I love this game

I have been consumed by this game since the tender age of three. Yet as my priorities within myself and the game change, the game itself changes as well, with new players, new dynasties and new problems. The question of money comes into play and so does the moral character of the players, board and fans. The beautiful game has been tainted in the past and possibly the future yet there is still hope. That hope lies within each seven year old kid that runs their heart out every Saturday at a local pitch. The ball might not be fully inflated or a soccer ball at all but to this child that ball means everything.

Are the current superstars of the beautiful game figures I would want my children to look up too?

NO!

Why? The quest of fame and money has taken a game once know for its beautiful simplicity into a game unrecognizable to many legends. The art of tackling is lost in favor of the practice of diving.

I learned to play until the final whistle, to get up and go for the ball, to never give up. Not to dive, not to purposely injure my fellow player, not to stain the game millions follow.

There are exceptions, some of the game's elite have been model citizens. By model citizens I don't mean boy scouts, rather they keep the sanctity of the game and their private affairs separate which is all I ask.

I understand if you have a photo shoot and you loath the possibility of having a black eye, or cut your eyebrow open, but I expect you to go into each challenge as if it was your last. Remember you are playing not only for a team, a paycheck but a community. An obsessed population that follows your every move.

I love this game and I have seen a metamorphosis.

I still have hope for more change.

Change that will bring this game to its roots.

Whether it will happen only time will tell. Until then I will follow my team and the players that make up my team.

After all it is MY team.