By: Rafael Saraiva (Grade 4)

Since the 80s, the football world has been undergoing one of the most controversial changes of its history, which has been affecting the whole sport structure, from the way of supporting teams to the way of making money. The elitism of football. 

The whole thing started when, in the final match of Uefa Champions League (UCL) of the 84/85 season, a fight started between the 2 teams’ fans, Liverpool, from England, and Juventus, from Italy. The confusion sadly caused 39 deaths and more than 600 people were harmed. 

And this was the perfect moment for the elite to start the discussion of elitism, they used the fact that the Liverpool fans who showed up at the final were from a lower class of society, and that caused the tragedy. For them, if it wasn’t for the “poor” in the stadiums, there wouldn’t have been any case of violence. This case, combined with the idea of gaining more money with football, the elitism of football in England began. 

Tickets started to be much more expensive, football shirts as well, and football for the presidents and CEOs of clubs was no more a culture, but a product, and they wanted to force fans to believe in that too. 

In the beginning, only England was suffering from it, but then the whole Europe and the rest of the world started to realize it. The public who were going to the stadium were no longer part of the show, they wanted to see a show, which made iconic vídeos where the stadium is almost silent. 

But if this is so bad, why don’t people boycott clubs to give up on this decision? Simple, people try, but they can’t, because is from the interest of who is controlling the football that it keeps becoming more and more of a product, and this include federations as “Fédération Internationale de Football Association” (FIFA) Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and even Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF). 

But, even with this destruction of football, with elitism, the creation of clubs-companies with no soul and the transformation of this sport in a product, there is still hope. Some clubs have been taken back from the companies, and others have been creating popular sectors. Even though everything seemed lost, the fans still are the soul of football, and they will try everything to take it back.

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