Chelsea PSG

Not been a great time for English clubs in Europe.  Something that has definitely changed in my lifetime is football fans no longer getting behind any English team in Europe.  I'm not saying everyone used to all the time but I can remember most English fans supporting United in the 1991 Cup Winners Cup Final, Arsenal in 1994 etc.  Over the years that seems to have gone and been replaced by the schadenfreude of enjoying watching the big teams/teams you don't like fail.  I'm not suggesting this has anything to do with why they're struggling a bit - just a general observation really.  I've found reaction to Arsenal and Chelsea's CL defeats quite depressing this time around.

Personally I think it's because it's become so normal.  When it was rarer to qualify for Europe even when the big teams had a run it felt like quite a novel thing and you could get behind them because it had the feel of a unique event and you could see how much it meant to everyone involved.  These days we know Chelsea, City, Arsenal, United, Liverpool are going to get regular cracks at it so it doesn't have that same air of novelty or tension. In addition, if you don't support one those clubs the natural tendency is to massively dislike the lot of them because they just seem so remote from the football reality that everyone else experiences; and even people who do support of those big teams often have a pathological hatred of all the other big teams.  I just think it's another example of how English football has gotten more niggly, hyper-sensitive and humourless as it has gotten richer and more successful.  Maybe that's an inevitable trade off, I don't know.  But I kind of miss the way English football used to generally rally round a team in Europe.  I think it still happens where that novelty factor remains but that only seems to exist in the Europa League now.  Everton seem to have generated goodwill for their run which replicates Fulham and Middlesbrough before.  Just this feeling that this isn't something that happens very often so it seems to mean a lot more to the people involved.  It'll be the high point for fans, players etc.  It has the rarity factor.

I'm as guilty as anyone - I couldn't even be bothered to watch this game last night cos I have no feeling for either team and my first reaction when I saw the score was 'ha-Chelsea are out good'.  I'd have thought the same for Arsenal, United and City.  Probably not Liverpool in truth because I still have a residual liking for them from way back but still what a pointless bitter way to think about football.  People are no longer satisfied with having one rival they don't like; they have to dislike nearly every team that isn't theirs in an increasingly teenagery grumpy way 'don't you dare go disrespecting my team' etc. The joy seems to be as much in seeing teams you don't like fail.  I think so much of football seems to be about this now.  OK, I grant that there was never a golden age when pubs in Manchester were packed full of people cheering on Liverpool in Europe and vice-versa but I don't think there was ever this much focus on taking pleasure in the failure of so many other teams and glorifying in the misery of their fans.  It's just so negative and joyless and I just see it growing and growing and it seems to stem from a sense of entitlement or bitterness at the entitled.  As these massive clubs become more and more secure, their fans seem to become more and more insecure and hyper-sensitive to any perceived criticism or bias and their dislike of the their direct competitors becomes more and more petty.  It's a kind of 'my team are the good guys and everyone else is the bad guys' rubbish - there's no sense anymore that football overall has value.  I just want a football culture that's a bit more generous and takes it all a bit less seriously; apparently that's too much to ask.

I find it particularly strange when you wade through the oodles of sly put downs and nasty comments on forums and threads from United, Arsenal, Liverpool, City fans etc taking joy in the failure of Chelsea because ultimately they're biting off their nose to spite their face.  That UEFA co-efficient is what partly keeps the whole cozy shabang going.  If suddenly the 'best league in the world' only had 3 Champions League places that would shake things up a bit.  Not close to that yet but it has slipped.  That worries me - I don't think anything is likely to focus the minds of top clubs on a new English football settlement for the further benefit of the top clubs than the threat of a 25% reduction in Champions League money.  18 team Premiership, winter break, etc expect all those things to come onto the agenda.

Yes sorry that was just a generalised ramble on the subject really - I thought other people would comment on the game but if anything European football has been a bit of a non-event this season. I don't understand why this behaviour is tolerated to this extent. Rugby has shown that it's perfectly possible to eliminate this sort of thing from a game. Make the Captain responsible for the behaviour of his players and retroactively apply stiff bans/fine for it. For a time there was 10 yards for backchat and I thought that worked alright but they always seem to row back from these kind of changes. It looks pretty horrible when you see 10-11 players surrounding the referee like that and obviously it encourages other teams to do it. The Captain wears the armband and should be allowed a certain leeway to talk to the referee to clarify decisions or point out gripes but if anyone else gets within 5 yards of the ref without being asked there should sanctions. I feel authorities just waved the white flag on this and stopped trying to do anything about it some time ago.

Couple of years ago I thought it was said that players waving imaginary cards would be booked.
4 or 5 bookings a game for ganging up on the ref would bring an end to it.