Football is no more what it used to be

I’m not fanatic about football, though I like it much and take it with respect. It’s a game that is played by thousands and followed by millions. But it seems to me that the game has lost its original values.

Long time ago football teams were organized predominantly by men from one particular village, town or city or by the workers of the same factory, for instance. Representing their town, these teams competed with each other and the citizens willingly supported their local footballers. Victory of the team meant the victory of the whole town. Nowadays the principles have changed. Theoretically, the fans come to support the team of their area. But look at current teams! As for me, they no longer represent the locality. Any football club contains players from different countries and even continents! Take for example Arsenal FC: among 24 players of the first team only 5 are the Englishmen! Only 2 of them are from London. Further goes a salad bowl of the Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, Poles and even a forward from Ivory Coast. Everton FC is flecked with flags: Costa Rica, Croatia, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Slovakia etc etc etc. For all that, the clubs continue to proudly bear the name of locality - Liverpool and West Bromwich, Stuttgart and Hannover, Genoa and Napoli, Valencia and Málaga, Lille and Saint-Étienne. What for?

And of course much is dictated by money. The richer is the club’s owner, the more talented players, coaches etc., the club can afford. The team supervised by former Italian Prime Minister, board member of FIAT company or Qatari businessman is doomed to success, or at least popularity, ahead of time. Needless to say, that the range of the top clubs occurred and these clubs gain followers from all over the world. Why for example a simple boy from the Spanish city of Barakaldo doesn’t feel much loyalty to his local team Barakaldo CF that competes in the Segunda División B??? I bet this boy is a fan of Real Madrid or Barcelona.