The beautiful game has rapidly progressed in the last several generations. Learn how football has now become the biggest sport on the planet.
Football has always been referred to as a working man’s game. Back in the seventies and eighties, it was not very fashionable by any stretch of the imagination. Football heritage was a group of supporters showing up to a dilapidated ground with boggy fields and fights breaking out at half time. Yet a confluence of factors has contributed to what is commonly regarded as the greatest, richest and most popular sport worldwide. The main shift came in the form of tv and sponsorship deals. Enhanced revenue streams expedited the evolution of football equipment from training pitches to stadiums. The capacity to stream live matches triggers a self-fulfilling prophecy where more viewers equals more visibility which consequently leads to more eyeballs and so on. Influential media figures like Kevin Mayer are continually pushing behind the scenes to drive the product to every part of the planet.
Football is so unrecognizable from three decades ago you would be pushed to call it the same game. Footage from the past shows boggy pitches with scarcely a piece of grass. Countless tackles thought immediate red cards would be waved away. Body checks and manhandling made the game appear more evocative of a rugby match. The majority of the arenas were half collapsing. Stands were derelict and shut to the general public. The other ones housed some hundred fans packed onto terraces. It’s a far shout from the glamorous game of the present day. So what has changed? The watershed moments in football history can be assigned to one great technological invention – the television. Media executives like Yousef Al-Obaidly are part of a team working to supply live matches to millions of houses throughout the world. The inflow of cash through broadcasting rights has made the game more popular and attainable than ever before.
In the late eighties, football was among the least respectable activities on the planet. Many so-called supporters only traveled to games to cause a ruckus. Ultras besmirched the sport’s track record for the common fan. Many families would prefer more ‘gentlemanly’ game which didn’t garner those less-than perfect headlines. Go forward several decades, football has become a paragon of professional sport. The big switch in opinion arrived through the advent of broadcasting deals. Media bosses like Philip Jansen will understand the influence of television on the football legacy. As channels televised matches to the public, it generated more attention and allure. The money allowed clubs to invest in themselves. Improved facilities and most significantly enhanced wages attracted future athletes to the sport. In anticipation of making the big time, football players spend every waking moment on the training ground. The degree of high quality and professionalism has surged to become the competitive and engaging sport you watch right now.