Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It’s a strange one. I was at Salford away and as our last ‘performance’ it was a bum note to finish the season on. Maybe because of that I’ve not missed football. It’s a habit / addiction if you like yet now that’s been broken I’m finding that I haven’t yearned for footy in particular and even my posts on here have become less than normal. I certainly haven’t missed ‘watching ‘ Akpan ...

This is actually a brilliant opportunity to reset football particularly up the ladder where sovereign countries are buying clubs.
PL greed is sickening. The Olympics demonstrated that a few years ago yet we sleepwalked back into the status quo. NHS heroes show what’s important in life and how we have our priorities misaligned after years of messaging from SKY and BT. The PFA have shown what an out of date organisation they are and footballers many of whom do brilliant things for charity have taken a kicking because of it. That’s not fair but many don’t help themselves and their moral stock appears to be in the realms of greedy corporate owners and capitalist bankers. Like several others I’ve watched little sky sports since however I would miss the cricket.

Will we return to VP. Probably. Will we continue with expensive sky sports not so sure. Football needs a reset. It’s a great opportunity that the hierarchy has an opportunity to grasp but they won’t because of self interest.

 

The reset would be to do away with the number of clubs currently in the league. Drop the 92 but to how many?

 

It's Sky that's the problem they want the 750m. However, it's teams like West Ham and Brighton that are making the PL look like dicks...

Nothing wrong with the PL. The issues is below with teams like ours run badly.

 

My worry about the PL is that they could ruin football for everyone next season.

West Ham are proving dangerous! Seems like they will do anything to stay up. Wouldn't shock me if they organise fans at grounds behind closed just so they can stay up.

I honestly can't see football next season with the way West Ham are going about things at the moment. They're a disgrace to football!

 

Chill Fordy.......n o b o d y cares......it's not important at all, wait and see what happens..

 

Just say if this season doesn't end then next doesn't happen..

How about me for chairman of Bradford AFC? I would have @Faithful Bantam as CEO, @Dennis as head of Communications @Bronco head of PR(can tell good stories about the past and how we ended here today), @Park bantam head of fan liaison @Tony Wilkinson head of running midget parties for me @Steve1970 head of maintenance( can wash cars) @Keefly Bantam Head of hospitality (loves a late night)

 

I’ve have missed it a bit tbh, but then again I’m a poor example because I only see City occasionally. My best comparison is that I really miss being able to go fishing, it’s something I do regularly, sometimes competitions so there is a social aspect, but the vast majority totally on my own (or with the kids) purposefully trying to be as far from anyone as i can. So, ok it’s not a total match in terms of the two activities, but I think if I still attended City games a lot, I’d definitely want to get ‘back on the horse’ for want of a better phrase, when it returned.

I think the majority will go back, as it is a big part of their identity and the crap times are worth overcoming; we all need a pastime, an outlet etc. Some won’t, maybe they will discover a new hobby or they just revaluate their priorities, and that is totally understandable to. Our club, same with all the others (to varying degrees depending on finance) will really need fans to return, and I honestly think by that time, most people will.

 

The people who effectively own the game now don't need change. The model works for them and they are happy to continue moulding the world of football to suit their needs. Problem is they care not one iota about the levels below the elite, for them every customer below the premiership is a customer lost to a rival. Long term the only solution is a salary cap game but for it to work it would have to be throughout the whole game. But this would never tie in with corruption with FIFA and UEFA, transparency and a salary cap would blow the murky underworld of football finance wide open. And we can't be having that can we?
Fans in leagues like the bundesliga continue to stand up and fight against this systematic corruption and the destroying of the very fabric of their football traditions but even they are being pushed now by the likes of Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig. And when you have teams effectively owned by countries like PSG with the Qataries and Newcastle near to being taken over by regimes with appalling human rights records what hope do we ever have of change?

 

As well as Sky and BT etc. you have to factor in the betting companies and the pressure they bring to bear nowadays. Their influence is spread just as far, if not further than the television companies, with billions of pounds being spent by clients all around the world, often on the result of one game or even who will score the next goal or receive the next yellow card FFS.

 

You need another break from this forum I think you've lost it.

 

You couldn't afford my services @Fordy117 I'm not a charity plus @Bronco and @parkbantam would be in Scotland according to you.

 

Money makes the world go around as they say, ask the likes of your above teams fans what they think about the human rights with regards those countries people and many wouldnt have a clue what your talking about, and after telling them they wouldnt care as long as their team is up there with the best.
Would Bradford City fans be any different if North Koreas Kim Jong-un wanted to buy Bradford City and sink multi millions into the club, I'm not sure we would.

 

John Nicholson - Can we have our football back.
The best book I’ve read in a very long time. Couple of quid for the kindle version will help pass a few days during lockdown. Unearths a lot of questions on football it’s structure and how fundamentally reliant it is on TV money.
Even some players give away their wages because they earn too much.
Sobering.

 

This is backs up @Dennis point about the PL and why I find clubs like West Ham an utter disgrace to the game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52517532

I mean what nonsense!

 

i for one wouldn't want it. Money has ruined football in my humble opinion, fans the likes of me and you mean nothing anymore. In a really harsh way i'd like to see clubs go to the wall because of this virus, just to show what a mess football was in before it came along. Clubs would start again anyway if the demand was there from existing fans.

 

Think you should seek help mate

 

West Ham are a disgrace! Scared of Watford!

The joke is an utter joke! An embarrassment to the game

 

Added Millwall to your list of favourite clubs then ?

 

Blimey reading some of the posts on here and around the t'internet it seems that covid 19 is really ripping fan bases apart.

I spent an hour last Monday talking to Ryan Sparks and most of it was around our love for the club and our passion for it to succeed. Nice bloke by the way and not anything like I have read about online.

For me I will always be a City fan and will try to attend as many games as I can. Like others have said its the sort of matchday ritual, the pre game buzz and more recently the after game depression. Those highs and lows are the intangible part of football. That misplaced hope that THIS is the week we wallop a team 5-0.

Like @Rogered Tart I have in recent years left going to away games until the absolute last minute. My last one was Carlisle , boxing day. Left Keighley at 12 ish. At 11.30 I was on the sofa in my pyjamas watching BT sport. Wished I had stayed on the sofa.

In the 84/85 season I attended 45 out of the 46 games. I missed the last home game as I was playing footy in London and I knew we had already won the trophy and my parents were to record the whole game for me.

I am not religious but having been spared the events of that day somehow, really irrationally I know, I feel I have a moral duty to keep the club around by supporting it to keep the memories of those that perished alive. Yes I know its left field and totally irrational but that's just how I feel.

Yes the last few seasons have been dog shite but so many other have been as well.

We have spent 70% of our entire existence as a lower league club.

I think, like a few others do, that football will now become a brand new game once its restarted. The money at the top will still slosh around the PL. The EFL clubs, that are left, will have hit the reset button and footballers will get contracts that are at least 40% lower than they are right now. Agents will still be in some position of power but their clients ain't getting the £6K a week that Salford are paying to one of their players.

Now if that's the case then next season could be one where we go for it and with a budget of say £2.5 mill you could hoover up some real talent and build a team that would be capable of promotion.

Time will tell.