Who will your grandchildren support?

I've supported Arsenal for 50 years and a great many changes have occurred to our top flight clubs in that time. The Premier League has accelerated the change and there is little doubt that in the UK there is a movement towards domination by a few 'Superclubs' of which Arsenal is one. The TV companies have cottoned on to how marketable football is, the media generally have jumped onto the bandwagon and over-indulge in Coronation Street style silliness and scurrilous tabloid scandalmongering.

The big money merchants in the form of overseas corporations and the idle super-rich are fast moving in, and even the powers that be talk of staging premiership matches overseas. Well, in my opinion you don't have to be particularly pessimistic to see that we ordinary supporters who grew up supporting our local club (I always walked to Highbury on match days) will eventually be separated from our clubs by something far greater than the distance between North London and Sussex where I now live. The move towards the long forecast SuperLeague cannot be too far off (less than 20 years I reckon) and clubs such as Arsenal, ManU etc will simply be brand names only notionally drawing on their traditional home support. It's already impossible to simply turn up on match day with your money and pay to go in, and basically if you do not have a decent income you cannot afford to go and watch a top team on a regular basis. You now have to accept the doubtful privilege of paying a TV company to watch games that are beyond reasonable cost due to the money that they have pumped into the game and the players have just as quickly sucked out. In the not too distant future it is probable that instead of Arsenal v West Ham the fixture will be v Milan or Madrid, and that the fixture will be broadcast at a time and on a date that is favourable to a TV audience based in The Far East or the USA. In other words our football clubs are being gradually lifted away from the supporters who gave life to them and will simply become a brand that is hawked around the TV networks worldwide to the highest bidder (the World Cup in Quatar - what a bad joke that is) and devil take the hindmost.

So what will your children/grandchildren do ? Sit there like good little dummies goggling at a plastic TV product that is merely a front for a mega merchandising industry - or start to support a local football club that takes it's name from a local area or industry and can be easily afforded? A revolutionary thought?

 

Notts County, the 5-time-in-a-row Champions league winners from 2045-2049

 

Sorry if anyone is offended by that statement, it was a joke, it was not intended to offend any Arsenal supporters.

 

I have said for years that one day football in this country will end up like American sports.Clubs will become franchises e.g one club in Liverpool,one in the north east,one in Manchester etc etc.There will be no relegation or promotion,clubs will wear a strip by one manufacturer.This will happen in the not to distant future

 

I think the Arsenal Fanshare scheme will ensure that our club always has fan representation at board level, which will hopefully prevent us from ever becoming a franchised brand that is imported to the four corners of the world for mass consumer consumption.

 

I think franchises will bid to be part of the "Super League" as happens in North America

 

Probably Arsenal, unless it goes kapoot (fortunately our financial situation means this is unlikely to happen)

 

How ever horrible it sounds Arsenal would possibly end up as part of possibly two London franchises.

 

Are you really that sure we will end up with a superleague? I can't see any fans of top clubs accepting it.

 

I honestly believe we will end up like North American sports

 

I dont think that will happen; we have too much passion in this country and whilst at arsenal you draw fans from all over, can you image Spurs fans coming over to support you. My kids get a bollocking if they even chose a team like Man U on Fifa 10 - they chose Leicester end of - that's my parental control and duty. You do not have a choice in who you support, it's a birthright, it's all about where you are from. I live in south leicestershire and see kids coming to school in Chelsea tops and Man U kits - their parents need a ****ing education on loyalty. these are kids that sit and watch footie on the tv and think they have a claim to be a fan. They have no ****ing idea what it's like to spend money week in week out and watch your team lose 3-0 to Barnsley on a cold and wet january evening. These armchair supporters have always been about and will always exist but the hard core would never let Owls and Blades unite, or Tranmere/Everton/Liverpool, or Villa/WBA/Blues or rams/trees or foxes/Cov or London United, etc