[meandbrenarebaggies]

As a young child, for a while, I found playing noughts and crosses entertaining and later I thought limericks were challenging and fun.  As an adult I enjoyed reggae music until its repetitious framework became boring.  All these things contained the seeds of their own destruction – inability to innovate and grow.  Society seems to demand circus.  Romans had their brutal blood based amphitheatres, the French had Madame Guillotine.  Our present day circus is football.  Its limited by its pitch definitions, rules and ability to grow.  So my question is  “is football a limited theatre destined to die one day?”

[Squirrel Regis]

Football is evolving but not for the better. How long before we see stadiums that are just corporate boxes with the every day fan priced out of watching live and having to watch games only on the tele ?
It could be argued that we are not far off that now so in another 5-10 years when the big teams play in a Euro league.....

[Kookiebags]

Morning All,
                 MeandBren, this is indeed a suitable question to be debated as we come to the end of another less than comprehensive edition of the "Best League in the World".
Football in General has adapted well to the different challenges that have faced it in its 130 odd year history.
Simple things like better playing surfaces, stud changes, boot technology, and the ever increasing pull of "money madness " has meant the product has evolved over the years, and even when disasters has struck (Hillsborough, Bradford, Hiessel, Air disasters etc.) the footballing community has pulled together.
While there are the characters in football, such as Pele at World level, Greavsie and Hurst, Best and Gascoigne, and more modern day nutters such as John Terry, Jiimy Bullard, Eric Cantona , and great players like Thiery Henry and Gareth Bale, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo, then the game will survive.
Like everything in sport these days, players are getting bigger and stronger, faster and fitter, refs cannot keep up, technology is waiting in the wings, and spectacular events will ensure it will always attract the masses, unless costs eventually prohibit the working man from worshipping at his shrine of choice.
What the eventual shape of football will evolve into is anyones guess, but after over 100 years, and apart from the odd change to the offside rule, the game remains pretty much the same as laid out in the first football league match in the 1870,s, so heres hoping we dont develop a liking for the "rollerball" type of gladiatorial offerings futuristic movies have painted, but remains the glorious game we all love and hate in equal measure.
Without the lows, you never appreciate the good times, and long may it remain so.
Cheers,
            Kookiebags.

[tidy]

Football needs to resist the temptation to intoduce too much technology. Football needs the human factor. Refs need to make mistakes the same as managers, coaches, owners and players.

It's what keeps us all so passionate and talking.

When football becomes cold and clinical with all possibilities of mistakes removed then the public will lose interest.

Tbf, we are already halfway to losing interest. I bet I could name, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the top 4 in the Prem NEXT year. I bet I could do it for Spain, Germany and Italy as well...

[talkSAFT]

We should just be thankful that the Yanks haven't taken to the game. We can only guess how awful their adaption would be.
I'm not too keen on multi substitutions as it currently stands, but they'd be bringing on Rory Delaps just for the throw-ins, Peter Crouches for corners........etc etc

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

We should just be thankful that the Yanks haven't taken to the game. We can only guess how awful their adaption would be.
I'm not too keen on multi substitutions as it currently stands, but they'd be bringing on Rory Delaps just for the throw-ins, Peter Crouches for corners........etc etc

You really couldn't be more wrong.  I follow MLS closely, and it's vastly more entertaining and unpredictable as a league than the PL, partly because there are rules in place to ensure that none of the clubs turn themselves into some global mega-brand with a bottomless pit of money to spend.  There are naturally some stronger clubs than others (LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, etc) but there's always a chance that one of the outsiders will outdo them all in any given season, and it's happened more than once in recent years.

Add to that the fact that matches are affordable to attend (Portland Timbers tickets, for example, are as cheap as £12 a match), with standing room on the terraces and fans allowed to drink in the stands, and a terrific atmosphere to boot.  In fact, if there's one country on earth currently doing football the right way, it's the United States.

[talkSAFT]

Was thinking more about the actual Game.
If goals became really scarce they'd move the goalposts from 8 x 8 to 10 x 10 without a 2nd thought for tradition.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Even then, I think you're underestimating the passion for football tradition that's emerged in America. Back in the Nineties their money men had some wild ideas about making the game more "exciting" (including a really weird and unique style of penalty shoot-out for drawn matches), but since 2000 there's been a widespread acceptance of and adherence to the sport's rules with all their strengths and flaws. The generation which saw Tim Howard's 90-minute clean sheet against Belgium last summer and Landon Donovan's stoppage time winner after a tight, cagey game in 2010 are not going to be persuaded that more goals necessarily makes the game more exciting.

(To emphasise that point, here's the infamous montage of reactions to Donovan's goal. If you only watch one bit, make it the one at 3:24, and tell me that kid doesn't understand what makes football great!)

[St Charles Owl]

I agree  with what Ska'd is saying here.  I live in the Norther California Bay Area and the San Jose Earthquakes are one of the modern day typical US football franchises who are steadily on the rise in terms of popularity.  They have just opened their brand new purpose built stadium that holds nearly 20,000 fans and is built in the style of a more European stadium.  Gone are the days of the major teams over here playing in NFL stadiums in front of 2/3 empty stadiums, they are now filling purpose built ones like this one.



The emphasis over here is on relative parity between the teams in the leagues, this is achieved by revenue sharing most of the money that comes into the league equally among the teams allowing them to be able to compete regardless of market size.  Of course some will rise to the top due to bigger attendances or sponsorship deals but the league is built on mutual benefits and prospects for all teams.  The success of the US national team has been key to the rise in popularity of the sport and whereas the original leagues were all about showbiz, the current set up is all about making the US National team a worldwide force, so the number of foreign players is restricted to allow the US players to develop.  You no longer hear anyone calling for wider goals or other quirky rule changes to make the game more exciting, as the quality of the play has risen across the league, so the interest and excitement has risen, leading to more support and crucially more TV coverage.

[tidy]

I agree  with what Ska'd is saying here.  I live in the Norther California Bay Area and the San Jose Earthquakes are one of the modern day typical US football franchises who are steadily on the rise in terms of popularity.  They have just opened their brand new purpose built stadium that holds nearly 20,000 fans and is built in the style of a more European stadium.  Gone are the days of the major teams over here playing in NFL stadiums in front of 2/3 empty stadiums, they are now filling purpose built ones like this one.



The emphasis over here is on relative parity between the teams in the leagues, this is achieved by revenue sharing most of the money that comes into the league equally among the teams allowing them to be able to compete regardless of market size.  Of course some will rise to the top due to bigger attendances or sponsorship deals but the league is built on mutual benefits and prospects for all teams.  The success of the US national team has been key to the rise in popularity of the sport and whereas the original leagues were all about showbiz, the current set up is all about making the US National team a worldwide force, so the number of foreign players is restricted to allow the US players to develop.  You no longer hear anyone calling for wider goals or other quirky rule changes to make the game more exciting, as the quality of the play has risen across the league, so the interest and excitement has risen, leading to more support and crucially more TV coverage.

It'll quite possibly be the 'new' home of Sky. Leaving the Premier League behind.