{"id":2338,"date":"2023-04-17T11:56:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=2338"},"modified":"2023-04-17T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:56:36","slug":"am-i-falling-out-of-love-with-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/am-i-falling-out-of-love-with-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Falling Out Of Love With Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My initial plan was to entitle this piece \u2018Why I\u2019m Falling Out Of Love With Football\u2019, but then I changed my mind. I can\u2019t say for certain that I am. The vast majority of the accounts that I follow on social media are Liverpool-based, for example. The Reds play Leeds United tonight and I\u2019ll be watching, just as I\u2019ve watched all of the matches that we\u2019ve played so far this season. Yet I can\u2019t pretend that I won\u2019t be as invested in it as I would\u2019ve been in years past. There is a chance that that is because we aren\u2019t playing very well. I\u2019d be lying if I said that that wasn\u2019t a factor. It feels as if there is nothing to play for in the remainder of the campaign, such is the extent to which we\u2019ve completely and utterly fallen off a cliff. In truth, though, I don\u2019t think it is because of that. As the campaign has progressed, I\u2019ve never really developed the same sort of feelings that I have in years gone by. I didn\u2019t get \u2018derby belly\u2019 when we played Everton, nor did I feel much sense of nervousness when we went up against Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 match.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The club have confirmed plans for tonight\u2019s game as we remember the tragic loss of 97 lives, 34 years ago at the Hillsborough disaster.<br \/>\n* Dedicated two pages in the programme<br \/>\n* Floral tributes from both captains<br \/>\n*Both CEO\u2019s swapping pennants in front of the Chris &amp; Kev plaque. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A9VVJWSo1N\">pic.twitter.com\/A9VVJWSo1N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LUFC Trust (@lufctrust) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lufctrust\/status\/1647917018136420352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t had any real motivation to feel much of anything during the season, truth be told. I had put it down to how rubbish we\u2019ve been, but the more I think about it, the less I think it explains everything. The sad truth is that football is changing beyond any real recognition and I\u2019m no longer certain it is for me. As sports-washing nations take over clubs up and down the country, it means that it has become even more of an arms race than it has been before. At the time of writing, Newcastle United look likely to finish in the top four thanks to the fact that they have been bought by a murderous, oppressive regime. Rather than campaign against it, plenty of Liverpool fans would like that to happen to us. Manchester United supporters are hoping that their club gets bought by Qatar\u2019s Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani. The Premier League have said that human rights will matter when it comes to future owners, but it\u2019s clear that\u2019s not really true when you consider that they\u2019ve said that Al Thani is a \u2018private citizen\u2019. It\u2019s all just so very depressing.<\/p>\n<h2>Paris &amp; Tragedy Chanting<\/h2>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t in Paris. I had tried to get tickets, like so many other supporters, but I\u2019d failed. I did, however, know plenty of people that were there. I know that, for them, this has been an extremely difficult season. They were unenthused about the football from the moment the campaign started and I\u2019ve felt their pain. I don\u2019t think anyone that has been following football will have been all that surprised by UEFA\u2019s immediate attempts to blame Liverpool supporters for what happened, nor the decision by the French authorities to stick to that excuse. In reality, no one will be shocked by the fact that opposition supporters jumped straight onto the bandwagon, thanks to decades of \u2018Liverpool bad\u2019 being the narrative that so many people follow. In spite of the fact that there was plenty of video footage and countless journalists in amongst the supporters that were being left outside the ground and put in a deadly situation, not even the official, independent report will change the minds of people who prefer \u2018banter\u2019 over reality. It was, once again, the fault of the authorities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">When Liverpool tweeted about Hillsborough yesterday, there were Liverpool \u2018supporters\u2019 replying about signings.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s kind of reassuring that these cranks have no limits. They\u2019re to be treated with pity as they\u2019re utterly clueless about the football club or anything. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Red Man (@RedMan6_19) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RedMan6_19\/status\/1647491394179563520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As if that wasn\u2019t upsetting enough, it feels as though the desire to engage in \u2018tragedy chanting\u2019 has gone up a notch this season. Singing \u2018The S*n was right, you\u2019re murderers\u2019 isn\u2019t subtle. Chanting that Liverpool fans are \u2018always the victims\u2019 and that it\u2019s \u2018never your fault\u2019 is more subtle, but thanks to the words \u2018always\u2019 and \u2018never\u2019 appearing in it, it cannot claim to not be about the Hillsborough Disaster. Those that say \u2018it\u2019s actually about Heysel\u2019 aren\u2019t doing any better. I\u2019ve never heard any Liverpool supporter sing about Munich, but I\u2019m sure there are some that do. It\u2019s all just so awful that it really is putting me off feeling engaged with football matches now. Whether it\u2019s \u2018just kids\u2019 or \u2018a minority\u2019, and I don\u2019t think either thing is true, that doesn\u2019t make it any better in terms of why it happens. When a supporter swears and a microphone picks it up, Sky Sports, BT Sport and any other broadcaster is quick to apologise. When the majority of supporters sing songs about tragedies, nothing is done. It isn\u2019t ok and it needs to change.<\/p>\n<h2>Being Cheated Out Of Titles<\/h2>\n<p>At the time of writing, there has been nothing proven against Manchester City. Yet at the same time, Pep Guardiola\u2019s team has 115 charges levelled against it around financial improprieties. J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s Liverpool missed out on two titles to City by a single point, including last season. If the charges are proven to be accurate then we will have been cheated out of both of them, to say nothing of the title that we came so close to winning in 2013-2014. There is only so long that you can take part in a rigged game before starting to feel like it just isn\u2019t worth it. As long as sports-washing clubs are in the English sport, it will not feel like a fair fight. That the alternative in the eyes of some people is for Liverpool to be taken over by a nation state makes things more depressing, not less. Having to explain why the Reds having American owners isn\u2019t the same as being owned by a country that oppresses LGBTQ+ people isn\u2019t what I\u2019m in it for, if I\u2019m honest. I do not believe that \u2018if you can\u2019t beat \u2018em, join \u2018em\u2019 is the right approach in this instance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">What&#8217;s even more sad is, a team with 115 financial charges against them, who have been cheating for near a decade are about to win a 3rd title in a row.<br \/>\nThe rest may aswell just go home, it&#8217;s pointless<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carl Lewis (@carl_lewis_91) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/carl_lewis_91\/status\/1647618571890032641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As City chase down Arsenal and look set to win yet another title, football prepares to simply shrug its collective shoulders and say \u2018and what?\u2019 It means nothing to most people because everyone suspects that City have been up to no good ever since the takeover. Is Guardiola a fantastic coach? Few would be able to disagree with that notion. At the same time, everything he\u2019s achieved in Manchester has an asterisk against it in the eyes of most football fans. If the charges are proven, it doesn\u2019t give the Reds their title celebrations back. If they are dismissed, most will just assume that it\u2019s because City had the better lawyers. That is the position that the Premier League has put the sport in and it makes it very difficult to act as if everything is fine when it feels as though it\u2019s anything but. I\u2019ll watch us play Leeds tonight, but I\u2019ll also know that the result, whichever way it goes, won\u2019t mean very much. If we win, great, but we\u2019re not getting top four. If we lose, that\u2019s annoying, but we\u2019re not getting relegated. It\u2019s all become meaningless, which isn\u2019t a fun place to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My initial plan was to entitle this piece \u2018Why I\u2019m Falling Out Of Love With Football\u2019, but then I changed my mind. I can\u2019t say for certain that I am. The vast majority of the accounts that I follow on social media are Liverpool-based, for example. The Reds play Leeds United tonight and I\u2019ll be watching, just as I\u2019ve watched all of the matches that we\u2019ve played so far this season. Yet I can\u2019t pretend that I won\u2019t be as invested in it as I would\u2019ve been in years past. There is a chance that that is because we aren\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2094,"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\/2338"}],"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=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions\/2339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}