ToffeeWeb

IMO, Rohl played a really good game but how you can put the real MotM, Garner, 2 points below him is crazy.

Can’t blame Moyes for the late goal. It was a class shot from Doku. But, the defence opened up to allow the room for the shot – didn’t learn from his first goal. So blame the defenders. How stupid is it for us to lose points to last minute goals 3 games on the run??!!!!!

Si #52, the origin of the game was in the 1800s when it wasn’t for the fans but as a pastime for ‘gentlemen’.

But with the advent of stadia the clubs were reliant on the income from spectators. Look at the 70,000 that attended Dixie’s 60th, or the regular 50-60ks at the derbies in the 60s and 70s.

What’s happened since is the game has been sanitised, starting with ground capacity reductions from all seater stadia. It was only then that clubs had to look for outside income. Before that there was no shirt sponsorships, advertising around the ground was for local butchers, bakers and candlestick makers and players were majority home grown, went to the match on the same bus as the supporters, and earned very little more than them. Club funding came from local family owners who could no longer keep financing them due to decreased capacity and therefore reduced income.

So I’d disagree and say football WAS very much for the fans, and the local community, and the malaise that we suffer now is because of the televisation and commercialism of the game by ‘the powers that be’

That’s why fans are disillusioned and if they stopped attending matches, sure it wouldn’t affect income that much, but it would be a soulless experience just watching it on telly, just look at the televised Covid matches.

I guess with AI technology though the telly companies can fill a stadium with bodies and sound and generate an atmosphere. Then maybe in the future do the same with players.

And remember, we’re only talking EPL here. There’s plenty of other lower division clubs that rely on supporter attendance and spending to survive and there the game still is very much for the fans.

John @ 25. How dare you infer that there may be something dodgy about our referees. Don’t you know that they are the best and most honest officials in the world !

See that there seems to be a lot of interest in this !

I don’t really think that ‘they threw it all away’ is relevant from last nights match. The stone wall penalty last night would have given us a 4-2 lead and even City couldn’t come back from that. There also would not have been as much added time either as the penalty would have eaten up the minutes and you don’t add time in lieu of penalties as they are part of the run of the game. The main delay was Tim going off the pitch with a little help. As it was, the ref allowed 90 seconds over the 7 minutes to be played. Where did that come from. Wonder if the ref met the City team coach at Knutsford service station and handed over an nice new (and bulky) brown envelope for his collection.