What do you miss from football as it used to be ?

[Guest worth_the_wait]

You could write a book on the things that we miss these days.    If I had to choose one, it's simply not being able to stand where you want, with your mates.    For all the hardships of the terraces, there was just nothing like the closeness and intimacy of being packed together.   Scoring a goal and being in a mass of celebrating bodies bears no relation to jumping up and down on your own in a seated area.     Just witness our 2 late goals in this match at Southend (1991-92):

 

 

[jonthefox]

When Larry May used to catch the same bus from Oadby as me and my dad. 

[Leicesterpool]

Fa Cup Replays

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, worth_the_wait said:

You could write a book on the things that we miss these days.    If I had to choose one, it's simply not being able to stand where you want, with your mates.    For all the hardships of the terraces, there was just nothing like the closeness and intimacy of being packed together.   Scoring a goal and being in a mass of celebrating bodies bears no relation to jumping up and down on your own in a seated area.     Just witness our 2 late goals in this match at Southend (1991-92):

 

 

What a weekend by the seaside that was. The height of the Rave scene and all buzzing our tits off on Ecstasy 

 

Great times. 

[Dan]

On 28/10/2024 at 20:53, Corky said:

Going to sound odd but roofless stands or more open grounds. Seeing parts of towns/ cities in the background looked pretty impressive.

 

Always think a good part of non league football is the open surroundings.

Newcastle and Barnsley are great for this.

[Wymsey]

John Motson.

[Sly]

The FA Cup being the final game in a season and an entire days BBC coverage being dedicated to it from 6AM.

[StanSP]

6 hours ago, Sly said:

The FA Cup being the final game in a season and an entire days BBC coverage being dedicated to it from 6AM.

Great shout. It was the perfect end to the domestic season once the league was wrapped up.

[CosbehFox]

16 hours ago, SpacedX said:

Very much this. The identity and the localised fanbase that has been eroded away by bigger clubs, their glory hunters and owners.

 

Also, being able to go to a game on a whim, both home and away without the necessity of having a season ticket or accruing points through membership added to which the lack of an allocated seat. We would often spontaneously decide down the pub on a Friday night to drive to an away game that weekend in a fleet of cars or take the football special because we hadn't been to the ground before or visited that town or city. Simply turn up, pay your money (a couple of quid) and watch your team play away. 

I started going slightly out of these times but even now the whole notion of picking up a spare is dying due to mobile tickets etc. 

 

It's hilarious when English supporters watch a game abroad and can't work out why tickets aren't on sale until two weeks to ten days (most of Southern Europe excepting the superclubs). 

 

Football in the UK has joined a lot of society in the UK is so utterly uniform, lacking uniqueness. 80% of the country looks the same, everyone dress the same and does the same things. Subcultures are a dying thing over here. Culture is dictated by money jumping onto a growing trend. 

 

The saddest thing on that society point is now how the cost of living is killing things such as pub culture which by default led themselves to community. 

Edited 30 October 2024 by CosbehFox

[CosbehFox]

Even as an obsessive and general anorak of the sport, I miss the unknown of it. The game is so globalised that we know every player, every team, every league etc. 

 

When Red Star turned up to Filbo, no-one had a clue about their players rather than the myth of their early 90s team. World Cup's were intriguing until about 2006 - 2002 is probably the last edition when people really didn't know who played for say Senegal. 

 

Such like the number of games, tournaments etc. - less is more. 

[Matt]

I dare say Soccer AM wasn't for everyone but they're doing a podcast, Soccer A-Z, where they go through the alphabet discussing what they miss from football and bringing up nostalgia, pretty decent.

[davieG]

Maybe not as bad as this.