At the highest level, the game is utterly knackered. It will be beyond unsustainable soon, perhaps not in my lifetime, but there's just no way it can keep going the way it is.
I have to agree. I take the numbers in these articles at face value which show in the WC the first 72 games will eliminate 16 teams. In the revised CL there will be 180 games to eliminate 12, yes twelve, sides.
I really do wonder why anyone feels there was so much fundamentally wrong with 64 >32 >16 >8 >4 >2 >Winner.
Yes, there has to be progress, yes it is about generating revenue but there must come a point when expansion generates decline and not growth.
Today the only time I watch televised football is if Blackburn Rovers are on and for some reason I cant go to the match. The only football related purchase I make today, or have made for possibly a decade, is my season ticket at Ewood. I'm pretty sure if the game offered me something exciting, a bit special, something more than a beauty parade I could be persuaded to sit down with a beer and watch.
But then what does a fan know?
Tennis, for example, persuades me to watch. I'm not a tennis fan but my wife is and she watches many tournaments on TV. I don't watch all by any means but matches can and do grab my attention not least because I know the result matters. In far too many football matches the result is largely irrelevant or a foregone conclusion.
