The Death of Football: A Timeline

Good hi,

I think many people will agree that last night's club world cup final was not an occasion to be celebrated, rather a funeral. A funeral for the death of football.

It was the culmination of a decades-long transformation of the sport into a corporate spectacle. So, who is to blame? Here is a timeline of events and those responsible for the death of football.


📺 1992 – The Original Sin: Murdoch and the Premier League

Blame: Rupert Murdoch
Why: His Sky Sports deal with the breakaway Premier League clubs turned football into a media product. It created a financial arms race, prioritising TV revenue over tradition, and laid the foundation for everything that followed.


⚖️ 1995 – Bosman Ruling: Free Transfers, Expensive Consequences

Blame: Jean-Marc Bosman
Why: His legal victory gave players more freedom—but also gave rise to super-agents and wage inflation that clubs still struggle to control.


💼 2003 – Abramovich Arrives: The Billionaire Blueprint

Blame: Roman Abramovich
Why: His Chelsea takeover introduced the era of oligarch-backed clubs, distorting the transfer market and normalising financial doping.


💸 2005 – Glazer’s Debt Model

Blame: Malcolm Glazer
Why: Bought Manchester United with borrowed money, turning a community club into a leveraged asset. Fans protested, but the model spread.


🛢️ 2008 – Oil Money and Manchester City

Blame: Sheikh Mansour
Why: His state-backed ownership of City escalated the spending war, challenging the very idea of fair competition.


🧾 2011 – Platini’s Toothless FFP

Blame: Michel Platini
Why: Introduced Financial Fair Play to curb excess—but failed to enforce it, allowing the rich to get richer through loopholes.


💥 2021 – The Super League Scandal
Blame: Florentino Pérez, Andrea Agnelli, Joel Glazer
Why: Tried to lock in elite status and revenue for a few clubs, exposing the greed at the heart of modern football.


🇸🇦 2022–2025 – Sportswashing and the Saudi Invasion

Blame: Mohammed bin Salman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Why: Used football to launder reputations and inflate markets, buying Newcastle and luring stars to the Saudi Pro League.

⚰️ 2025 – The Final Nail: Club World Cup in the USA

Blame: Gianni Infantino
Why: Expanded the Club World Cup to 32 teams, prioritising revenue over player welfare and competitive integrity.


🧠 The Verdict: Murdoch’s Legacy

Every twist in this timeline—every inflated transfer, every billionaire takeover, every fan protest—can be traced back to Murdoch’s 1992 deal. He didn’t just fund football. He reprogrammed it. What we saw last night wasn’t a celebration of the global game. It was its corporate coronation.

Football isn’t dead because of one match. It died slowly, over decades. But last night, under the lights of a U.S. stadium, with billions on the line and tradition nowhere in sight, we buried it.

It was a close call between who would die first, Murdoch or the sport that he poisoned. Unfortunately it was the latter.

Goodbye football.