a grass-roots club dies

"...[i]ncreasingly people want success, and it will appear they'll take it at any cost.  As seen by the ‘experiment’ at Rovers, and the rebranding of Cardiff City, just the promise of success, no matter how flimsy, is enough to make many tuck their morals away in a drawer and tug their forelocks for the new lords of the manor.  I just can’t relate to that.  Of course people will say “well, that’s football”, but every time you say that a grass-roots club dies.

...

You can have success without relentlessly going on about the need for income to compete.  In the past year Worcester, Rossington and the Belles have seen crowds increase significantly, and it has come from striving to engage with the community, of encouraging their population to be part of what they’re doing.  And, as a result, I have found much greater enjoyment these past twelve months with them, and I felt a part of their triumphs much more than I felt part of Rovers’ wins.

The new season is now a month away, and for the first time in years I am finding it really hard to get excited about watching my team again.  I ceased to have any more than a passing interest in football’s top flight years ago, and now Rovers are starting to slip into the same pigeon-hole in which I’ve long placed the Premier League, of being an unrelatable by-product of a sport I still love."

Read more here:- Out of Love - On finding it hard to follow your club