ClaretandHugh Facebook group member Tony Squires has several bees in his bonnet as the game has seen the rise of issues which he believes has reduced the game considerably in the public perception. Not least among them is the commercialisation of West Ham United and other club. Here Tony addresses the issues which he believes have seen the game away from the fans!
By Tony Squires
The players are adapting to the game, not the other way around.
Look whats happened since Sky came to town. Look at the kick off times and the way they have changed to maximise revenue. Look how the European football scene is more prestigious than winning the FA cup.
Look how the shirts are decked in gambling company adverts dressed up as ‘sponsorship’ to make it sound respectable.
The way that foreign owners have come in a stripped the identity and culture away from an entire fanbase or the way not so foreign owners tried to corporatise a certain traditional, working class, East London club.
From the FA down to the clubs, to the players through Agents, money to buy bigger and better has taken the game away from the people, from those who could turn up with a few quid in their pocket and pay on the turnstyle into an expensive and more often than not depressing corporate ride of £60 strip shirts and £6.30 for chips and a curry sauce.
And we blame ‘greedy’ players ?
The professional football we grew up, with which was in reality in its own infancy, has aged in to an arrogant, money grabbing, soulless, narcissistic and puerile middle-aged B*****rd.
West Ham – like every other football club – has been taken away from the fans!
‘the way not so foreign owners tried to corporatise a certain traditional, working class, East London club.’
Agreed, and I’m assuming the ‘not so foreign’ comment alludes to Sullivan being Welsh?
Sorry mate – misread it, my apologies
And what’s Tony done to try and stop things? apart from moaning? my guess is nothing.
I think the biggest change is the supporters mindset. We have a song that expresses our feelings and the knowledge that we try for glory but we often fail.
We used to just get on with it – but not anymore. Are we the most vocally depressed and whinging fans in football.
Online fans who moan about the club badge, about the walk to the new stadium being ‘toooo long ‘, the new stadium having no atmosphere – who makes the atmosphere ? – the new pitch being ‘toooo big’, about season ticket holders not attending matches, questioning stadium attendance figures, on and on and on …
I’m glad I’m a WHU supporter and not married to one – I bet your wives are glad it takes so long for you to walk to the stadium – give them some peace.
We spent an enormous amount of money on new players at the start of the season – then the whingers moan that we didn’t spent another £40m this transfer period ??? Does the club have enough financial income to allow us to spend that total in one season ?
One thing about being a WHU supporter was that were we come from made us well grounded – get a life.
Just get behind the team and make some noise – whoever is playing.
Well said Crewe, I agree with a lot of what Tony says about greed, Sky and UEFA but I also agree with you that some fans are very quick to turn on players, chairmen the stadium etc whenever anyone looks back it’s always the good times they remember apart from the 60’s when I wasn’t around we have been a middle sized unsuccessful club, good support through good times and mostly bad times we are heading in a good direction under MP if he can root out the bad apples we have a bright future ahead onwards and upwards COYI !!!
I think Tony Squires is right about quite a lot actually.. As for the badge, it’s shocking. The adding of the word ‘london’ was added onto the new crest, to make a few extra bucks. It sums up perfectly the state of the modern game and its money, money,momey culture at the expense of tradition (keeping the castle) I’m afraid. I don’t see that as moaning, just fact. I still get behind the team.
Spot on Tony. I could never afford a season ticket but even as a school boy I’d save my lunch money, pocket money and paper round money to go see my team and 80 pence bought me a meat pie at half time. Watching the likes of my all time fave Sir Trevor, Bonso, Devonshire, Parksie and later Tiny Tottee Tony Cottee with Frankie, The Terminator Julian Dicks and Ludo who all played for the badge. The game is nothing like the football I grew up with, when keepers didn’t wear gloves let alone on field players! Teams like Derby, Forest, Leeds, Coventry were all 1st division battlers. The birth of the Premier League killed football as far as I’m concerned. COYI ⚒⚒
Spot on
It started happening long before the Birth of the Premiere League . You just have to be old enough to remember it . It started whilst the Old First Division was still the Top Division . There was money to be made . Not trying to seem older or wiser or anything else to lessen your comment , but seriously it started before then . Every TV channel was vying for live game coverage . BBC & ITV ( Thames television ) . Match of the Day and the Big Match . Between them they started moving games for live coverage with the Police forces backing it up due to “ crowd control “ expenses . And with that grand excuse to move games around the TV companies ( Sky , in particular ) jumped on board and basically took control .
Toni is completely right and reflect’s what I said some 30yrs plus ago . Television will destroy the Saturday football experience for all fans . Now with Skysports amongst others that have gotten involved my initial comments / thoughts / worries have materialized . The constant battering we receive to gamble is also a show of Thier indifference to people’s financial plights and to Football in general . They have turned football into a huge , massive and unstoppable profit based regime which flys in the face of all decent hard working fans that only want to support Thier team and find some enjoyment after a hard weeks work . One could argue that TV has injected vast amounts of money into the game ,,,, but the price is too high and the game is suffering expertentially year after year . TV is basically sucking away at the Sport we all love or Loved .
I think, if Sky and today’s owners could swing it, they would replace physical supporters with cgi and digital sound effects.
Then, EVERY match would be shown live on Sky etc
‘Greed’ is very similar to Brexit in that there are at least 2 ways to argue every case; most of which are circular and some, without substance.
There is no starting point otherwise, if you go back far enough, its all Reg Pratt’s fault for daring to have a dream……
Different age now though isn’t. 24 hrs a day live TV and social media. Years ago you could only see a live game by going to a live game. Now you can see every game no matter where you are in the world. There are a lot of West Ham supporters all over the world including ex pats who wouldn’t get to see the game otherwise.
A lot of these fans who whinge and complain about the badge, the walk to the stadium being too long etc etc, that call the stadium a soulless bowl etc erc. Let’s face it a lot of these people started going to games in the bad old days of hoolaganism in the seventies and eighties when you would turn up and buy a ticket and stand on the terraces. I did myself. Back then it was mostly young working class east end. If you stood behind the goal in particular you would get pushed and pulled all other the place by the sway of the crowd. It was no environment for children. police in meat wagons and on horseback herding the fans into and out of games. You don’t see so much of that now. You can say it’s soulless but some might say it’s more civilised. You don’t hear the swearing you used to. Probably because there are huge numbers of women and children nowadays at games compared to what there used to be. It does affect the atmosphere but some might say for the better. It’s all a matter of perspective. West Ham used to be a traditional east end cockney working class male game but it’s not anymore. Football is for everybody. West Ham is for everybody, and that’s the way it should be shouldn’t it? A lot of things have changed for the better. I wouldn’t have wanted to take my wife or kids to a game in the days of hoolaganism. It’s human nature to remember the good times and forget the bad. But there were some really bad times in the past as a West Ham fan. The biggest thing that’s affected our club the last few years, affected the atmosphere and everything else, is people continually harking back to the past. It’s time we all moved on, got behind the team and looked to the future.
Well said Clive!!
As someone who first started going to see West Ham in the late 70s, I’ve got no hesitation is saying that the football experience is sooooo much better today than it ever used to be. Certainly, there was more of an atmosphere at the Boleyn Ground but, more often than not, it didn’t have much to do with football or what was actually happening on the pitch and although, at its peak, the atmosphere was intoxicating, I also remember, just as many times, I was scared for my well-being.
Today, footballers are fitter, stronger, more skilful and more creative than they ever were when I started going to matches. Games today are more about movement and passing and less about wading through mud and kicking the hell out of whoever you were supposed to be marking.
The ability to watch games from a variety of angles with analysis from experts (albeit of variable quality) adds an extra depth that was never really available from ‘The Big Match’ or MOTD of old.
I don’t like gambling companies being able to advertise on shirts but, given that almost everyone I grew up with liked to put a bet on now and again, I’m not sure that’s any real indication of the end of days.
Football has surely gotten a hell of a lot better, and if that is at the expense of the hooligans and the louts and those yearning for outdated tribalism then so be it.