The gentrification of football and the inevitable squeezing out of its working-class demographic has led directly to the rise of pseudo-political grandstanding as purveyed by the likes of Farage.
Instead of being able to afford travel to away games, a few pints and a scrap with your team’s rivals, young men are following entirely more dangerous, insidious characters around. Taking the game away from the streets doesn’t mean the streets go away. It has created a generation of lads whose sense of belonging has been ripped away.
This, along with a narrative that is designed to create Bogeymen, has diverted the rage of powerlessness away from targetting the capitalist hoarders and sent it toward blameless working-class people who have been forced to leave their own communities behind.
This punching down-or-across has added irony in that the untenable situation that made people leave their homes behind is completely avoidable. Modern conflicts and wars are created by the 1%, the moneyed classes, over oil, rare earth metals, and other resources.
The game’s gone.
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