The Beautiful game

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My first experience of football was as a young boy when my Father took myself and my brother to  see West Ham play. I think that it was against Norwich and was a 0-0 draw. In the years to come as a family we followed West Ham even sharing my Brothers season ticket. I like many others enjoy watching and getting involved in football.  I also, like many others, was shocked and stunned to learn that the rights for Premiership football was worth 5 Billion pounds. I can’t help thinking that we are about to out price the Beautiful game and as it makes more and more money that greed and power will destroy what Gary Linker and others calls Grass roots football. And because of this and the rise of the foreign players in the top league sadly in my life time I cannot see us ever winning the world cup.

This is not meant to be a piece on just the greed of Premiership and the rise of money that goes with it. There is a deeper issue here. We live in a society where there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. It seems to me that although this is a business deal 5 Billion pounds could be used in helping the poor who watch football who save their pennies to watch their favourite teams either on TV or at the Stadiums.


I cannot help thinking that 5 Billion is a huge a lot of money. Think what that money could do for say the NHS or those in desperate need. It is about time we got our priorities right a game that let’s face it is just a game or people’s lives and well beings.    

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