For me, it was early to mid-80s. I was very young... but that World Cup in Spain in 1982 was and remains the height of football for me. What a tournament.

Then you had the Euro in 1984.

You had artists dominating the game at every position.

Should I say chilldhood period because it's the period where you think only only only to the football, I was literally obsessed from football,  you've not other  thoughts / concerns, life is not still hard, you don't think about women, job etc

but it coincides also with big disappointments so I don't know

Well 2006-2010 is also the most bright period for my club since 60s so I suppose the response is ..

I rule out last years, now As time goes on I watch definitely less football matches , you  you have other things, bigger priorities... but of course love for your club is intact

present day. i can choose what i want to watch or not watch; with the combination of tv and internet, if i want i could decide to start following the freaking argentine league., back in the day not every game was televised even with cable, sometimes you had to borrow recorded vhs tapes from video stores (if they had not been borrowed already) or read about them in papers or magazines. at a time when you had no priorities, that was a total pain

but these days, because of other commitments besides football, if i miss out on something, its not a drag. so for me, present day because of choices or the winning 3 straight champions leagues era; didnt think that was possible

HD matches, the game is much faster now. Cons are less parity and football is very much money oriented now. I prefer Messi Ronaldo period since it is what I basically grew up on.

Nishankly wrote:I did not read CSpurs comments but on reading now, I agree with his timeline and that brings to me a question while asking our older legends on this forum. I remember things in my teen is that the same for others? Ifty are you still here, would love your thoughts here.

Edit: fck off myeyes

Hearing the mention on TV in this thread, what do you guys do now?

Question on this, one of the many differences between today and then, is that I used to watch all these matches only on TV and sometimes with friends if time permitted considering timezone differences. Nowdays, I only open a live stream infront of my laptop 2 mins before KO with no pre match build up and the stream closes at at FT with no post match analysis and usually its a shit stream.

What do you guys think about this, does that affect anything?

I'll add that it was such a different time in the 80s.  To see Serie A, I had to travel to Italy.  I was a Juve fan... because it was the closest Serie A team to me in terms of train time and Platini played there.

Same with OM and Monaco... the teams I could go watch.  OM was scary but still manageable in a group. I was truly scared to go to St Etienne  

It was pretty much impossible to be a fan of a team that wasn't in your vicinity because you had to go too far to see them play.

TV or streaming! You did ask about older members Lol. I guess that refers to me (I know Sports thinks he is an older poster, but I have 20 or 30 years on him). In my early years, early 50s, the choices were live or radio. Television coverage (black and white) began in late 50s / early 60s. Colour coverage wasn’t until the 70s.

futbol_bill wrote:TV or streaming! You did ask about older members Lol. I guess that refers to me (I know Sports thinks he is an older poster, but I have 20 or 30 years on him). In my early years, early 50s, the choices were live or radio. Television coverage (black and white) began in late 50s / early 60s. Colour coverage wasn’t until the 70s.

Absolutely Bill, your thoughts are great here. Has anything changed in your watching style in the past 15 years, especially considering Real has won a lot in the last decade?

I’ve been retired for 14 years now, so yes my habits changed as I was away and out of country a lot before, plus work often interfered with game times. I’m a socio so i used to go to as many live games as possible, but 2 years ago, we were so bad, i sold my seasons tickets, was the right decision and then covid hit. Plus with Covid, I’m spending more time in Canada (my second home and where my kids and grandchildren are) so In past three years, I’ve only been to a few live games, and television coverage of la liga and CL sucks in Canada, so bottom line I’m reluctantly reduced to mostly score watching. Hopefully next season when we will have a true contending team again, I can get back to normal.

futbol_bill wrote:TV or streaming! You did ask about older members Lol. I guess that refers to me (I know Sports thinks he is an older poster, but I have 20 or 30 years on him). In my early years, early 50s, the choices were live or radio. Television coverage (black and white) began in late 50s / early 60s. Colour coverage wasn’t until the 70s.

damn this reminds me of having to put on the radio from 2007 to 2008 because we got BBC Radio 1 Live/Sports feed for the 4 PM Saturday games, because we couldn't afford the TV subscription at the time

Sportscasting was very different for the folks that had to describe the game in vivid detail for radio. It was an art. So different from today when they talk about a whole lot of nothing for the most part.

You can easily tell the people that were trained in the old way.

Where are you in Canada @Bill ??
This summer my local sports network was really proud to announce they have bought the rights to La Liga. As many people pointed out they are 10 years too late. I suppose the station that owns it (TSN) is also broadcasting the games.

And yes in general the soccer coverage sucks here they give too much importance to MLS

Totally agree with the "commenters are better on radio" take and it's even more blatant in hockey which is a much faster sport. On TV the role of a commenter is more to entertain than describe, if anything only the analyst is needed.

Warrior wrote:Where are you in Canada @Bill ??
This summer my local sports network was really proud to announce they have bought the rights to La Liga. As many people pointed out they are 10 years too late. I suppose the station that owns it (TSN) is also broadcasting the games.

And yes in general the soccer coverage sucks here they give too much importance to MLS

Totally agree with the "commenters are better on radio" take and it's even more blatant in hockey which is a much faster sport. On TV the role of a commenter is more to entertain than describe, if anything only the analyst is needed.

I’m in Toronto. We get some liga games on tsn, but as soon as something like grey cup is on, our games get dumped! No CL at all. I used to be able to get liga games on bein and Sportsnet (maybe it was Tsn)for CL, but all that went away last year.

Re commentators on radio, they are terrible, at least in Spain. They used to be artists when they were only option. Sports has described the decline very well.

When I watch games on TV, i tend to tune out the commentary as I find it annoying (in both languages). That’s why I prefer to go to stadium. Away games I usually go to pub (when I’m in Spain). Much better commentary from the patrons than the tv commentators.

I envy Futbol Bill for having watched Inter - Real Madrid 1964 (:

Robespierre wrote:I envy Futbol Bill for having watched Inter - Real Madrid 1964 (:

i think a kid going to a live game in the 50s/60s (unless rich folks with good seats), would have barely even seen the game. smaller stadiums, barely enough tv monitors (legit rivalry between tv and radio at the time, and most sides catered towards radio cos there was fear tv would cause people not to go and watch their teams play live).

not to mention lack of action replays, and being unable to identify players....relatively more common to watch games with binoculars then than now. thats no way to enjoy a live game, especially a kid whose view is impeded at a smaller venue with no monitors.

Smaller stadiums were designed so that there wasn't a bad seat in the house.

Heck, I remember going to American football games in the LA Coliseum in the late 80s with no large screens.  It was perfectly fine.  That place has a 100k capacity (WITH a track around it in the old days), so it was even farther.

If you had a really poor seat in a large stadium, you brought a radio with you and listened to the detailed description.

It's just apples and oranges. I loved it. Whole lot of fun to go to games. I go to games today... and it's fun too except that the seats are so expensive to buy (makes it impossible for a large segment of society) and everyone stares at the big screens instead of the games.

From Ramos' header to the three champions league titles after

Best ever.

titosantill wrote:

Robespierre wrote:I envy Futbol Bill for having watched Inter - Real Madrid 1964 (:

i think a kid going to a live game in the 50s/60s (unless rich folks with good seats), would have barely even seen the game. smaller stadiums, barely enough tv monitors (legit rivalry between tv and radio at the time, and most sides catered towards radio cos there was fear tv would cause people not to go and watch their teams play live).

not to mention lack of action replays, and being unable to identify players....relatively more common to watch games with binoculars then than now. thats no way to enjoy a live game, especially a kid whose view is impeded at a smaller venue with no monitors.

Lol, as a kid, i certainly didn’t know the intricacies of the game, it was the pure excitement that thrilled me and yes the smaller stadiums were not at all like today. Tito, if you haven’t experienced it, don’t knock it.

not knocking it. anything like this i always look at it from a convenience standpoint not necessarilly calibre of players playing, what era my best player played in, or where one was at in their personal life. it would be interesting to read or hear about a kid's experience watching a game at small charmartin in the olden days vs one watching at the new ground now

That's the thing tito... it's the "inconvenience" that made it special. Because it wasn't easy to watch a game in those days made every game you watched that much more special. Today, everything is commoditized and, as a result, we're desensitized.

titosantill wrote:not knocking it. anything like this i always look at it from a convenience standpoint not necessarilly calibre of players playing, what era my best player played in, or where one was at in their personal life. it would be interesting to read or hear about a kid's experience watching a game at small charmartin in the olden days vs one watching at the new ground now

Actually about the same. At that age (under 10) it’s all about excitement. Different today in all the electronics, various background activities etc, but still comes down to excitement . At that age, you don’t know much about the game other than cheering and hoping your team wins.