Football...so far from the maddened crowd

THE LOVE affair between top-flight football and the man in the street has been horribly one-sided during the past three decades.

It’s been take, take, take. And all taken from the great British public.

As the game has moved ever further away from reality, thanks to sky-high salaries financed by ticket prices and television subscriptions, the attitude from those on high has been simple. Tough. Swallow it.

But never before has the relationship between ‘them’ and us been threatened as it is now.

Football had better wake up and beware – Covid-19 might well have sent this ridiculous industry on a slippery slope to lord-knows-where.

And in a money- mad moral wilderness typified by Arsenal’s planned wave of redundancies, it is to be wondered whether legions of fans simply will come to the conclusion that football just ain’t worth it.

It’s been five long months since our national sport was viewed by anything that could even remotely be considered a crowd.

And if coronavirus has shown us anything, it’s that this sport needs its followers. It requires the flock to turn up faithfully week in, week out.

Grabbing a stranger during a moment of unique joy – or, more likely, commiserating during a moment of misery – is what makes football special.

The shared experience, the social element, all bundled into a whole.

Without those fans, each 90 minutes is just a souped-up Sunday pub-league fixture.

Once that is realised, punters will take a step back and wonder if, at £50-a-ticket and over £100-a-month in television subscription, this thing really is worth all the trouble?

For most, following a club is a luxury. With unemployment rocketing, fewer will actually be able to afford it anyway.

That’s one very real challenge. Other supporters will have drifted away and found something else to do with their Saturday afternoons.

And tribal bonds will have been stretched further by things like events taking place at Arsenal, who have decided to make 55 staff redundant at the same time as further ‘ improving’ their playing squad.

It’s such a mess, where do you start?

In short, it amounts to one billionaire owner refusing to take a £ 3.3million hit during the next 12 months – but still committing a fresh fortune to boost the playing staff. Talk about skewed priorities. There are 55 family units – and their friends and relatives – who think a lot less of their favourite football club than they did at the start of this week.

They won’t be alone. And football needs to watch its step.

Arsenal’s actions are unforgivable. The Gunners’ reputation will, and should, take a battering.

Whoever has taken those decisions this week should be ashamed.

A club is supposed to foster a sense of community. All the hierarchy at the Emirates have done is lay waste to that, at the stroke of a pen.

Good luck to the public relations department putting a gloss on the motto ‘Your club cares’.

There will even be people who see Arsenal’s sociopathic behaviour as the last straw and simply finish with football. Who can blame them?

This health crisis has pricked the bubble of hype.

And from now on, the game will need to work overtime to convince anyone it can just carry on as it did before.