For The Love of The Game!

That's a great point.

As fans of 'big' clubs we expect to be at least in the mix for trophies - SF's, Finals, European games etc etc.

But what about if you follow a League 1 / 2 side who are never going win a domestic pot, spend all of their time struggling to stay afloat financially and maybe the height of their ambition is a play off spot. They're not glory hunters that's for sure. I'm sure they love seeing their side win, but it's got to be more about the love of the game and the tribalism as opposed to even entertainment.

 

The money bag people have spoilt the game things can never be the same again .I fell in love with Liverpool living overseas: when
I came over here I found it very difficult to change my allegiance even when they are not winning things.

 

Fans of top sides are snobs at times. I don't like seeing statements like "football is about winning trophies" because only a very small percentage of clubs actually win anything. Some clubs have never won a trophy and/or show no signs of doing so.

 

Out of interest, if there were no trophies to be won - therefore no cup competitions or trophy for winning the league or league positions getting entry into a Euro competition thus no reason to play any team in any foreign league - would you love football just as much?

 

No. Because the narrative would be reduced to a series of 90 minute weekly episodes and no game would have any signifcance beyond the final whistle.

 

I'd certainly love playing it just as much and I'd still watch but there would be a massive hole in the sport. Everything needs a purpose, a goal to aim for (ignore the pun).

I might not have been a Liverpool if that were the case though. My brother was (and still is despite seemingly settling on Chelsea) the biggest glory fan going when we were younger. I supported Liverpool because he did when i first started getting into football but I got attached.

 

So is it all about trophies??

 

No it's about the stories.

 

So theoretically, you're a glory supporter since what you've describe is 95%+ of football clubs existence

 

Nope.

Liverpool have played less than 80 hours of football this season. I've spent a lot more time than that caring about Liverpool.

 

I was taking the piss but what you essentially said was that you're only interested in football because there are trophies involved

 

I could tell by the whistle.

It's because of the trophies existing, but not for the trophies.

Anyway it's an impossible scenario. If there was no formal league I would still be counting the number games we win and making graphs to compare to other teams and so on to build some sort of bigger story out of the individual games.

Without leagues and cups though the opponent selection would be random. Smaller clubs would only play local teams and bigger clubs would travel the world for the biggest stadiums.

 

As much? Who can tell?
Would I still enjoy it to a significant degree and still follow my team? I'm certain I would.
At least, as certain as anyone can be about a hypothetical scenario. A better investigation into this would be to ask supporters of clubs with no serious prospect of a trophy why they support the team that they do, and how they feel about what some here seem to think is a relatively meaningless pursuit.
We're not really in a position to say- we're all lucky due to an accident of birth.
Or glory-hunters.

 

I guess the way I look at this is a 'means to an end' type of thing.

Given the choice of one or the other I would take 4th spot because of money earned,attracting better players (in theory) and its more likely
to get us back to the top,top tier of European football which is where we all want to be. I think the club is in a good place at the moment to
push on,bearing in mind how much we (club and owners) have 'steadied the ship' after the Hicks and Gillette debacle. We have a young,
upcoming squad and manager learning everyday. I'm quite optimistic about the future,but that unfortunately includes trying to keep pace
(to a degree at least) with other clubs of a similar standing domestically and on the European stage,in a financial sense.

I just cannot get excited about the FA cup anymore,I just can't. I remember when it was a 'special' competition worth winning but those days
are long gone.Thats not to say I wouldn't mind winning it aswell as 4th spot or higher (as someone suggested above)

 

#batard

 

The trophies thing, most clubs have won something (I think) whether it's the League 2 championship or The Paint Trophy or whatever is at their level. Football is about winning trophies, some clubs may never get there but that's still what they dream of and what their fans dream of. There are trophies at every level of football.

 

And that's what I'm getting at, do we need to re-think the reasons we watch football as fans? We've had our thinking warped by the money in football and we've forgotten what's important to us as fans.