Radio presenters explain why more and more fans are falling out of love with football

Radio presenters Rob Staton and Adam Oxley explain why more and more fans are falling out of love with football.

A clip has emerged on got people talking, with those on BBC Sheffield looking at the reason at “the beautiful game” becoming a less enjoyable spectacle.

Fair to say there was quite the response, the video getting over 107,000 views in less than 12 hours of being posted. Take a look below…

🗣️ “It’s not fun anymore. I think there’s an increasing number of people who look at football and think ‘I can’t be bothered’. This is not the beautiful game any more.”

🤔 Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/dawRcfNVPY

— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) February 12, 2026

Rob Staton: “The phrase, uh, the game’s gone, uh, is seen as a bit of a, I don’t know, a cliche, a bit of a joke.

“I think the game has gone in many ways. In many, many ways, they’re looking at what they’ve done to the World Cup and the Euros, uh, what we’re seeing every week with the VAR stuff, this that we’re talking about, the toxicity around fans and owners and everything like that.”

Adam Oxley: Extreme reactions to everything.

Rob Staton: It’s not fun anymore. I think there’s an increasing number of people who look at football and think, I can’t be bothered. This is not what, this is not the beautiful game anymore.

“And, it really bothers me that because it is the best game. It’s the best sport. It’s the most purest. I know I’ve just gone a long way to what you, you know, what people would call sort of, egg chasing or American rugby or whatever you want to call it. But football is still the most pure, best sport in the world.

“I still love international football because it is, you know, players playing for the country is not for big walking salaries and all this, you know, they go out there to the pride and for personal reasons.

“And they play for families and friends and people back home in the country. That’s really the… and even that’s been ruined by the formats and the dripping wealth around, the World Cup.

“And where are the decisions? It’s been in Qatar. It’s going to go to Saudi Arabia. It’s a problem.

“You ain’t going back to how football was, and I’m not talking about the way the players are, players are ultra professional now, and they weren’t in the past.

“I think that, that I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about all the stuff that’s wrong with the game now.

“You ain’t going back to how it was. There’s nothing you can do. You just got to lump it.

“And I think an increasing number of people will go, I ain’t lumping it anymore.

“The problem is, is you’ve got a whole army of people around the world who are quite happy to just be Arsenal, Chelsea fans or whatever, tentatively play a bit of FIFA and…”

Adam Oxley: “And it’s been increasingly been orchestrated around those supporters as opposed to the more traditional supporters that we look at.

“And this is before we get onto, the price of everything and people getting priced out and not being able to, to afford the tickets or whatever they’re, they’re able to do at the minute.”

Here’s how social media users reacted as the two radio presenters explain why more and more fans are falling out of love with football…

@Siddsy84: Why increasing amounts of people enjoy the non league, working class blokes having a go for the love of the game, and volunteers who give up Saturdays for the love of their local club who are genuinely welcoming and grateful for people paying a £5er to watch

@hill_craig67888: Non league is where it’s at for proper football. VAR and obvious corruption from the prem down, robotic interviews, arrogamce, bloody childish goal celebrations.. the list is endless. Non league all day long.

@alrightfans: Last 20 years has been like watching the love of your life slow-motion transition into something you do not fancy in the slightest, far from it

@DoctorDoom1888:
– Ticket prices
– alcohol bans
– tourist teams
– billionaire owners
– over-policing
– inconsistent refereeing
– match-day atmosphere
– players diving 24/7
– fan and club communication
– banning orders
– same style football 90% of teams
– var

@L_Tab: Come back to the lower leagues where football still feels like the beautiful game. Players playing for mortgages and bills. That’s why @SUFCOfficial are and will be my first concern in football.

@DurhamHouse16: I agree the gentrification of football has utterly ruined it, every games a political statement or some kind of wake. Absolutely no longer a sport of the working man

@OwlSheffield: Ticket prices and This sideways and Backwards passing has put me off tbh , Non- Lge is cheaper and you don’t see this negative type football played , also VAR has taken alot out of the game for fans imo

@d0nkeydr0p: Non-league is thriving and this is why! Get down to your local club and support them, it’s football you’ll fall in love with again! 👏🏼

@Vikingengserv: Been going since 1967 to watch 🔵⚪️ and right now I’ve never been so disinterested in football as whole…….its just got to implode and can’t carry on as it is 💩💩💩💩

@mrwill909: Rugby Super League games piss all over the majority of any football game today. The crowds are like football crowds. Its brutal, smashing tackles all the time, there’s fights, it’s fast, there’s always action not “strategic” plodding, no rolling around pretending to be injured.

@Dax1978Dave: VAR, XG & passing stats have ruined the game along with money.

@i_am_J_nufc:
Everything’s stopping the play:
Players falling to the ground, referees reacting & making the easy decision
VAR stopping play
VAR stoping the emotion of goals
Players going down for tactical changes
Offsides by the thickness of someone’s hair
Tickets to watch all that over £60

@logie67: The EPL is full of overrated and overpaid players and there are very few games worth watching.

@WACAW1867: 100% Rob. ⚽️ reflects society more now than ever! Being on 7dys a wk doesn’t help, 99% of clubs losing money yet pay players more every yr, ticket pricing resulting in the type of fans that create an atmosphere being priced out, players cheating, & most clubs don’t have any hope

@OneDaveHendo:
Pep style “anti football”
United devaluing FA Cup years ago
Player power
VAR – killed the game
TV channels deciding KO times Money
Corrupt governing bodies
Ticket costs

@asyouwereS6: Not Robs biggest fan, but he’s bang on the money. Football is no longer a sport, it’s a corporate business and all they fun in it has genuinely gone. The only reason we still follow is because it’s in our blood, that’s eroding away now. Enjoy darts more these days.

@HLTCO: I’m never sure if it’s just me getting older (quite possibly is) but it does feel as though football has lost a huge amount of the spontaneity and beauty which made it so joyful for me as a kid. Maybe that just happens to everyone eventually?

@Thorpeedo:
The game started dying when:
– Players could no longer tackle without a booking
– The professional foul was introduced
– Player got booked for taking their shirts off to celebrate
– Dogshit VAR arrived
Look at 90s to early 2000s football. It was the pinnacle

@HC15OnTour: So incredibly true. Its not as fun anymore & its not football anymore. They have utterly ruined it with VAR, sterile stadiums, circus gimmicks (e.g. loud goal music/flag bearers), corruption, fans not valued, biased pundits, cheating players, incompetent refs ….. list goes on

@Boshbiff: He’s not wrong. Money’s killed the game.Television, greed & the governing bodies have ruined the game.

@gazcol:
– The race for top 4/5
– Xg and meaningless stats in general
– Inconsistency of VAR
– Failure being rewarded
– Companies milking the game for as much money as possible
Are just some of the reasons why football is a shadow of its former self, in my opinion anyway