Platini - tosser

[Dr. Pepper]

Very true, although I'd even say it was before the Glazers came, with the removal of "football club" from the club crest. I think we kept some soul though, only by FC United and the majority of our fans opposing the takeover.

Maxkarter, you've just admitted you support a team from abroad because it is a higher standard of football. If that isn't glory hunting then what is?

I disagree. It's not glory supporting/hunting/bandwagoning. To fully enjoy a league or competition, you have to follow a team. If I was in his situation I'd follow a Premiership club and forget about that random PSL team. The level of football they play must be really poor and who would actually want to watch it?

 

[Will_NA]

Nowt wrong with preferring English football. It's like an American preferring German beer, or an Indian preferring Hollywood or a Frenchman taking a liking to Japanese cars. If the quality's far better than anything you get at home, then fair enough.

When you support 4 or 5 teams then it gets ridiculous.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah exactly. If you support four or five, then that's just stupid to be honest because you obviously don't really like any of the clubs and it actually is glory supporting.

 

[Kev]

Phil, you have a very very outdated and rose tinted view of being a football supporter.

The days of going along after work to watch your local side, when that side was full of local players, ceased to exist before I was even born. No professional side in the UK (or pretty much anywhere now) has any connection to the locality apart from the fact that they happen to play there. The majority don't come from the area, they are there to do a job.

Premiership clubs actively target overseas markets these days because they actually bring in more money than the people who live in the area and attend matches. Like it or not, your beloved Man Utd cares more about selling shirts in the far east than it cares about you and it did so long long before Glazer appeared on the scene.

The world has got smaller and smaller in the last 50 years. The Premiership survives on money it makes around the world, money foreign TV companies pay for rights to broadcast Premiership matches. Someone in another country watching these matches has just the same right to support a team as you do, it just so happens that they don't live a 10min bus ride away. Time to lose that massive chip on your shoulder and wake up to life in the 21st century.

 

[PhilD123]

I agree that it has happened, thats the kind of thing I'm saying though, that it shouldn't be like that. About your point on United, absolutely, some of the people who work at the club disgust me and their policies are disgraceful (away tickets going to execs, Automatic Cup Scheme, new one that means you have to pay £4.45 to get away tickets specially delievered). United are just as bad if not worse than everyone else. They don't care at all about proper supporters.

So, I agree with you that football has changed, just wish it hadn't, it's become far too sanitised.

 

[Kev]

Thing is Phil, in your lifetime its never been how you seem to view it. You can't deny change, you might not like it, but you really should lay off having a go at people for supporting clubs just because they aren't local. They are just living in the modern world.

When I was a Kid I would have considered travelling to London a long way, its practically on my doorstep these days. When I was a Kid going to Liverpool or Manchester was pretty much out of the question, these days If I can just jump in the car and go, and I could do it week in week out if I so desired. These days I can get to places on mainland Europe quicker than places in the UK. Life is global, football is global.

 

[PhilD123]

Oh, I know and you're right, I haven't denied changed, in fact that's what has bugged me that there has been change, I just hear reports of how good football was in the 70's and 80's and would like to experience that myself.

Fair enough anyway, I agree with you that the world is getting smaller with technology etc. I'll shut up about it now.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Back on topic, Platini is an idiot .

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Well, if the UAE is so interested in football, go and support one of their teams instead of invading foreign clubs. Period.

Well said!

MasterBlaster76 added 1 Minutes and 5 Seconds later...

You get a very strong feeling to the club you truly support. It's what makes you ecstastic after a win and what ruins your weekend after a defeat. You only get it with one club. The chances are if you support a club from overseas it is only because they are doing well, so in all honesty your club has to be from your own country.

On the subject of foreign investors, I think they rip the hearts out of clubs. Manchester United, for instance, have not been a football club since the Glazers took over, they have been a brand. The same with Chelsea, and so on. There has been talk of investment at Norwich recently and thankfully the ones in the frame are local businessmen, not foreigners who don't know what the club is about.

That's right, all these foreign investors are ripping the heart and soul out of English football clubs. They don't even give a damn about football, they just want to make a quick buck!

MasterBlaster76 added 1 Minutes and 31 Seconds later...

I agree that it has happened, thats the kind of thing I'm saying though, that it shouldn't be like that. About your point on United, absolutely, some of the people who work at the club disgust me and their policies are disgraceful (away tickets going to execs, Automatic Cup Scheme, new one that means you have to pay £4.45 to get away tickets specially delievered). United are just as bad if not worse than everyone else. They don't care at all about proper supporters.

So, I agree with you that football has changed, just wish it hadn't, it's become far too sanitised.

It has indeed changed for the worst, it's become too money driven! I just hope the FA wake up soon and put a stop to it! I mean, thanks to the Glazier morons, Man Utd are knee deep in debt, they haven't helped us one tiny bit!

 

[King Pietersen]

That's right, all these foreign investors are ripping the heart and soul out of English football clubs. They don't even give a damn about football, they just want to make a quick buck!

Not they don't. If they wanted to make a quick buck there are way easier and cheaper ways to do it. Coming into a club and spending ?100million on new players is not brilliant business, and they're certainly not doing it to make masses of money, as frankly there's not that much money to be made in football, unless you're a massive club like Real Madrid or Manchester United. Football would be a stupid investment for a businessman to make if he wanted to make a quick buck.

 

[PhilD123]

So what are they in it for then? I'm presuming you're not naive enough to think that they're "in it for the love of the club".

 

[King Pietersen]

They're obviously not in it for that reason either, but there's just not enough money to be made in football to warrant spending hundreds of millions of pounds buying a club. It just doesn't make much business sense, I mean Roman won't have made anywhere near the amount back that he's spent on Chelsea. I honestly don't know their reasoning for it, but it doesn't seem to me that it makes much business sense "investing" in a football club.

 

[PhilD123]

The sense is that they buy it for a few hundred million (these are billionaires we're talking about, it's peanuts), have a little hobby for a while, then sell it on when its very successful for a lot more money.

 

[m_vaughan]

Except that not every owner does that. Period.

 

[Will_NA]

Course, if you're a fat Uzbeki criminal, you won't be allowed at said club.