FOOTBALL has always aroused great passion – ever since medieval times when each match was a bloody ruck and almost a substitute for war.
Men (and particularly poorly educated men), it was reasoned, had a deep need to compete against each other in a brutal manner.
And when local pride and tribal hatred of “the other lot� were added to the game, that just spiced things up a bit more.
It was thought that the ancient game of football would keep the common people from turning their anger and violent inclinations against their oppressors, the landed gentry and the aristocracy.
In some ways, football hasn’t changed very much over the centuries. It is still, by and large, played by men who are not very well educated and rarely eloquent.
It has always amazed me, having heard countless top flight footballers interviewed on TV over the years, that certain young men can be both (a) brilliant, intuitive athletes and (b) as thick as a plank. C’mon. think of Gazza.

And, of course, the game is still tribal. It still involves fierce rivalry. It still involves hatred of “the other lot� – however much the suits who control the sport might pretend otherwise.
Also, it is still a game which distracts the masses from the very people who so ruthlessly oppress them.
These days the oppressors are the brigands of international capitalism who stoke the fires of excessive consumption and retail brand addiction which suck the life out of people.
What has changed about football in recent times is the money, however. There is now tons and tons of dosh involved in the sport, and the whole business of football is soaked in stupid, stupid logos and sponsorship deals.
Fans are manipulated into paying through the nose for replica shirts and season tickets, while footballers in the top flight, and their fluffhead wives and girlfriends, grow obscenely wealthy.
Steven Gerrard – a greatly loved player, I will admit – has just signed up to stay at Anfield for the foreseeable.
He was already earning a fortune. No-one is saying precisely what Gerrard’s income is as from now – but people have been making informed guesses.
It’s likely his total income is £120,000 a week under his new deal.
Imagine what you could do with £120,000 a week.
OK, Gerrard has been loyal to the club since he was a lad, but is any footballer worth that sort of money?
I think not, and I think all the money and merchandising bull***t is spoiling the game.
Those loyal fans who fail to get tickets for the Reds’ Champions League final in Athens might like to consider just how many free passes were given out by the club and the football authorities for corporate entertaining…
Well, as usual, thousands of tickets which should have gone to genuine fans were blithely distributed to bloated, wealthy fairweather fans and the game’s legion of hangers on and old farts.
Of course, I might be tempted to eat my words if Gerrard and the lads put in their usual gutsy performance and emerge champions of Europe again.
At the very least I expect them to play more skilfully and with more energy that the carthorses of Manchester United and Chelsea could manage at the FA Cup final.
Except I won’t eat my words, because I believe, I REALLY believe, that the huge amounts of money lavished on top players is a corrupting influence on the game and on the young men who play it.
All that money has certainly brought about the spiritual imporverishment of many a dumb WAG in recent years.
Local lad Wayne Rooney is among the super rich players. He has more cars than anyone needs, and he wasn’t even loyal to Everton. “Once a blue, Always a blue� was just a slogan on a shirt to him.
And it is very sad that his bird, Colleen, is considered a role model among so many young women today.
Colleen seems a nice enough lass in a ordinary, chavvy sort of way. She has done a lot for charity and made an effort to earn her own money from writing magazine columns and dabbling in fashion etc.
It’s probably her working class upbringing which has kept her moderately grounded and I suppose we should all be thankful for that.
It could be worse. At least she’s not Posh Spice.
But does Colleen’s mega-wealthy status, her living in a Cheshire mansion and being so terribly addicted to shopping really add up to something to be admired?
I just can’t see it, but then again we live in dumbed down times.
Hmmm. When you think about it, it is very, VERY strange that football should evoke such strong emotions, attract such enormous amounts of money and so dominate British culture.
Because if you strip the game down to its essentials, it’s a VERY trivial, very puerile, activity.
In basic terms , football is about a group of men (or women) kicking an artificial pig bladder around and trying to get it to go between two posts.
Oh, I know there is a certain poetry of motion in the modern game, and an admirable athleticism is involved.
And there is entertainment to be had from the arcane laws of football and from all the harrumphing politics of the modern game.
There are some very entertaining managers around also, notably Jose Mourinho.
And come to think of it, nearly all of us have been delighted, elated, frustrated or heartbroken at various times over the outcome of a football match.
I know I was nearly skriking with joy /relief when I heard, at the bitter business end of the season, that Wigan Athletic would stay up on goal difference.
I don’t think the Latics’ Scouse manager Paul Jewell deserved to be paid a million quid just for keeping ‘em up though.
OK, well, football isn’t logical, so I am not going to bring this rant to a logical conclusion.
Instead I am going to leave you with a quote from Liverpool’s American co-chairman George Gillett, which made me smile.
Gillett said recently about Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher: “I’m sure there are other situations – I’m just not familiar with them – where you get two young men who come from the same area, who came into the programme through the Academy at nine years of age, who have been with the club all of these years and who have become such an integral part of the club that they are now not only integrated into it but they lead by example and by intellect and energy.�
Yes folks, he did say ‘intellect’ in reference to Gerrard and Carragher.

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