Dear football.
You have given me much over the last ten years without me offering much in return. Like all sport, you have the ability to make people feel unique emotions with regard to relatively abstract objects. Caring about companies and people you've never met is something that could only happen so passionately in sport, and it is to your credit that you have managed to make billions of people feel these emotions throughout history. Football can be many things, a livelihood, a past-time, a way out of poverty, a tool to help others, entertainment and many more, but to me, football has been more. Despite living in Glasgow, a place rich with footballing passion, history and tradition, I never really got into football via anyone or anything else. It was my choice, and I chose my team, a team I was proud to support, a team that eventually meant more to me than I would have ever thought possible. Since then I supported my team with everything I had, as well as my country, and I was proud to do so. I am not now, nor am I even proud to call myself a football fan.
In 2010 at the draw for the group stages of the 2010/11 UEFA Champions' League, Martin Bain said the following:
“I'm really concerned this may be the last season for a long, long time a Scottish club is involved in the Champions League draw. I'm not just concerned for Rangers – I'm really worried for all of Scottish football. From next season on – and for years to come – we will all be facing a really difficult passage into European football.”
One year on, you would be hard-pressed to disagree. No Scottish teams in Europe, the four who participated all put out at the first time of asking with the exception of Rangers, who would probably have been less embarrassing if they'd simply not bothered to play their games. Why? To be perfectly honest, I don't know why. Hearts were drawn against a bigger team who have more resources and were never likely to cause an upset, but the manner of their defeat was embarrassing. Celtic were the architects of their own downfall and Rangers, well Rangers essentially put their heads between their legs and kissed their arse goodbye. While there are many obvious problems with Scottish football, this was the last straw. I maintained after the first legs that there was hope for Celtic and Rangers, but no. At what was probably the last stand for Scottish footballing credibility, our best failed. In the case of Celtic, it was over before it began. Rangers on the other hand gave up, with a performance that has left me ashamed of my football club for the first time in my life. To this I say simply, I give up. I can't take this any more. I'm done with football.
While Scottish football's bloody corpse is examined, you can look elsewhere to see that football is dying elsewhere. Player strikes in Spain, clubs running out of money in the richest league in the world, players moving to Russia for £350,000 per week, corruption allegations at the head of the game's international governing body. You witness these things and you think, “why?” Although it may seem insensitive, I see the similarities between myself and football and an abusive relationship. And this is breaking point. I can't take any more. I can't take any more of the once-proud game that I love being ruined. Football is no longer a sport, it is a business, and this isn't fair. I don't expect things to remain constant in a world-wide game which is constantly changing and expanding, but the levels that certain quarters are reaching are beyond reprehensible. The situation at Manchester City resembles someone using the database editor for Football Manager and giving themselves unlimited funds, and while this hasn't resulted in success (an FA Cup win aside), it will eventually and when it does, the final nail in football's coffin will be hammered in. The rich get richer while the poor (who are often more) are left with scraps, clinging to past glories in the faint hope that they still mean something. To me, they no longer do. I accept that landscapes can change but not like this. Not so quickly and unfairly. Football is broken, and getting worse. It is unfair and I have had enough.
To say that Scottish football's demise can allow me to focus on world football which is of a higher quality, no. I don't care about teams from other countries. I don't watch Match of the Day hoping that certain teams win, I watch to be entertained. How can you just pick a new team because you've become ashamed of yours? You can't. And given the way that everyone out-with Scottish football seems to have a fondness for diving that borders on the insulting, it's not something I want to vindicate by watching it. It's not the game I love, it's not the culture I love and most of it is funded by unfair sums of money which make it a contest to see which businessman is more prepared to face financial ruin, which in turn is not football. Not the way it should be. The state that Scottish football is in too doesn't help. Yes it's in financial ruin, but no-one wants to help. You've got Celtic fans telling anyone who'll listen about the sectarianism from Rangers fans whilst hoping that the tax case goes badly and Rangers go out of business, Rangers fans crying foul whenever this happens, Celtic players, managers and staff receiving death threats and you just think, why? How? How can something that I and so many others love make people act like this? Why do they act in a way that will kill the game they claim to support? I feel like the lone voice of sanity screaming in silence whilst the world blows up around me, powerless to stop it.
This post may prompt people to say that if I am giving up on football then I was never a real fan in the first place. Some people may say that if teams are able to spend £80,000,000 on a transfer fee or £350,000 (tax-free) on a weekly wage then they are entitled to do so and that forcing them to not do this amounts to communism and admittedly, I'm having flashbacks to Atlas Shrugged as I write this, but the fact remains: money should not be the key factor in winning at football. Although I am not really accustomed to “failure” as a fan of an Old Firm team, Rangers' performances in Europe are not acceptable. To think we've gone backward so quickly since a European final 3 years ago beggars belief. We are arguably not even poorer than that team right now, yet something remains that has prevented Rangers and other Scottish teams from being anything other than a laughing stock of European football, and I can't take it any longer. It is unfair and is making Scottish football too embarrassing to support.
There is hope for football. The world's best player is one who plays with a smile on his face and who you think would be playing football anyway even if he didn't do it as a job. The many happy memories I can recall also remind me that football has the potential to be unrivalled in its ability to evoke emotion. Scotland beating France 1-0 home and away, beating Holland 1-0 at home are up there. So is the 2002 Scottish Cup Final. As is the last day of the 2002/03 SPL season. So is Helicopter Sunday. So is the 2008 UEFA Cup run which got more improbable as it went on. Those are the memories I will take from football in the faint hope that it is able to redeem itself. I don't have much hope. I do however hope I'm wrong.
You have given me much over the last ten years without me offering much in return. Like all sport, you have the ability to make people feel unique emotions with regard to relatively abstract objects. Caring about companies and people you've never met is something that could only happen so passionately in sport, and it is to your credit that you have managed to make billions of people feel these emotions throughout history. Football can be many things, a livelihood, a past-time, a way out of poverty, a tool to help others, entertainment and many more, but to me, football has been more. Despite living in Glasgow, a place rich with footballing passion, history and tradition, I never really got into football via anyone or anything else. It was my choice, and I chose my team, a team I was proud to support, a team that eventually meant more to me than I would have ever thought possible. Since then I supported my team with everything I had, as well as my country, and I was proud to do so. I am not now, nor am I even proud to call myself a football fan.
In 2010 at the draw for the group stages of the 2010/11 UEFA Champions' League, Martin Bain said the following:
“I'm really concerned this may be the last season for a long, long time a Scottish club is involved in the Champions League draw. I'm not just concerned for Rangers – I'm really worried for all of Scottish football. From next season on – and for years to come – we will all be facing a really difficult passage into European football.”
One year on, you would be hard-pressed to disagree. No Scottish teams in Europe, the four who participated all put out at the first time of asking with the exception of Rangers, who would probably have been less embarrassing if they'd simply not bothered to play their games. Why? To be perfectly honest, I don't know why. Hearts were drawn against a bigger team who have more resources and were never likely to cause an upset, but the manner of their defeat was embarrassing. Celtic were the architects of their own downfall and Rangers, well Rangers essentially put their heads between their legs and kissed their arse goodbye. While there are many obvious problems with Scottish football, this was the last straw. I maintained after the first legs that there was hope for Celtic and Rangers, but no. At what was probably the last stand for Scottish footballing credibility, our best failed. In the case of Celtic, it was over before it began. Rangers on the other hand gave up, with a performance that has left me ashamed of my football club for the first time in my life. To this I say simply, I give up. I can't take this any more. I'm done with football.
While Scottish football's bloody corpse is examined, you can look elsewhere to see that football is dying elsewhere. Player strikes in Spain, clubs running out of money in the richest league in the world, players moving to Russia for £350,000 per week, corruption allegations at the head of the game's international governing body. You witness these things and you think, “why?” Although it may seem insensitive, I see the similarities between myself and football and an abusive relationship. And this is breaking point. I can't take any more. I can't take any more of the once-proud game that I love being ruined. Football is no longer a sport, it is a business, and this isn't fair. I don't expect things to remain constant in a world-wide game which is constantly changing and expanding, but the levels that certain quarters are reaching are beyond reprehensible. The situation at Manchester City resembles someone using the database editor for Football Manager and giving themselves unlimited funds, and while this hasn't resulted in success (an FA Cup win aside), it will eventually and when it does, the final nail in football's coffin will be hammered in. The rich get richer while the poor (who are often more) are left with scraps, clinging to past glories in the faint hope that they still mean something. To me, they no longer do. I accept that landscapes can change but not like this. Not so quickly and unfairly. Football is broken, and getting worse. It is unfair and I have had enough.
To say that Scottish football's demise can allow me to focus on world football which is of a higher quality, no. I don't care about teams from other countries. I don't watch Match of the Day hoping that certain teams win, I watch to be entertained. How can you just pick a new team because you've become ashamed of yours? You can't. And given the way that everyone out-with Scottish football seems to have a fondness for diving that borders on the insulting, it's not something I want to vindicate by watching it. It's not the game I love, it's not the culture I love and most of it is funded by unfair sums of money which make it a contest to see which businessman is more prepared to face financial ruin, which in turn is not football. Not the way it should be. The state that Scottish football is in too doesn't help. Yes it's in financial ruin, but no-one wants to help. You've got Celtic fans telling anyone who'll listen about the sectarianism from Rangers fans whilst hoping that the tax case goes badly and Rangers go out of business, Rangers fans crying foul whenever this happens, Celtic players, managers and staff receiving death threats and you just think, why? How? How can something that I and so many others love make people act like this? Why do they act in a way that will kill the game they claim to support? I feel like the lone voice of sanity screaming in silence whilst the world blows up around me, powerless to stop it.
This post may prompt people to say that if I am giving up on football then I was never a real fan in the first place. Some people may say that if teams are able to spend £80,000,000 on a transfer fee or £350,000 (tax-free) on a weekly wage then they are entitled to do so and that forcing them to not do this amounts to communism and admittedly, I'm having flashbacks to Atlas Shrugged as I write this, but the fact remains: money should not be the key factor in winning at football. Although I am not really accustomed to “failure” as a fan of an Old Firm team, Rangers' performances in Europe are not acceptable. To think we've gone backward so quickly since a European final 3 years ago beggars belief. We are arguably not even poorer than that team right now, yet something remains that has prevented Rangers and other Scottish teams from being anything other than a laughing stock of European football, and I can't take it any longer. It is unfair and is making Scottish football too embarrassing to support.
There is hope for football. The world's best player is one who plays with a smile on his face and who you think would be playing football anyway even if he didn't do it as a job. The many happy memories I can recall also remind me that football has the potential to be unrivalled in its ability to evoke emotion. Scotland beating France 1-0 home and away, beating Holland 1-0 at home are up there. So is the 2002 Scottish Cup Final. As is the last day of the 2002/03 SPL season. So is Helicopter Sunday. So is the 2008 UEFA Cup run which got more improbable as it went on. Those are the memories I will take from football in the faint hope that it is able to redeem itself. I don't have much hope. I do however hope I'm wrong.
