Incidents in Football

I thought I'd share an interesting point I've just noticed about the PL. I've just been watching Premier League Years 03/04 season and I was just at the start and I saw the game (I'm sure you might remember) when Man United drew with Arsenal at home 0-0 when Viera got sent off, Van Nistelrooy missed a penalty and a whole load of fights broke out just past the 75th minute mark the commentators said.

But after the game had finished, I picked up on something. They showed a short clip of old Arsenal forward Alan Smith after that game and this is what he said: "Was it a sending off for Viera, who knows, was it a penalty, who knows. But, it's these kind of decisions that will be on the back page of the newspaper and gossiping around for 2-3 days now."

Now I found this interesting because if I was to show whoever reads this the clip of the match and the talking points after the match, in today's society this game would be talked about for a good few weeks to a month. Does this show that nowadays Football as a Sport is being taken too far a little bit? I understand the fact that there is passionate fans out there and people who really strive for their club to do well but, being a passionate fan doesn't mean waffling on about incidents for months on end, it's just talking about it for a few days and then moving on.

Racism is such a big thing these days for example. It's just constant, non-stop nonsense really that doesn't have to be a part of the game itself. But this has gone on for years but has been great enhanced in the game for the last few years, back 10 years ago, I rarely ever heard of racism as much as I do in today's society. Which is my point. Do fans take it too far or is it just passionate for your club? Not about being racist but incidents in general.

For me, I think everything just gets out of hand. There's got to be a limit to how much bad language you use towards a player, how passionate you are about your club etc. It baffles me to think how fans could take Football, as a Sport, far enough to be racist and abusive towards players/staff, this has to be an action that is over the limit. Like when someone through that flair at the assistant referee on the side. Again, surely there is limit to how passionate to the game you are nowadays? All you do is put other people's safety and your own safety at risk for doing actions like this, not only that, but there is a greater chance of you being imprisoned for this.

Now I am passionate for my club, but, there is a limit for me and I am someone who realises the potential consequences for such actions like the minority of fans do these days and I'm certain that 99% of you are the same. But these incidents would not occur in the modern game 10 years ago like I said. You pay to watch a game of Football and give the game atmosphere and to make it as enjoyable as possible to see your team win the game, home or away. Not to potentially prosecute yourself and get involved in such scandals like there are today. But I suppose Football is a changing Sport/Business I should now refer to it as. It won't ever go back to way it;s used to be and with the technology we have to enhance on the enjoyment of Football as a Sport in should never fall backwards, but for me, these stupid incidents is what puts people off from Football now and it is a bad influence which could lead to the Sport falling backwards, which I sincerely don't want.

Thoughts?