Pivotal generation

Are we the football generation that turns its back on the top flight?

I'm sure I'm not the only disillusioned fan on planet football, and that's despite some of the benefits - if that's what they are - of football's modernisation.

Has football sold its soul?

As usual, the easy assumption to make is that football went tits up when, in August 1992, the first Premier League game kicked off.

If you aren't aware that football pre-dates 1992, I suggest you don't read on.

Any fans younger than me have grown up in the Premier League era, and, despite myself, I'm willing to accept that there have been positive developments in the last decade and a half. The only trouble with them is that they are intertwined irrevocably with the erosion of the spirit of English football.

But that's the negative view. The 90s and 00s have seen endless monies pumped into the English top flight, from Premier League to Premiership and back again. This, coupled with developments in television and Internet technology, has seen even the hungriest supporter sated in his search for football.

BSkyB's coverage of the Premier League's early days was met with much fanfare. Super Sunday became entrenched in the football vernacular and Andy Gray became a fixture in the living room of anybody who could afford a satellite dish. We were told about Sky's camera angles. Criticise Sky all you like - and I do like to criticise them, a lot - but football coverage has improved since 1991.

More recently, we've evolved into a society addicted to 24-hour rolling news (the Iraq war has become the focal point for our newly desperate news appetite), and with the emergence of Sky Sports News this became true of football fans too. We need to know it ALL. Every interview. Every transfer bid. Every goal. We want the LOT. And Sky Sports News does the business.

Politics and nuances aside, Sky equals money. With Serie A having struggled in the past ten years or so, La Liga and the Premier League have taken over as the leagues of choice for world class, in-demand players. These days, English football is swimming in the kind of money that makes players think twice about heading for the more pleasant climbs of Espana.

Think about it. The Premier League is currently graced by Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Ballack, Deco...the list is long and growing. We're attracting the best in the world, and this has increased the quality of Premier League football (though not necessarily how competitive it is), and football is a million miles from what it was 20 years ago.

It's not just Sky though. The Hillsborough disaster and, to a lesser extent in terms of local impact, Heysel, had a profound effect on football in this country. The matchday experience in the top flight is more family friendly than it ever was in the 80s and before. We've got all seater stadia, better food - except at Stoke - and, most importantly of all, it's safer.

So is it wrong that all of the above fills me with nothing but contempt?

I'm upset that the players are so stratospherically rich that I simply cannot even pretend to relate to them. Even the shit ones like Rory Delap. Hell, I can't even afford to buy tickets.

That's down to the Sky money again. The same Sky that, instead of using its considerable power for good, has used it to manipulate kick off times away from the gloriously traditional Saturday 3pm. The same Sky that swoons every time Newcastle United are mentioned. And, perhaps worst of all, the same Sky that allows David Platt on national television once every few weeks.

More than this, the availability of so much live football, all-seaters and the family focus has bled the atmosphere out of our game. It will never return, and the days of blood-stirringly exciting atmospheres are long gone apart from very special matches.

The worst side-effect of Sky, though, has been their involvement in the creation of the big four, and their nauseating consequent embracing of it. Football, folks, exists beyond Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. And that other one that's a distance behind them. Don't let Richard Keys convince you otherwise.

Another negative of English football being so focused on big names and money is that the England team seems to have suffered. I personally don't put this down to the so-called foreign invasion - I believe our coaching and development in this country is significantly flawed - but many do. The idea is that the English talent is pushed down a level below its rightful place by the cream of foreign football plying their trade in the Premier League.

None of that is new. But my disillusionment has tipped in the last year. Here's why:

The Premier League (the body, rather than the league structure itself) is trying to take football away from us to market English football abroad. Richard Scudamore's ludicrous nonsense about Game 39 - an extra league match in each season, making it uneven, unfair and unworkable - played in the highest-bidding foreign city. It's enough to make you sick, isn't it. Something along those lines will happen someday. I only hope my club of choice has the balls to say no.

And then, just when I thought football couldn't make me vomit any more, this fella crawls out from under his rock and starts dribbling on about ditching relegation.

So here's where I'm interested in what you guys have to say.

Was it better then, or is it better now? Has football's golden age passed, or is it on its way?

Are we, the first generation of Premier League fans, going to be the generation that turns its back on our clubs and stands up to say no? Do we go with the flow, or turn to non-league?

Only time will tell.

(Photo Credit: Non-League Daily)