Football was once a game of skill, passion and raw emotion.
Which has now kicked into a
new era, but the beloved games rapid evolution may not always be for the better. As
technological advancements and commercialisation takes the field, the sports soul is being
sold for profit over passion. From the signing of var to the ride of corporate sponsors,
football is changing and losing its special touch.
The game we see now is to dull and monotonous and now has a lack of personality,
Football, when it was at its best, was about watching your favourite player showboating,
doing skills and dribbling through the defence to score a beautiful goal, now its all about
optimisation, playing how your coach wants you to play and if not you get subbed off, it's
all about scoring a goal and bulking up your defence, shutting down and sort of interesting
play. At the highest level of football today, in the premier league, there is little to no
individuality despite the numerous teams trying to win the game as optimally as possible
to win the game, get more money and buy robotic players who can pass around for 90
minutes, rather than show off their skills, footballers are now built to show off their looks
and are made to put on makeup and oil themselves up to advertise for big brands, but
when you look back at some of the players from the past like Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi and
Rooney, you wonder, how did football turn out this way?
One of the most significant changes to football in recent years is the virtual assistant
referee, known as var. In theory, this was meant to create fairness in games by veer
accurately spotting key moments like goals, offsides, penalties shots and red card
incidents. But it has not lived up to the hype, instead many fans argue that is has
significantly impacted the pace and excitement of the game, previously, when the goal
was scored, if the red hadn't made an on field decision of any fouls being made , it was
counted as a goal, with only extreme exceptions to this. This left fans in doubt that the
goal was valid, but now fans have to wait for the VAR to clear their goal as legal before
any celebrations were made, and even after the goal is cleared there have been cases
were the var was incorrect and they then had to reverse their decision, ruining the
atmosphere of the game and demotivating the players and the fans. Any premature
celebrations are mocked when VAR determines that the goal or key moment should've
been disallowed. This leads to an unwanted period of suspense as the goal has already
been scored, the play has already been made, and the adrenaline has passed, Football, as
a sport, is supposed to be random and spontaneous, but now, due to the Constant
interruptions from VAR, it dilutes the games intensity in the name of fairness, which is a
big mistake for the sport. Of course, fouls should be punished, but referees already made
the on-field decision, and the players actions may of not impacted the game in a
detrimental way, making some situations come down more to luck rather than skill.
Another factor that is contributing to the decline of football is the increasing complexity
of strategies being used by the top teams, previously, football was very much focused on
an individual skill and brilliance, with players able to show a great deal of personality on
the pitch, the focused on creating solo chances with flair, Today, however, it is different,
due to strategies building more on defence, with managers more focused on things like
structured formations, possession play, passing from the back, passing back to the keeper
and employing position advantages, to always be available to your teammates with the
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ball. While this is the optimal way tp play the game, it is also much blander and lacking
originality. Making it less entertaining for the fans. Furthermore, it doesn't allow players
to express their personality and history of where they came from and allows players to
express their originality and creativity, like players from Brazil are known to be more
technical and flashy with their dribbling and passing, with Spanish players are know for
their passing and composure with the ball, these different play-styles is why fans go to
these games, but with the creations of formations like 4-2-3-1 or the 4-4-2 and finally the
4-3-3, these formations are much more centred on a solid defence making it much more
difficult for opponents to take break through with most of their plays being s hut down by
being overwhelmed, as more defensive formations are more rigid and hard to beat, rather
than using a full offensive team that would open up the defence in return for a beautiful
and more success full offensive plays, this allows the opposition to score more, but also
your team to Aswell, which creates a large amount of intensity, and makes these games
more action packed. But now managers have taken over the teams, overthinking the plays
and are not allowing their players to move freely with the ball, making them stick to the
most optimal setup and passing strategies, without letting them do what they do best,
which is entertain.
Time-wasting, something football shouldn’t be proud of, is an ongoing problem in today’s
game, with often seen tactics like prolonged free kicks, fake injures, or other deliberate
delays, this severely hurts the integrity and appeal of the sport. While, allowing for teams
to maintain the lead in the game, in practice, it disrupts the flow and makes it a boring
game fir the fans to watch. As this goes on supporters become frustrated, not only with
the game time being wasted but also theirs, making it an unenjoyable experience for
everyone. The normalisation of time wasting makes for a poor spirit of fair play between
teams, which is one of the core themes of football. This issue has become so problematic
that organisations like UEFA and FIFA have thought about employing things like a stop
clock or adding time on for injuries, overall if time-wasting isn’t checked, it may cause a
massive decline of viewership in football
Football is the most popular sport in the world, with their being 3.5 billion fans worldwide,
with the second biggest sport, cricket, has 2.5 billion fans, which is a huge difference. But
with many issues arising and very little solutions, the standard of the sport is decreasing
along with its integrity and the beauty of football that has made it popular in the first
place.
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