{"id":2317,"date":"2023-02-27T11:34:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T11:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2023-02-27T11:58:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T11:58:55","slug":"footballs-death-from-a-thousand-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/footballs-death-from-a-thousand-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Football\u2019s Death From A Thousand Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are you a glass half-full or a glass half-empty sort of person? If you\u2019re not sure, as yourself how you felt in the wake of Liverpool\u2019s draw with Crystal Palace this weekend. Those of you with a more positive outlook will feel that three clean sheets in a row in the Premier League is good news. You will doubtless agree with the manager\u2019s take on things, that the games have been very similar in recent trips to Selhurst Park and the only difference is that this time we didn\u2019t score. After the humbling at the hands of Real Madrid, the more positive-minded amongst you will be of the opinion that a boring match was exactly what Liverpool needed. If you tend to be more negative in your outlook, you will feel that there is something fundamentally broken with the Reds this season. I have made <a href=https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/the-mitigating-circumstances-around-liverpools-collapse\/>attempts to look at<\/a> why this season is what it is already, but still we continue to suffer in ways that we really shouldn\u2019t, which this latest result merely serves to reinforce as an idea.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> Morning Reds&#8230;.Really poor again&#8230; but&#8230;.3 clean sheets on the bounce, up to 7th&#8230;.Wolves next, it is all about getting 4th now, we all know how bad it is, we can choose to whinge until May OR, back them every game and drag them over the line&#8230;.I know what I am doing!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; James McCarthy* (@JamesInvictus) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamesInvictus\/status\/1629781969008574464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The debate over the owners will rage on until the day that they\u2019re no longer at the helm. Personally, I will always hold a nuanced view of what they\u2019ve done during their time at the club. There is no question whatsoever that they\u2019ve made mistakes at times, with the ticket prices and European Super League being the two most obvious examples. I will also need no convincing that they should\u2019ve spent more. That being said, they always had faith in Financial Fair Play rules having more substance than they ended up having and during their time at Anfield they could\u2019ve done nothing different to what they did do and seen us win four Premier League titles, three League Cups and arguably the same number of European Cups. On balance, when you look at the development of Anfield, I think they\u2019ve been good owners. The fact that a lot of people won\u2019t agree and that #FSGOUT is an ever-present hashtag on Twitter is a sign of how football is dying from a thousand cuts.<\/p>\n<h2>My Morally Bankrupt Billionaire Is Better Than Yours<\/h2>\n<p>Over the course of the weekend, I had a number of interactions on social media over my assertion that I\u2019d rather see Manchester United win the League Cup than Newcastle United. The logic was simple: the Saudi Arabian takeover at St. James\u2019 Park means that I don\u2019t want the Geordies to win so much as a throw-in until the blood money of their sports-washing owners has been taken out of the English game. The same is true of Manchester City, with the number of charges that are hanging over Pep Guardiola\u2019s team showing what a farce the Premier League has become. Many of the replies that I received were people telling me I\u2019m wrong and that <em>they<\/em> obviously hate Manchester United far more than I do. To those people, the sports-washing taking place in Newcastle is just part of the modern game and anyway, the Glazers are just as bad because American has the death penalty and is limiting women\u2019s rights to an abortion and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">United are owned by the glazers , who donate to Israel , a murderous apartheid. Amazing the number of deluded Liverpool fans with double standards when it comes to morals<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Arthur Fowler &#x1f1f5;&#x1f1f8; (@ArthurFowler_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ArthurFowler_\/status\/1630095792852680704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The fact that Liverpool fans who are against sports-washing had to choose between wanting Manchester United to win this weekend or being ok with a post-takeover Newcastle lifting the trophy is a sign of just how far down the rabbit hole football as a sport has gone. I grew up despising the Red Devils. Even aside from the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester as cities, which is precisely why I don\u2019t think Manchester-born referees should be allowed to take charge of our matches, there is also the fact that I had to watch them win everything there was to win under Alex Ferguson. As much as I hate them, though, I also have respect for <a href=https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/1687727-how-manchester-united-exploit-their-global-brand-like-nobody-else>how the club achieved its success<\/a>. As Liverpool were resting on their laurels after nearly two decades of success, United realised the growing importance of the commercialisation of football and tore down part of Old Trafford to re-built it. Their riches are from success, not because they\u2019re state-owned, so I\u2019m glad they won.<\/p>\n<h2>Can\u2019t We All Aspire To Be Better?<\/h2>\n<p>Suggest that you don\u2019t want Liverpool to be state-owned on social media and you\u2019ll receive any number of replies from people telling you why you\u2019re wrong. They perform mental gymnastics full of false equivalence to say that the fact that we\u2019re sponsored by Standard Chartered means that <em>actually<\/em> we\u2019re just as bad as City and Newcastle being owned by murderous regimes that oppress members of the LGBTQ+ community and <em>really<\/em> your problem is that the owners of those clubs aren\u2019t white. That\u2019s right, you\u2019re against ownership by the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates not because you <a href=https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/world-report\/2022\/country-chapters\/saudi-arabia>care about human rights<\/a>, but because you\u2019re a big old racist. This is what the influx of money into football has done to us all, made us into apologists for the worst people on the planet. I should call my LGBTQ+ friends and tell them that I\u2019m sorry, but Qatar would buy us Jude Bellingham so who cares if they\u2019d kill them?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Modern football is marvellous isn\u2019t it ??<br \/>Wondering which Billionaire\/Sovereign wealth fund\/ Nation State, will gain dominance over the next decade.<br \/>And wondering are the rest of the teams just fodder, making up the numbers\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; tommy smith (@stnazaire42) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stnazaire42\/status\/1629914829702979584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When I said that Newcastle fans had sold their morals for the chance of some silverware, I was informed that no football fans should be expected to give up their passion for the sport because of owners arriving that they had no choice about. I respectfully disagree. If the Reds get bought by a nation state, whether that be one from the Middle East or a \u2018white\u2019 one, my love for the game would be done. What would any silverware matter if I knew that we\u2019d simply bought it because we spent money without regard, used as a pawn in a battle for supremacy in the world of politics? If I\u2019m honest, I\u2019m barely clinging on to my interest in football as it is, given the manner in which Liverpool and Real Madrid fans were <a href=https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/sport\/20230213-uefa-deemed-responsible-for-paris-champions-league-football-final-chaos>treated by UEFA<\/a>, who care about nothing but the bottom line. The football that I\u2019d be walking away from isn\u2019t the same game as the one that I fell in love with. I think we should all aspire to be better than this and not criticise those that want their game back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you a glass half-full or a glass half-empty sort of person? If you\u2019re not sure, as yourself how you felt in the wake of Liverpool\u2019s draw with Crystal Palace this weekend. Those of you with a more positive outlook will feel that three clean sheets in a row in the Premier League is good news. You will doubtless agree with the manager\u2019s take on things, that the games have been very similar in recent trips to Selhurst Park and the only difference is that this time we didn\u2019t score. After the humbling at the hands of Real Madrid, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2320,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions\/2320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}