I had a season ticket for 40 years at old Trafford.
Think I have grew out of watching. To be honest I find it less interesting. I much prefer doing other things.
Interested to see if you guys feel the same?.
Do we grow out of watching football?.
r/AskUK
Comments
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
When repling to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc.
Don’t be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Man United fan doesn’t like watching Man United. Colour me shocked 😄
I think it’s just us United fans mate.
Is it because United are now terrible and you only enjoyed watching them win?
Me and my husband used to watch every game that was on tv no matter who it was and go watch Forest home and away. We still go to most Forest matches but can’t remember the last time we watched a game on tv that didn’t involve Forest or England.
Covid killed the love of football for me. I had a season ticket before, and then the lack of fans made me see through some of the drama.
Hearing grown men shout and cry for a foul without the raw of fans was too stark.
Rugby and F1 have my attention these days.
Some people do, some people don’t. End thread.
I’ll be honest here I’m an Arsenal supporter and my interest definitely dipped post the year 2010, that coincided with A Arsenal becoming the banter club, B getting married and having kids. I think it just depends on what’s going on in your life at a specific time and of course, how your teams performing on and off the pitch
Covid resulted in it falling out of being the Saturday routine, VAR sanitises the fun out of it slowly, and growing up to have other responsibilities means it’s less of a priority – a cocktail of reasons that my season ticket has gone largely unused for the last few years.
I think that’s mainly Man U fans.🤔 Seriously though, I do think that the drama of football wears thin over time. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve got older but the personalities in the game don’t seem so big, the stakes don’t seem so high, the passion isn’t at the same level. If you remember the time of Cantona, Bergkamp, Henry, Zola – it did seem next level in terms of the stature, skill and passion of the players and drama of the games. Maybe it’s just rose tinted glasses.
Football (and sport) becomes less important as you get older. Especially if you get married and have kids, priorities change.
I gave up my season ticket a few years ago after my first kid was born and am nowhere near as invested in the results as I used to be.
However, I still love football (and cricket and rugby) and will watch whenever I get the chance. My weekends are just no longer dictated by the sporting schedule.
Some do, some don’t. You’re probably growing out of it because United are shit
Match going City supporter whose first full season was 1962-63. Still going strong!!
Try your local Non-League club! I too have had a season ticket at a PL club. Still love them, but I enjoy Non-League just as much, as it feels like honest football without the media circus and expectation.
I grew out of it fairly young. About 18. I was football mad as a kid, collecting the stickers, football magazines and had a shared season ticket for Old Trafford from the age of about 10 so would get to go to every other home game. I got to 15-16 and started to get into other things and didnt wanna go to the matches anymore. Last game I saw was Cantona’s first game back after this suspension, 2-1 United vs Liverpool. and by time I got to 18 I wasnt even bothered about watching the games on TV nor mind going.
I think a lot of the reason I was such a big fan as a kid was that football was everything as a kid in the 90’s. You would feel like a pariah if you didnt have a favorite team. Was everything any boy would speak about. Something to get excited for. Something to have a mutual topic to speak to anyone about. I still see that in a lot of adults too, they make it their whole life pretty much. Cant go to a team meeting without someone bringing up the score last night.
But I find the game pretty boring these days, its really fun when you are hyper obsessed with it, knowing all the ins and outs of every player etc, but when you step back from it, its not so much fun anymore. Ill watch the England games with friends but i’m doing it to be social, not cause I care about the game.
It’s not the football in itself, it’s the rampant commercialisation of it that leaves a bad taste.
Lower league football is still fun, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay money to support players that are paid £100k+ per week, while a growing number of fans are living in poverty, cost of living crisis, etc.
I grew out of it years ago too. I used to follow it and go to some matches but I just find it so boring now. Much perfect triathlon and athletics these days.
I don’t grow out of watching football, but the fact it’s never ending these days (not helped by things like the Club World Cup now taking place in summer) means that I rarely have the enthusiasm for it when the new season begins, as I do with other sports that have longer off-seasons.
There’s certainly an element of fatigue about watching football when it’s on all the time though.
football is becoming ever more about 22 world class atheletes sticking rigidily to a system. Especially at top level. Add to that the growing disconnect between clubs and match going fans, its understandable. Im getting jaded and my team still wins.
Same here, grew out in my late teens. Don’t know what happened but it doesn’t feel the same anymore. I still follow main events though, would/euro cups etc.
For me it was an age thing. As I got to 30 I just realised it’s just not that important in the grand scheme of things, and this was as United were in their pomp. Once you’ve watched relatives and friends wither and die, the contract situation of Kobbie Mainoo just doesn’t sit front and centre in my life any more.
We’re getting old.
I think football in general just got boring to watch, the 90s was the peak with all the stars around, legends everywhere in the world, nowadays we don’t have that level anymore so we got used to that
I think the issue is that you are a Man U fan.. Glory hunter and prawn cocktail sandwich eater
Would you have “grown out of watching” if you hadn’t seen your team become a laughing stock, usurped by it’s closest neighbour and hated rival?
Don’t get me wrong, I get it. I only bother watching when my team is doing well, which is less often than not.
I also go and watch them in person very infrequently because it’s become so expensive that I see it as a rare treat. When I was a teenager back in 90s I had a premier league season ticket for less than a hundred quid.
Sky ruined football for me. I had a season ticket for about 10 years. Used to go with my dad and brother on a Saturday and it was our family time. Then sky got greedy and games started moving to stupid times. I can’t get to a game at 7pm on a Tuesday. Or it gets moved to 5pm on a Saturday and ruins the whole day. Or a Sunday. I’m a Sheffield United supporter, so we have it better than most in terms of moving games for tv. The last time we got into the premiership I ended up missing half of the home games due to time changes. I work and have a daughter. If sky or the club doesn’t respect my time then I won’t give them my money.
Season ticket holder for 30 years up until a few years ago, currently at a L1 club. Did a lot of away games too.
Started in the 90s, a great era for actual entertainment and quality of football, players and teams wanted to express themselves. Now 95% of teams will never will win anything, most top flight teams just set up not to be relegated and lose all that juicy money.
Just go to the odd game now.
I became fed up with the absurd amount of money, blatant corruption, constant cheating and gamesmanship, overly-tactical approach to games sucking the life out of it, and Sky effectively turning it into endless coverage.
I have a season ticket for my team, but I don’t watch away games/any on TV really.
I think the joy is being drilled out of the sport. There feels like far fewer spontaneous moments of skill and crunching tackles from players who care every single year, and at the top level it’s just dominated talk of the ref and VAR- one of the worst things added to the game imo. You can’t even celebrate a goal in the stadium properly anymore because you’re just waiting for VAR to find some nonsensical excuse to disallow it.
Non league football is where it’s at. Go and watch some local teams, it’s a much better experience all round.
I think that many clubs are treating fans like customers. At the top levels, fans are further down the pecking order of things the club care about.
They’ve forgotten how bad COVID football was. They’ve forgotten the fan power rallying against the super league.
Honestly, I think being a fan of a big club must be rubbish.
Maybe go down to a local small club, where your support will be valued. Potentially even start helping out, get involved. As much as we start watching football for the game, it often becomes much more. It’s about the sense of community, belonging and the people you see each week. Can’t imagine there’s much of that at Old Trafford, with season ticket holders getting booted here, there and everywhere.
Every United fan i know now suddenly “doesnt really like football”. Ive heard rubbish from “the players get too much”; “the soul has gone out the game” to “It just nice to do other things on the weekend”.
I love it.
Welcome to being a football fan. Fk me – i support Walsall – we havnt won anything since 2001/2 – thats 24 years. Your shit and uve been in 5 finals in 5 years.
Now ur rubbish your all crying. Its brilliant.
No I think you just have a lot of fickle fans. You say you were a Man Utd season ticket holder for 40 years, so I’d assume that’s somewhere in the early-mid 80’s until now (obviously I may be wrong and you could have been a holder from the 70’s until the 2010’s) but a large chunk of that time coincided with Ferguson’s tenure, all those trophies and then in just 12 years since Ferguson’s retirement and what? 5 trophies in that time I think? (FA Cup and League Cup Twice and the Europa League right?) suddenly you’re not interested… which begs the question, we you ACTUALLY a fan or did you just like the association with glory?
These days I am much more casual and ‘take it or leave it’ than I have ever been before. For me there is just too much of it and I feel I have seen all football has to offer, whilst the changes with VAR have really done a number on killing the atmosphere and sanitizing the game. I used to love cup competitions, the disdain bigger clubs show towards that is awful, whilst I have certainly noticed how FIFA have silently introduced the European super-league they always wanted under everyone’s nose. In many ways I just feel over it and usually prefer to be doing something else.
I’m a Reading fan, have been since the mid nineties. Seen highs and lows. It’s not the quality of the football, or the fact we’ve fallen down the league, or even our poor ownership and financial problems that have lost me a bit of interest, it’s the lack of fans at games now and the poor atmosphere. I remember going to division two games (league one now) in the 90s, before our nice new stadium, and it was packed week in week out. When we moved, we regularly packed out the 24,000 seater stadium. These days we’re lucky to get 12,000 and of those, only about 500 or so bother to sing or chant
I definitely find it difficult to get excited about these days. Football talk would be around the actual games and players. Now fans argue about transfer fees, agents, DoF’s, commercial deals, points deductions, like it affects our lives.
Plus the money gets more obscene every season, which you can’t help feel bitter about when it he general population is having to penny pinch at a supermarket shop.
Football used to feel like a game was a town versus another town. Now it’s a business versus another business (or State).
I think it feels like it’s all just reality TV now. Much prefer a couple of pints at a non league game, then get on with my life at the full time whistle.
Cause you’re watching Man Utd play like a hungover Sunday league team mate 😂
Since I’ve been into Rugby (league and Union) and Aussie Rules football I’ve been less interested in association football
If your team weren’t a heap of shit, I bet you’d be finding it interesting
Not even joking. Mediocrity breeds apathy
Grow out, no, but no hobby, activity, brand or person deserves your unconditional support. If it’s not fun for you at the moment, step back and let yourself organically get drawn back in.
When I was younger I knew all the players and was really interested. I guess the last time I got really excited about an England game was about 20 years ago. As my son got older and into football, he knew all the players from playing FIFA and was really into it, while I realised I’d never heard of most of them and just didn’t care. Part of it was just growing up, part of it was thinking how absurd it is that someone could be worth £100,000,000+ because of their ability to kick a pig’s bladder wrapped in leather.
Nowadays, I follow my team – League 2 – in an abstract way: I like them to do well, but I haven’t been to a game in 15 years.
I don’t even watch it on the telly these days unless it’s a really big game. Like many things, the premier league peaked in the 90s for me as a balance of skill and physicality. I find a lot of matches are just dull.
It’s likely the VAR and modern day punditry/social media sofa fans ruining your excitement of it than the football itself.
I stopped pretending I was interested when I was about 18. Like almost everything, I prefer playing than watching.
I have very much found this. It’s been three years since I’ve been to watch my team, the longest hiatus since my first match in ‘88.
Football in the higher tiers has become soulless and sterile. Lots of money, teams more afraid of losing so just play keep-ball, owners and players that have no love or association with the club.
Go to your local non league side for a few weeks, see players and staff in the bar afterwards, give them your money instead of the billionaires in the top tiers. Your love of football might return.
Never
I think there’s just too much football on even when the seasons not on there’s still all kinds of football going on and then there’s countless articles, posts, clips etc etc about it.. We also just get grumpy as fck as we grow older I used to go to games quite a bit but I just can’t stand the hassle of it and being around too many people…
I grew out of it at about 15.
I liked defenders putting in proper tackles, I liked wingers skinning the full back before putting it in the box, i liked big man little man strike duos.
That died for me in the late 90s. I still enjoy football but it’s not as fun. Tiki Taka is like watching Floyd mayweather fight whilst technically brilliant it just doesn’t excite.
Yeah I’m with you as well. I used to spend whole weekends just watching games. I still like international tournaments, but outside of that I can’t remember the last time I sat down and watched a full game.
I think part of it is having kids now, don’t have the time to watch much these days. And having to have about 5 subscriptions to watch everything. I cancelled my sky sports subscription a few years ago as I wasn’t using it and haven’t missed it.
The game was getting pretty boring as well. Everyone was just playing varying standards of Pep ball.
Plus the tribalism that goes on these days is mad. I’ve left all the football subs apart from a couple of smaller ones, all toxic. Some of the replies here are pretty mad as well!
No.
I’m 36 and I enjoy watching football more than I did in my 20s.
The premier league’s main asset was its fans. The fans have been exploited. The experience is diminished. Most clubs play boring football or they’re a bit rubbish. Only 1 or 2 teams a season get lucky with brilliant football or do way better than expected. Why pay ~£1000 a year for this experience? That’s before food, travel, time lost with family etc.
It used to be cheap, fun, see your mates, make new friends, tribal, a modern day church experience but not anymore.
I think I’ve grown out of it a fair bit, as a kid must of us were so obsessed with it and then as we grow up, it’s natural that our interest moves on to other things
I wouldn’t say I’ve ‘grown’ out of watching football. Rather falling out of love with it.
I’m just going to be the grumpy old man and say it. Today’s football is just not as enjoyable to watch as it use to be.
Back then, the flair players were true mavericks of the game. Today’s ‘flair’ players are mostly just fast. See, Mbappe.
Nevermind Messi or Ronaldo. When was the last time we witnessed a Bergkamp vs Newcastle? Magical touches from Zola, despite him being 3ft 7? The craziness of Di Canio? The excitement when a 17yr old Owen had the ball?
Yes, the effectiveness of the type of football we see today is probably more than that of the past, but it’s shit to watch tbh.
Some of us forget it’s all for entertainment. We give 2hrs of our life to watch it.
I’m a Villa fan and completely understand. We are having a fantastic run under Emery but football just isn’t enjoyable as much. VAR, bad decisions, fans on twitter, low blocks. Transfers news becomes financial news and don’t get me started on xg.
I miss the 90s.
Yeah totally. I found once I hit 30, my interest did fade.
Although that did coincide with covid and becoming a father, so they could be factors as well.
Seeing Palace winning the cup though did spark something in me!
I used to go watch Bristol City play quite regularly with a friend when I was at school for a number of years. As soon as I was 16 I stopped as I would rather work & didn’t want to waste my money watching men chasing a ball & flailing around on a pitch.
I’ve never been a ‘football’ fan. I would never watch random matches in tv. I actually find watching any football in tv is usually quite boring.
However, I have had a season ticket for 20 plus for my team. I love watching my team live.
As a side point, in the 40 years you had a season ticket you saw great success and regular wins, have you considered that your waning interest is linked to your team’s lack of success
Followed my team for 40+ years. Season ticket holder. Go to around 75% of away games. Will also go and watch my.local.non league team.
Nowadays I rarely watch games on TV where I dont have a vested interest in though.
Happened to me and others. Multitude of reasons. Life gets in the way, kids, jobs, moving away.
Of course the prices, kick off times, VAR. I imagine there will always be people to fill the stadiums, but in our wider group of 50 or so that know each other or form smaller groups, I’d say at least 15-20 of them have stopped going in the last four years.
A lot of the stuff mentioned above probably applies to me, but generally I just feel like I don’t enjoy it or the lifestyle that comes with it anymore.
Yeah, I used to go home and away with Wolves, travelling up from London, and yeah, I ended up feeling like a customer than a fan and generally just gave it up, I dont miss it at all, I wish I did, huge part of my life but the game is changed and it just wasn’t the same.
My non-football related response is: people change, their interests and hobbies change. I’ve never been a fan of football, but I’ve noticed I can’t be arsed with some stuff I used to love, and now prefer other things.
Lower league football is more of an honest game now I feel. Less drama where the PL is seemingly all about money, commercial deals and seemingly becoming a closed shop.
I grew out of football in my 20s, and seemingly nothing gets me back in. I’ve tried because my mates still love it, but I just can’t watch a full game. I still enjoy highlights but I don’t know any of the players anymore. Not sure why. I never really supported any team so don’t have that hook.
It’s just giving money to multi millionaires.
Also who cares who wins or loses when they just play each other again in a couple months anyway?
City fan here so obligatory “well of course you don’t want to watch that gash” but in all honesty I’m less interested myself these days.
Might have something to do with how utterly shite your team is pal
It’s probably because they are crap now
Personally, I’m happy enough being an armchair fan. I haven’t got the time to invest in getting to the stadium (not to mention the ridiculous costs and hoops you have to jump through just to get a ticket). Got the gardening to do on a Saturday afternoon/spend time with the family etc. Can’t afford season tickets for the whole bunch (used to be a working-class game, those days are long-gone) so easy enough to put the game on the TV. It’s a shame, but it’s not my fault.
Got bored of footie as a teenager and stopped watching or supporting any teams.
In the words of a wise lorry repair man “football is 2 hours wasted watching 22 millionaires chasing a bag of wind in their underwear “. I Can’t agree more. I loved it in the 80’s , 90’s but cannot be bothered with the commercial EFL. Still enjoy international tournaments. I’ve just no clue who the players are anymore. Except that fuckwit Harry Kane. Why / how!!!????
I’m in my early 50s and been going to Newcastle for most of my life – the last couple of seasons have been the most entertaining in decades.
I’ve been looking forward to Saturday all week!
Admittedly, when Newcastle were shit (as ManU are now) it was more about the afternoon out, and seeing the lads in the pub. The actual football was often an unwelcome interruption!
For a serious answer, I don’t like the phrasing of growing out. It suggests football is a childish thing. I’m in my mid thirties. I still love football and it’s a huge part of mine and my wife’s life. I can count on one hand the games we’ve missed on TV the last ten years. We go as much as we can despite it being a 2+ hr trip each way (we don’t live near my team any more and they use a ballot for tickets). We’re season ticket holders for our women’s team. And when we’re not watching our team we’re going with the MiL to see her team, or going to the local non-league (men and women). We also like to go to see other teams and tick off new grounds if time allows.
I love football of all levels. I love the skill, passion and camaraderie. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Yeah, too many men around so I’ve had enough.
Might be because they’re shit now.
I’ve only ever supported my local team, who have played the majority of the time I’ve supported them in Non League, save for a brief stint in league 2.
It’s the best way to watch actual football. No passing it from side to side endlessly. Proper physical, big man up top football is just more entertaining.
I mean, over the last 40 years Manchester United have gone from global dominance to laughable clown show, so I can see why you in particular might have gone off football.
I support Stoke which is an emotional rollercoaster but the Championship is a more exciting leage than the PL. A mate of mine goes to non-league games when Stoke are away and there are loads in Manchester. Maybe drop a league or two or six to see how you like it.
Top level football has become a lot more sterile. It just genuinely isn’t as interesting to watch these days. Too data/stats driven
You’re just a United fan, currently you guys are wank, that’s why you are depressed.
It’s mad how many forty year olds still chat to me about football like we’re 19. The excitement over media tittle tattle etc.
I still watch but not with the interest I once had.
The overwhelming reason is overkill. My recollection when I was a kid in the 70s was that the domestic season ended with the FA cup final usually early May and didn’t restart until the charity shield which seemed to be last weekend in August.
The European cup final was later than the FA cup.
Now if there is a break it seems to be a few days in July.
Also the never-ending punditry, OK I just switch it off but it adds to the oppressive nature of the entire thing.
I went through phases. Watched spurs religiously until I was in my mid-late 20s then went through a break when we were at our peak in recent years. Started watching again around the conte era…I’m weirdly back into it big time now.
Let me guess, you grew out of watching Man Utd in the last 10 years?! 😂
I certainly don’t watch football as much as I used to, but I think it’s more because there is so much of it on now it’s just a turn off.
Snap. I was a season ticket holder at Spurs for years, gave it up a couple of seasons ago.
Admittedly, I still watch on television, but I now go to my local non league club. Great fun.
It’s definitely the money & “Americanism” of it all coupled with VAR. The transfer fees & wages just make me eye roll these days, everything’s an advert & when it actually gets down to it you can’t celebrate a goal properly incase it’s chalked off
I did but I’ve got back into it the last couple of years since I’ve had children – made me think about what I want to pass on to my children culturally, what we will bond over, and the like. I have lovely memories of watching football with my dad and I hope my children will have the same.
Individuals change during their lives. Some people don’t start watching football until later in life while others start young and then lose interest. I know plenty of old people of all ages who love football and also plenty who don’t.
>I had a season ticket for 40 years at old Trafford.
I don’t think you grew out of watching football. I think you came to your senses. Could your lack of interest now have something to do with the change in fortunes of the club in recent years?
Yes I have gradually moved away from it. I barely take any notice anymore, compared to 10 years ago when I could watch 3 games in a day easily.
Definitely do.
I used to love (and I mean love) going to games, had a ST, did a fair few over seas CL away trips etc etc…
But now, I just cba at all. I don’t have the ST anymore, but can still get tickets through friends on occasion, but I just have no determination to even try.
I feel with how football is so “tourist” now, lack of atmosphere and all the new rules and regs, I just don’t find it that fun. I’d rather watch it at home on my sofa and go about the rest of my day around the game.
What I don’t understand is what people get from watching 22 multi-millionaires running around a field.
It hasn’t happened to me with football but it happened to me with F1 around 2022
I had recorded a race because it clashed with either football or MotoGP (I think) and planned on watching it after (pretty much out of FOMO by that point) and it occurred to me how much of a chore I considered it so I decided to just not watch it and realised how little I cared so I started only watching races etc when they were my only option and then by the time 2023 started I just never tuned in and I have no regrets 😂🤷🏻♀️
I’m a Wimbledon fan and the last 18 months has been so good that it kind of feels like football has been completed.
We smashed Milton Keynes with a last minute winner, beat them again at our place, then at theirs (with our snake former player getting sent off right in front of the away fans) then we got promoted at Wembley via the playoffs. I would have been happy if football ended that day and we all just got together occasionally to watch the highlights.
Hard to care about the boring England team on telly playing San Marino and Andorra every 6 months once you’ve seen Ronan Curtis tap home against the Frannies in the 96th minute.
I am 40 now and I have been a Liverpool fan since I was 5 years old. I used to love watching all football. For the last 10 years I will only watch Liverpool games, no internationals. I really love LFC, and I love watching their games. I am just not that into it anymore as a whole but that happens in life. I have also been gaming since before I was 5 and I love that now more than I ever have. Sometimes you go off things, sometimes you don’t.
I still watch but I’m usually working and prioritise that instead.
I think that every year that goes by football gets worse…I miss the early 2000’s so much.
Var, players attitudes, money, football becoming a non contact sport, diving, ridiculous handball rules, amount of games etc.
I don’t feel the magic of football like I used to. Even getting rid of the away goals rule made things less fun/dramatic for me.
Maybe it’s just nostalgia but I just don’t feel as attached to it anymore.
Even the games suck now too, I miss playing FIFA 08.
Yep, 36 used to have a season ticket at my team between 8-16, plus all the games ive seen on tv and now i really struggle to watch a game on tv. Still go to a couple of games a season and watch highlights but i’m much less interested nowadays.
I’m nearing 40 and I don’t care any less about football, however, I’ve got so little patience now for the terminally online nutbags who make people’s lives a misery for whatever reason they’ve decided at the time. Sending abuse to players, referees or pundits literally wasn’t an option when I was younger (ignoring an actual note) whereas now it’s just so simple. Add in the frothy mouthed videos made to get reactions that usually serve to encourage said abuse and…urgh.
Still love football, am less inclined to deal with some of the idiots involved.
Growing out of football is definitely a thing.
At a certain point you’ve seen it all in football and you realise:
it really doesn’t matter if your team win or lose, there’s just more to life and it feels silly getting excited or down about a group of men in their 20s
why would you expect to sustain the same interest in something decade after decade, when it started as something you enjoyed as a little boy? It’d be weird if you had the same excitement watching Fernandez in 2025 as you did Bryan Robson in 1985, it’s not gonna feel the same.
you’re watching players half your age who have zero connection to your club or city
clubs rinse every penny from you which leaves a sour taste
the game itself became rigid and boring this past decade
football chat isn’t that interesting after decades, do I really care what Alan Shearer or Mica Richards think?
Our football culture judges fans for not committing every weekend of their life to the same drudging experience as if people don’t grow out of things that started in childhood.
I was obsessed with football from age 5 to 30 ish but the past decade or so I just lost interest. I absolutely love playing and always will but watching matches does very little for me now. I wish it did, I miss sitting down to watch a game and being enraptured but that feeling has gone.
40 years at Old Trafford is legendary. Well maybe you’re not outgrowing football you’re just outgrowing this version of football.
I don’t blame you, I used to have a season ticket at Old Trafford.
Now, if I woke up in the morning and opened my bedroom curtains to find Manchester United playing in my back garden, I’d shut the curtains and go back to sleep.
Not for me. I follow my team home, away, and across Europe when I can. Family life means there are clashes some times, but I still get the same buzz going to matches.
40 years is a long time to have been watching essentially the same thing every year. Obviously things change in football and different teams win etc, but ultimately the Premier League is the same 10-month routine every year so it’s pretty reasonable for someone to be bored of it after so long.
Combine that with ticket costs for certain clubs being extortionate, those same clubs being more anti-working class than ever, the Premier League itself not having anywhere near the amount of stars/characters it had 15-20 years ago and games often being incredibly boring due to teams nowadays prioritising not losing possession over anything….it’s easy to see why someone who loved English football at the top level 10, 20, 30 years ago might not in 2025.
Even in Man United’s calamity season last year you still saw your team win or draw more than they lost.
I still watch the odd premier league/championship game in the pub, but aside England or an FA cup game I would have no interest watching at home. For me it’s getting older that has put a stop to a lot of it, saturday afternoons are either work or family time. That, and the cost of the subscriptions.
Also, getting older has certainly dampened the magic of football. Being a kid, you’d idolise your favourite players and the shout of ROOOOONEY when you’d smash a volley over the park fence are a long distant memory.
I’ve grown into it and having it on in the background
Well it is man united haha
Do you play Fantasy Football? I find that helps stay interested in watching your players
I’m a Brentford fan (season ticket until this year had to move) and it’s been great tbh but at the same time I totally get what you’re saying. Time seems to go quicker, the good results and season disappear quicker – and the cycle gets faster and faster. Feels like yesterday Liverpool were dog shit with players like Jay Spearing
also feels like we were playing with Andre Gray upfront yesterday and that’s 11 years ago.
I do enjoy it still, but it does feel like it means less every year I get older (i’m 30 soon)
also the older you get the more pathetic you feel letting football put you in a bad mood.
We watch football to be entertained, and as a man utd fan you had it good for a lot of those 40 years. Now its average at best and you arent used to the mediocrity, you aren’t entertained anymore so you lose interest.
I don’t think I will ever get tired / bored of watching team. I could see as to why if I just watched on tv like a fan, but it’s a million miles better to actually go to games in the flesh. Especially away games.
Think it’s cos you’re shite atm?
I always say COVID broke a lot of habits I had around watching sport in general. Giving up a season ticket, going to a lot less games etc.
In reality, it was a combination of factors, surfaced by the enforced break that did it. I think I’ve trended towards valuing contentment over passion and realising sport was an emotional crutch for me for most of my life played a big part.
I’ve become more invested in footie the older I’ve got.
I don’t like the sport or the culture. I resent how it crowds every other sport out.
That’s just supporting Man United. I have that too, it seems like a duty, like going to the dentist.
I used to watch my team, Scunthorpe united, religiously from the ages of 11 – 24 fell out of love a little bit and stopped going regular for years.. but still looked out for results and listened to games.
Then the club was in direstraights and nearly folded.
I, along with a fait amount of other, decided to get back behind the team and go to games.
The community spirit is on another level and I love going , even when results dont go our way.
Bought my first season ticket this year!
Up the iron!
I’m a Sheffield United fan now in my 40s. Our awful, embarrassing premier league season sucked the joy of football out of me. I still watch most of the games but I dont really care as much knowing we’ll either just exist in the championship forever after selling anyone decent, or we get promoted and spend a whole year getting battered again. Neither prospect excites me in the slightest.
I found myself caring less. As a teenager and in my 20s it meant everything to see a team win or a good England performance. Crushing seeing a relegation. Now it is “well there is next year”.
“A man who is tired of football is tired of life”. – Samuel Johnson
I grew into it as I got older. Going to a game I’m always 100% invested in the match, why go if your not going to be.
But like watching on TV, as a kid and a teenager, if it was pure entertainment, multiple goals, pure action for 90 mins, I’d get distracted really easily or end up not finishing the match.
Now I’m in my late 20s and every match I can watch, I will watch, with 100% investment regardless of how the game is going, could be super dull, i don’t care I wanna watch football.
Myabe just me though.
I love watching football, but at 30 I can’t imagine tracking to the stadium every other weekend. With travel, drinks, queuing etc you can be out the house most of the day. It’s just a shame a season ticket is the only reliable way to go to a game of your choosing these days
Lots of people “grow out of” interests all the time, this also applies to football.
What is important to state here though is that when I say “grow out of” I do not mean that in the derogatory way that would signify something is immature or beneath you, but rather simply that your interests have now changed.
Who knows they may well change again in the future and you start enjoying it again.
I do believe football is more fun when the players are actually older than you, i cant explain why I think this.
Rooney/Ronaldo were older than by like 4 years, Keane obviously much older etc.
Football has also changed alot wingers today are to robotic and beating a man is a highlight reel, where as before was expected, general game is about less risk meaning less entertainment, someone like Awb would’ve been labelled world class in 90’s – early 2000’s, as his tackling and one v one were unreal, but fact he couldn’t cross for an attack to save his life, meant in today’s football he wasnt good enough, prime time Stoke under Pulis with Delap will never happen again, maybe lower leagues but generally no, because the other big issue is….stats, they have become ridiculous now like the “not dribbled past” nonsense.
Severe lack of individuality and personality on pitch, seemed like before every big team had top players in each position, as athletes today are better in every aspect but has actual footballers? No.
Then there’s the whole social media aspect and combined together, I can see why especially when you saw something to now, would lose interest.
I even believe id probably have been less interested if Utd were same from mid 2000’s till today, because then id have been spoilt and just be like “oh yh we won another trophy okay?”
International football absolutely, couldn’t care less about WC qualification and friendlies just the tournaments there must be an easier way to auto qualify,examplelast eight of euros or world cup you automatically qualify for next one
When your team has been getting prgressively worse over the years it’s only natural to find it less interesting because it’s not going to give you as much joy.
“Grew out of it” in my 20s
You don’t enjoy it now you are not winning things. Oh dear.
More fine weather fans dropping like flies.
Having got into watching rugby, now when I watch football, I find it a bit boring the constant playing back to the keeper then trying to go forward, as opposed to the more forward-moving play of rugby.
Yes, there are just as many stoppages, but at least they have a better handle on TMO (VAR) than football and they stop the clock when, rather than adding the time on at the end. Also, typically the players don’t spend 5 minutes rolling on the ground unless they have actually injured themselves (although it does seem to be becoming a thing now).
Yeah I loved watching football as a kid and teenager but then grew out of it around 19 or 20 as I got busy with other more serious things in life.