and elsewehere who experience the nastier side of things in the 70s and 80s will probably be glad the way the game has gone and enjoy not having the edginess or the swearing and underlying air of menance and whilst I laugh at the football factory element of things as all a bit silly I think it has gone too far the other way in it's sanitisation.
Not saying we should all be flat cap wearing, gruff dockers but I just find it harder and harder to relate to what I see as the new breed of football fan.
I just think it is a reflection of how society as a whole has gone whether it be football, music, telly whatever....polished, instant, consumerist and overly pc with £ being the main driver but for all it's shiny packaging it contains very little substance.
There was a time in my life when I lived and breathed football. It meant everything to me and was an escape from whatever shit was going on in life.
Just very disillusioned with it all. It's just not the game I fell in love with in the 80s and lived for throughout the 90s.
Personally, I think the change started at Italia 90. Gazza's tears have a lot to answer for.
Can see ValleyGary's view though. It easy to indulge in your passion when that is all you have to worry about but when responsibilities arrive priorities undoubtedly change and what was once held dear take a backseat.
It's a fact that football in it's current form won't be sustainable. The money WILL dry up and it will be back to 'jumpers down for goalposts'. Would that be such a bad thing?
On the tele was champions league, my friend said to me he wished he just stayed in and watched that. He was being serious and said he probably won’t bother with these weeknight games. He unlike me has only been a Charlton fan for the last five years before that he was watching all his sport from the comfort of his own home on sky sports.
I told him I would always prefer going to a live match, and in fact in the last couple of years my interest in any top match has waned. I would rather go down the valley or because of money I can’t go up to Blackpool so instead I’m going to a non-league match this Saturday.
Other friends who are supporters of prem teams have conversations about the weekend’s results; I now no longer can be bothered in having a natter about what lampard did or how good Suarez’s goal was. It bores me. liverpool is playing as I type this but after 20miniutes I gave up watching it.
Seems that Charlton and the lower leagues including non-league is all I have interest in. which at the moment due to lack of media attntion, it hasn’t been completely ruined by over exposure.
I don’t know how long the fans can keep up with the prices in the top divisions. Most of them are already not the same supporters who were there 10 years ago.
I watch some foreign matches and their fans seem to just have a good time, jumping about and singing for the whole game, not much care to how their team are doing. Maybe that would be better, good time first with mates and football just being an excuse for doing it. All the pain and anger of football, especially how we in this country see it, would become replaced in part by fun. Maybe that’s what will happen to modern football.
When the game is still being played at grassroots level then there should still be a demand to watch the worlds best.
Still with frequent visits before then to The Toolbox & Selhurst, at least we'll be used to playing in places with no atmosphere
That is what makes it rather uncompetitive and also its the instant results/pressure from fans which seems different.
A 1-1 draw at home for some set of supporters is the end of the world!
There is certainly less respect around in football - players and their agents have too much power.
It seems only the Premier League has increased its TV revenues, despite the downturn, and that its clubs from the next deal will be awash with money (apparently the club that finishes bottom next season will earn more than the champions this year).
This will seriously effect the game in Europe with a new migration of players, as well as knacker the UK game because the increased parachute payments mean getting to the Premier will be almost impossible.
Only the Football League clubs will take a punt on UK players because Premier Clubs will buy the finished article abroad. Young UK players will increasingly be loaned to the FL teams which will consist of loanees with no personal tie to the club, and only those players rejected as not being good enough will stay.
Or perhaps not....
I think eventually the money and the amount most premier league footballers earn a week will turn on its head at some point.
Gooooo Red Swords
True fans may only be able to afford a few games a season as season ticket prices spiral out of reach of the average worker.
The lower leagues will attract more of the reasonable English players and we'll see more and more Championship players in an England shirt. Championship games will become more popular on TV and a bit more money will flow in that direction.
Then one day, circa 2023, interest will wane for the TV viewing public and the whole of English football will be up sh!t creek as players disappear to pastures new and clubs go bust left right and centre.
Fascinating thread and really enjoyed the Rodney angle.
One of the key changes for football has been its export as a TV product to Asia (ever wondered what those 12 noon Sunday kick-offs are all about?) . I know banker types in Hong Kong who will happily pay £300 to take their kids to Stamford Bridge over the Xmas holidays as a treat.
For me, it had almost killed the Premiership as a meaningful competition other than in marketing rights. Premiership football is a huge TV export product and eventually they will dub in the sounds of passionate crowds as the real ones will have left.
On the bright side, while 500 nutters from Hartlepool are happy to dress up as smurfs and travel to London to watch their team lose in a meaningless encounter against us in League 1, the sport still has a chance of retaining some soul and ethics.
However I have found other interests, enjoyed my children growing up and now I have grand children so my passion for the game has dwindled as my time is taken up with other things.
I have a season ticket and my intention is to go to every game at home however if something came up and I liked the look of it I could quite happily miss a game or two.
Its the same results wise, I would have been in a foul mood and ready to slit my wrists after a result like Tuesday night a few years ago, however now I have forgotten all about it by the time I get back to the car and put the radio on.
I really couldn't care less who wins it, it's all hype and greed.
As Grumpy posted above, it's lost its soul.
I think in a few years time the big clubs in Europe will want a Super League, especially if Catalonia becomes independent and Barca are in a League with Espanyol and Girona.....
My main worry with the future is the cost - I can't pay Premier League prices.