Money has ruined the beauty of the game that goes without saying. You know when I grew up in the 90s yeah football was a rich sport but it was never this bad. A Ā£20m player was considered a huge investment back when I was growing up. European football was so dense in terms of teams youād consider tough. I remember Italy having Juve, Parma, Fiorentina, Milan, Sampdoria, Inter, Roma, Lazio as being the teams everybody had to watch out for in Europe. Spain had Valencia, Madrid teams, Barcelona, Villarreal, Real Betis, Deportivo (what a team they were circa 2000) and even Germany had a dense outlay of teams.
Now you draw an Italian team and itās almost a walkover if it isnāt Juventus and in Spain, youāve got the mega rich two and Atleti. You know sometimes you look back at the 90s and you see this:
Milan, Benfica, Red Star, Marseille, Barcelona, Sampdoria, Ajax, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Valencia
The above teams were all European Cup (and subsequently CL upon its creation) finalists in the decade. Could you imagine a team like Red Star or Marseille making the CL final now? Those teams donāt even make it out of the group stages these days.
The only way to be a truly competitive and elite team these days is to spend hundreds sums beyond our wildest dreams.
I love football and that will never change but thereās a sense of serious enjoyment thatās missing these days. I donāt follow other major European leagues anywhere close to the extent that I used to because it almost seems a pointless exercise.
And all FFP has done is create an ever wider gulf because the major teams like Milan and Inter have rich owners but canāt spend a lot of money whilst teams like City and PSG have just circumvented rules because of the sheer arrogance of the Middle Eastern owners (and the sheer sums of money they undoubtedly invest into lining peopleās pockets).