Football no longer the honest game

I QUIT my love of football back in the ’80s when the ‘beautiful game’ sold itself to business without a nod to the working class to whom it once belonged. Our heroes then had the pleasure of enjoying their work and all that came with it, with the hope that a testimonial would ensure a future upon retirement.

I saw the Sterling ‘penalty’ incident on the news and questioned sportsmanship when he failed to correct the ref ’s glaring mistake. Of course, money and winning at all costs, I thought, is what matters.

Why else would we accept so much blatant cheating with players going down as if shot with the slightest of contact and jumping up again so quickly? Yes, football is more skilful in many respects today, but it isn’t honest.

The business itself is illustrative of a greedy world and of the great divide between those that have and those that do not.

When I followed the game, entrance was no more than the price of a couple of pints and live football and highlights came with the cost of a TV licence, along with all the other top sport. Now it’s all designed to free you of as much money as possible through merchandising et al.

Does football return the loyalty? Can the working man afford to take his child week in, week out? How this old fan dreams of the re-ownership of sport for all to enjoy with the integrity that ‘business and capitalism’ has robbed it of.

Peter Lawrence Dursley

A beautiful Exmoor scene by Pete Bird, of Timberscombe, Somerset