Champions League Final

I watched the UCL branded Final sponsored by tyre manufacturer and Russian energy provider amongst others, last night just for a fix of football. I didn't drink the official beer or wear the official underpants of the UEFA Champions League. I did begin to question why this competition has become the be all and end all of football in Europe. With its numerous sponsors, official suppliers and the fact that as of next season it is exclusively live on BTSport. The tournament has been designed exclusively for the armchair football consumer, with it Pavlovian anthem calling to the watcher to pick up his official beer and sit and watch the games on the official television. The objective of the Champions League and it's sibling the Europa League and its dirty cousin, the Premier League is to make money. It's not about fans, fans are just a commodity, they exist purely to sell to. There are those that don't consume though, or rather they do but not the right stuff. They are us and there are actually quite a lot of us, and UEFA wants us. To go about getting us to conform, they aim to destroy what we love, our football teams. B teams, league restructuring, not allowing televised domestic matches to clash with UEFA showpiece matches, Thursday football, 5 o'clock kick offs. All designed to drive football fans away from lower league football and into the arms of the television controlled monstrosity that they call football. Any sport that has an Anthem should be shunned.

Oops went on a bit of a rant.