The feminisation & gentrification of football

Every picture tells a story. This is one from the Emirates last night.



A world away from standing on the East Terrace at the Valley as a kid, the smell of tobacco and Bovril around you, and the old peanut seller at the front of the huge terrace calling out "Peanuts" before lobbing the lucky recipient a bag for 20p.

Muddy pitches. Refs who wore all black. Punch ups. All part of growing up with English football. Now reduced to sitting on a padded seat for £1,300 a season, eating guacamole

 

wearing brand new Nike trainers while drinking a Costa skinny cappuccino

 

What is that he is eating?

 

Ultimate frisbee is the new people's sport. It should be in the Olympics after next. FHB jnr travelled to China earlier this year to play in a triangular tournament, all expenses paid. The so-called "Champion's League" has fecked football. Top clubs are global brands now. Imagine teams like Villa, Forest, Celtic, Ajax Benfica winning it now. They all won the European Cup. The top clubs hoover up all the best kids just to stop their rivals getting them, and they in turn have their best players taken by the 2 Spanish giants. Yet none of the modern so-called super managers can hold a candle to the likes of Brian Clough or Jock Stein to name but two.

 

rocket

 

I think the guy in the photo is @SuperChrissyisfantasticPardswasatrocious

 

Decent bit of spread that.

The games come a long way.

 

"Kansas Gooners"

I was only 5 when football started in 1992, but even I've noticed it's change.

English football isn't a working mans sport anymore, it's a plaything for bonkers billionaires. At the top anyway.

Non league is the tonic.

 

I don't like sensible threads, I can feel a derailment coming.

 

I'm all for this, stadia should sell more food choices than just ****ty salmonella ridden burgers, disgusting pies and chips. And frankly, the fact that the smell of tobacco is gone is a great thing, why should I be forced to endure your* filthy habit when I have no choice to avoid it, simply because you feel the need to smoke? No doubt you'll talk about freedom of choice when it comes to smoking, but where is my right to choose whether I inhale that ****? There are plenty of things wrong with football nowadays, but providing a pleasant match-day experience isn't one of them.

* Not you personally

 

@PompeyLapras

It's pricing the working man out of the game. Our game. It's £62 for a ticket at Arsenal.

 

Some top posts in this thread...

The "cross-bar challenge" does not bother me too much at the Valley, but I don't particularly want to be entertained at half time.
My boredom threshold is not so low that I have a panic attack if there isn't something supposedly 'exciting' being put in front of me for more than 15 minutes.
Showing us the other scores in the league is enough to keep me contented.

Whether it's this regime or any future one that decides to do it, the day they play a jingle over the tannoy when we score a goal is the day to start thinking about AFC Charlton Athletic. I would rather stand behind the touchline with a few hundred other fans and watch a real game of football than pay hundreds of pounds to sit in a seat and be spoon fed a live version of a television show.

And if a franchise like Red Bull ever buys the Club, then it's all over.
I cannot believe some Charlton fans actually long to have our Club swallowed whole by a company like that.

 

Talking of the in-house entertainment at Charlton, I am sure we all agree we can do without Brian Cole

 

As I say, there are plenty of things wrong with football. Ticket prices are ridiculous, and not just that but also completely unnecessary given the size of the TV deals and champions league incomes (I know Arsenal aren't in it this year but usually...).

Nicer stadia (which isn't necessarily only possibly with high ticket prices, plenty of lower league sides have cheap tickets and nice stadia) are one of the few good developments in football recently.

 

I liked it when they used to put the half time scores up on a pitch side board next to a letter at the Valley.

It also helped by teaching our thicker fans the alphabet.

 

If you are a Pompey fan, may I say the bogs in the away end at Fratton Park are also ridiculous. I am not saying they are sodden but I always wear my wellies on a trip to your place.

 

Haha I can imagine, I try to avoid the Milton End whenever possible. Only if there's no tickets available anywhere else will I grudgingly sit there. Needless to say, I wasn't including us in the lower league clubs with good stadia (saying that it has become slightly better since the PST took over)... more on the lines of Plymouth, Doncaster, etc.

 

I have no objection to nicer non-smoking stadia Pompey but I do object to Rocket being sold on pizzas and Costa Coffee in football stadia..... and if they ever start selling falafels in the Valley I think my head would

 

He gets to fill up a few empty seats, boosts the attendance.

 

I would bring back the terraces tomorrow.

You cannot beat the feeling of being unwittingly humped from behind by some fat Northerner.

But that's enough about Mrs Reams.