My days as a football fan are long gone... I think the cause of this was the entry of pay-per-view platforms into television.
At the beginning, and I'm talking about more than 15 years ago, I became affiliated with one of these platforms, particularly to watch the league and champions league matches... then I decided to stop paying and watch only the football matches that were broadcasted "openly" on public television.
Over time, these soccer matches stopped being broadcasted publicly and the pressure for pay channels was getting stronger.
I resisted... I didn't enroll in any of them, instead, I started meeting friends at the bar who had paid the subscription to watch the match. A perfect social activity but with also important alcoholic content involved (LoL)
Later I found alternatives on the internet websites that literally "hacked" the signal of the pay-TV channels and so I kept going until I got bored of searching and changing the website since they were being banned as the authorities discovered them...
For a reasonable time I forgot about football, they were no longer necessary in my life, I found other things that gave me more satisfaction.
Time went by and one day I realized that my 10-year-old son knew more current players than I did... I felt weird for a few moments but was also happy to have gotten rid of an unproductive hobby that didn't contribute anything to my life.
Surprisingly, today they broadcast the match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona corresponding to the "Copa del Rey" semifinals on the national public television channel, a television that we all pay for with our taxes and that used to broadcast almost all the important league and champion matches just 15 years ago for the very same taxes...
Today it seems that we have been lucky.
I am watching it with my son, I promised him that we would watch it together even though it's very late and tomorrow there is school, although I pay more attention to my laptop than to the television...
My team is winning at the moment...
I'm bored, there's no emotion, but you know what?
I'm so glad I'm not a slave to this business!
@toofasteddie