More Football Madness

Just occasionally on this blog I'll touch on a subject I know not a lot about but still have a passion for - football. Perhaps that's from being a Scouser!

Anyhow two stories today - both from the same club - demonstrate why football is increasingly disconnecting from the masses.

First is the Manchester United plan to increase season ticket prices by an AVERAGE of 12.5% next year. I wonder what the average fan thinks of that one? Coincidentally it happens at around the same time United are inreasing the capacity of their ground by a significant amount (over 10% I think).

On the same day, we're hearing of Wayne Rooney's gambling debts of £700,000. Not bad for someone who is not quite 20 years old yet (or maybe he's just that). Now, I like Wayne as a footballer - from the minute I saw him (as an admitted Evertonian) you could tell he could be truly special. But this is just crazy. Furthermore, it is another one of those things that actually is a negative to the England team which is increasingly dominated by individual issues and problems from the manager on down.

Of course, there are those who think this is just the free market at work. But IMHO, supporting football clubs is something you do for life based on a whole set of values. When that loyalty is exploited for money, and then furthermore, to see how that money is then stupidly spent, it is just insulting for the real fans. I hope the free market will indeed bite back. We need a much, much humbler football business in the UK and it is the big clubs that need to see that clearly if sanity and respect is to be restored.