Tbh I'm not at all bothered.
Football has changed immeasurably since I was a kid, not just playing but watching it.
Late 70s early 80s I went celtic Park, ibrox and hampden regularly and a few others occasionally.
They were pits, absolute fudging pits.
My first visit to hampden was a cup final replay and walking under the main stand to get the enclosure was like the scene in gladiator where they first enter the arena.
Celtic Park the stands were a river of urine, ibrox didn't have enough stalls and it wasn't unusual to see crap lying in the stairwells.
Women and kids were a novelty.
Outside was worse, running the gauntlet of "casuals".
Never mind the bigotry and hatred.
I doubt it was any different anywhere else.
Football on TV was once a week and pitiful.
Try following a club from a distance, you had no chance. If you didn't follow man utd or Liverpool you never had a chance. Results and a table.
Merchandise, ha, that will be the day. 1981 I got my second only football strip, a Tottenham Hotspur full strip, took over six weeks to arrive. The main sports shop in Glasgow said it was the first one they had sold in seven years!
All that has gone, well apart from the bigotry, and it needed money to do it. Money the working class man was unwilling or unable to pay.
Sky was willing to pay for it so they call the tune. But look what we get in return.
I can watch spurs whenever I want, the stadiums are a Palace in comparison to "the good old days", the product is better (oh yes it is, no more ploughed fields, no more vinnie Jones, refs are still crap though), it is family friendly, its inclusive and it is driving social change and for the better.
Others saw sky make money and have jumped on it, Competition is good for the consumer.
Is it all roses, no.
I hate sky, loath them, and do everything I can to not give them money.
The instant experts do my head in.
The hype is cringe worthy, average players are feted as World beaters.
Tactics pulled apart forever, and usually by idiots.
Saddest bit for me, there is no fun anymore, that's our fault.
There's a playing field with 12 grass pitches half a mile from my home, you never see anyone playing football on them.
There's loads of kids with balls, but they're all doing drills, dribbling round fudging cones, I mean WTF!
They're all gone now, paved over for motorway and houses, but I grew up 500 yards from south pollok playing fields, 30 pitches and in the summer there was always people actually playing football on them.
Football is a product, end of.
I don't follow football, I follow Tottenham Hotspur, where they go I go.
And don't think the clubs, fifa, eufa and the broadcasters don't know it. If you or me decide we don’t like it, there are plenty more who will take our place.
And they won't be moaning about the cost, or good old days or soulless clubs.
When people have signed their life away to amazon, Netflix Fb, twitter etc it's easy to ignore another soulless corporate entity.