The degradation of football

[The Blade]

I really believe it has become much more of a commercial product than it has ever been, especially when we deal with Champions League tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi are good players but getting all the trophies is unrealistic. They also have more trophies than figures like Pele, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff and Zinedine Zidane. Neymar, one of the most expensive players of our time, is more famous for scandals with his father and his teammates and spends a lot of time simulating on the field. Also, I'll address my personal circle by giving an example how a friend of mine really despised Ronaldo when he was a Real player and would often ''spit'' on him but now that Cristiano is a leader of his favourite club - Juventus - he became a very valuable player to this same person. I have told him several times this is very hypocritical of him. Last season Champions League final was a joke. Share your thoughts but most tournaments lost my interest during the years. I only have some interest kept in World Cups and Euro Cups nowadays.

[Davy Jones's Locker]

Champions League seems to be won by the same few teams from a limited number of countries. It probably will not get any better if you consider these clubs are threatening UEFA with a Super League. That is partly why FFP was forced through to protect this cartel.

Neymar, one of the most expensive players of our time, is more famous for scandals with his father and his teammates and spends a lot of time simulating on the field.

I have the impression the majority of players will try to cheat the referee these days. If I'm going to view a big game I actually try to watch it on delay so I can fast-forward through all the time wasting.

I only have some interest kept in World Cups and Euro Cups nowadays.

Yes the International game has not been corrupted to the same extent by finance like the club game has. Still, I assume the domestic system in your country is still largely comprised of owners, Manager/coaches and players that are actually Bulgarian. This is not the case for the Premier League in my nation or really even the Championship second tier.

[Yamnaya]

The english league is way better, everytime i check there is some different team winning the league cup. Spain system is just retarded, giving no incentives to lesser know teams. Basically all they do is buff Barsa and Madrid, that way they get the best players, win all the International tournaments and by winning those tournaments their players get the balon dor. If Ronaldo was still in mamchester and Messi in other english team they would have never win the amount of prices they won

[ÁGUIA]

Bosman ruling killed "romantic" football. It created a bigger gap between the rich and poor. Made football in a way to become less democratic and dominated by a small elite of clubs. Only teams from Spain, England, Germany and Italy have won the Champions League since, and will continue to do so in the future, the only exception was FCPorto in 2004.

[Universe]

Back in the day it felt like there were so many exceptional players, since late 2000s to these days it's all about ronaldo and messi, which is boring.

[The Blade]

Yes the International game has not been corrupted to the same extent by finance like the club game has. Still, I assume the domestic system in your country is still largely comprised of owners, Manager/coaches and players that are actually Bulgarian. This is not the case for the Premier League in my nation or really even the Championship second tier.

Owners are chiefly Bulgarian.
Managers are predominantly Bulgarian but sometimes hail from other states, too.
Players are extremely diverse - ethnic Bulgarians, Bulgarian Romas (much more of them here than in volleyball or basketball), Europeans from other states, Latin Americans, Africans, etc.

Happy New Year!

[Tooting Carmen]

English football may be very successful commercially, but it has long lost its soul. Tickets are grossly overpriced, neither the players nor the managers usually come from England any more, the owners are mostly absentee millionaires from anywhere and everywhere. In fact, my home club - Swansea City - was actually much better off when ran primarily by the Supporters' Trust than it has been since those two American millionaires bought it.

[Duffmannn]

Football is "negrofying" fastly, apart of the loseness of the realm of the sport in these last 20 years.

Whites are moving towards rugby in many countries now.

[KirillMazur]

All memories are associated primarily with childhood and the first vivid impressions of football.
I agree with that. But again, just starting from the mid-90s, football turned from a purely sport into an already clearly structured showbiz (with elements of sports), which again gave a strong impetus to the sports component. The Champions League was created, which became mega popular all over the world, the European Championship and the World Cup were reorganized by adding teams there. That is, the vector has shifted to international matches, which again increases competition, which is very attractive for the viewer and attracts neutral people into football. Plus, technologies began to develop: cable TV, satellite TV, the Internet (in its infancy, but even then it was possible to find out the result or find out the composition of the team) computer games (the first fifa games). I asked an elderly man what football was like in the 80s (moreover, not in the USSR, but in France and Sweden), he says that it was boring (in comparison with the present) - two matches of the national championship on the weekend, a tour review, the national team and a couple of clubs in Eurocups. It's all. For those who got interested in football in the 00s, it seems that you could always watch matches on cable TV, play fifa with beautiful three-dimensional graphics, watch all matches of the Champions League tour at the same time, and buy 35 different t-shirts of your idols on the market. But it all started in the 90s, all over the world, and it was an overwhelming success of commercial (ugly word, but as it is) football.

But I agree with the current degradation - everything is degrading, where “effective managers” with an MBA diploma come to lead, who are trained to evaluate any creativity (and sport) only in terms of profit. For me, the "golden" time for soccer is somewhere between 1996-2008, then I almost lost interest.

[Joso]

I never really liked apart of watching Brasil sometimes.
Too much violence.