The Beautiful Game?

Is football a sport or a business?

I used to love football. At one time, I would go to at least two league matches every week and followed my precious Brentford side all over the country. However, I am beginning to detest the game, or rather the players, the journalists and general hype that surrounds it.

There is so much money involved. Spectators are being asked more and more each season to pay players absurdly high wages that they nowhere near earn. The game doesn't improve, and if the world cup is anything to go by, standards are on the decline. So it is a big con.

We seem to have so few real stars nowadays. Most of our "heroes" are overpaid, inarticulate and suffer badly on the IQ front. Several of them are little more than thugs (in fact, some of them have proved to be just that!) Just think what would have happened to Roy Keane had he not had a talent for football - he would probably have spent half his life inside. And then we have the greedy players and the whingers - poor old Patrick Vieira being "burnt out" after eight matches; I do so hope that if he is injured, a doctor says that unfortunately he cannot fit him into his 86 hour week.

Well, that's off my chest. I suppose that I see things more clearly now after a brilliant cricket season. Cricket standards are forever improving in all aspects of the game. The soccer authorities should look at their sport because I see its popularity going down in the next few years and I really would like to retrieve my love of the game.

Graham Forster