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Horse Racing Ex-Man United hero in major interview about modern football: "They are monsters and want to ruin football”
Football has always been a game for everyone, and that’s why it also evokes strong emotions in all of us. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional football player, a journalist, or just a normal football fan who enjoys sitting and having a beer with your friends in front of the screen.
You may already be familiar with former Manchester United player Paul Parker, and if that’s the case, you certainly know that he is a man who has a lot on his mind, both when it comes to football and society.
We sat down with Paul Parker for an in-depth conversation about how football has evolved, but this time it goes far beyond just the game on the field. According to the former Manchester United star, there is much more at stake.
In this article:
- The players are holding all the cards
- Man United are not innocent – they are guilty in ruining football
- Football is facing a dark future, and our kids are the victims
- We need to stand together against the monsters who kills football
- Premier League is an embarrassment just as La Liga has been for years
- Leicester´s miracle was a disaster for the Premier League, who hates underdogs
The players are holding all the cards
Paul Parker begins by discussing how he believes that football today is being controlled by the players, who, in his opinion, are far too selfish.
“Football has become a game that is run by players now. Players hold all the cards and they do seem to pick and choose and they are quite selfish in the way they think and they don’t put the team first”, says Parker in the beginning of our conversation and continues:
“But that’s not how it works. I´m not working as an expert today because I talked a lot as a player but because I was working hard and because I achieved great things with a great club. That’s what players need to understand.”
You may already sense the direction the interview is taking, and it’s not just because there’s a man on the other end of the microphone who feels like chatting about anything and everything. Paul Parker has something on his mind that he wants to share.
Parker´s words are tough, harsh, and sensitive. You may even find yourself reconsidering your perspective on the sport we all love so much, which will make you reflect and contemplate the state of football, and from there, you’re free to form your own opinions.
Man United are not innocent – they are guilty in ruining football
Paul Parker can’t avoid drawing parallels to the time when he proudly played for Manchester United. It’s the sense of pride that he believes players should also carry today because it’s something truly special to be able to make a living from your passion and perhaps one day have the opportunity to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“There was a time, many years ago, when players signed for Man United because it was Manchester United. Today players are signing for Man United because of… Yeah, god knows how many million they can earn.”
According to him, money should not be a reason to start playing football, and it’s the enormous sums of money that are, in his opinion, contributing to the destruction of the sport. He believes his former club, Manchester United, is certainly guilty in this regard as well.
“That’s why Man United are also guilty when it comes to ruining football in this country. They are not the only guilty club but they are not innocent.”
“The Premier League has become a circus division because it’s all about money. This circus division is slowly killing our game and the circus division has taken anything good away from our football.”
Football is facing a dark future, and our kids are the victims
Paul Parker asserts that there are changes that need to be made if we want to preserve football as it once was, and he has his own proposed solution ready.
“Some awful words have been said about our football recently – everything because of how the Premier League has been run. Somehow we have to stop this assort when it comes to using money, otherwise football is facing a dark future.”
Paul Parker’s concern about the future of football is not about himself, but rather about the kids who he fears are missing out on the joy of the sport, as he himself experienced as a kid.
“Kids are growing up now and they get the wrong picture of football. They think it’s a sport that you start to play because you want to earn money.”
“They should start playing because they enjoy playing with their friends and want to achieve big things. Not because they want to fill their pockets.”
We need to stand together against the monsters who kills football
Paul Parker has previously made it clear that a significant part of the problem lies in the enormous amounts of money being spent. However, he also believes that there are individuals deliberately working against the interests of the people when it comes to finding joy in football.
“We need to stand together against those monsters who want to kill football and take away joy from people. But it is going to be extremely tough. We did stand together when the money division was a proper football league.”
“But it seems like some people are trying to distance the real football from the people, which is scary to be honest. Football has become an us versus them discussion, which is totally wrong.”
For Paul Parker, it’s about the fact that the wrong people have taken over football, which used to belong to the working class. He believes there has been a shift in the power dynamics within the sport.
He still believes that football should belong to the working class, as it was created for them. It was their unity that held everything together, and it is also they who should lead us out of the crisis, even though it appears extremely challenging with the current power structure, both in the English football association and the clubs.
“Everything starts with the first class people who have overtaken football… The problem is that first class people believe that the class below them is no class, which is as far away from the truth as possible.”
“Football was created and invented for the working class but people are trying to take away football from the working class people. Even middle class people are starting to overtake football, which is a disaster because they are the wrong people to be involved in football.”
Premier League is an embarrassment just as La Liga has been for years
According to Paul Parker, many of the reasons he mentioned are not just superficial causes for football moving in the wrong direction. It is also evident in concrete terms on the pitch, where competitiveness has been weakened, leading him to label the Premier League as an embarrassment.
“We have made fun of La Liga for years now because that league is an embarrassment. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the only clubs that are competing for something but now it is the same in England.”
We’ll take a slight step back to what actually concerns Paul Parker a lot: Kids missing out on something he experienced himself. He is afraid that his own grandkids, and kids in general, will miss out on the beauty of football. It is a genuine concern for him.
In this regard, he specifically highlights the United States as a major problem, where he explains that, in his opinion, American kids have a completely wrong perception of football. He is concerned that it is not just an American trend but that it will spread to Europe over time.
“I’m just scared that my kids and grandkids will miss out on a lot of beautiful things about football. Look at how much the American kids have missed out on. They don´t understand what it means to lose.”
“Teams in the MLS will have a poor season and then they will just get on with it. When the season is done they can draft a player from the draft system, which means they don’t even have to work hard anymore.”
Leicester´s miracle was a disaster for the Premier League, who hates underdogs
Certainly, you remember Leicester City’s wonderful triumph in the 2015/16 season. Whether you were a supporter of Arsenal, Tottenham, or another team with hopes of winning the title, you probably felt the same way as most people. It was hard to avoid finding it just a little bit fantastic when Captain Morgan and his teammates lifted the trophy.
According to Paul Parker, not everyone feels the same way. He believes that the football association and the Premier League do not want to see a repetition of such stories.
“Leicester won the Premier League in 2016. Fantastic. I loved it. But do the Premier League want that to happen again? No! at all. Of course not. We don’t want underdogs anymore and everything has to be won by a very expensive franchise.”
Whether you are young or old, you can surely recall several surprises like those. However, according to Parker, there is reason to worry. He looks back on his childhood filled with fond football memories before unleashing his final rant against the Premier League in this interview, as he has one last thing he wants to get off his chest.
“Back in the 1970´s when I was a kid, we saw some major surprises and people were celebrating it as hell because they had been nervous the whole week leading up to the game.”
“It’s not like that anymore, and I can be very sad when thinking about it and I’m even more sad when I´m thinking about how we are that close to ruining football, which should be a meritocratic system, really. You should play to achieve something and do everything in your power to avoid something as well.”
Hopefully, you enjoyed reading some thoughts from an ex professional football player and even though you might disagree with a lot of the things said, you´re maybe even more aware of how you actually think football should be like.
