Billionaire owners and debt-laden clubs - When it was all local shoe-shop magnates and the like as chairmen, you knew that there was a fairly equal playing field and that the owners at least loved their club. Now, top clubs are more than ever vehicles for the mega-rich to use as playthings, piling unrealistic debt upon debt on clubs in order to make them into champions. Clubs earning money? Who needs that when Uefa lets you gets into debt?
'Breaking News' - The needs of a 24-hour rolling news service has led to a preposterous level of importance given to news that barely deserves it. Do we really need to be told that the Barnsley reserve left-back being doubtful tonight is breaking news? Is the transfer deadline as important as Gaza? I don't think so.
Lack of respect - the referee has a tough enough time as it is, what with TV cameras everywhere and pundits doing their best to undermine them with the benefit of hindsight - but players are the worst offenders of all, arguing even the most obvious decisions and metaphorically waving their pay packets around as if that demands the right to get a decision in their favour.
The Champions League - Oh for the days of a knockout competition that featured the champions - yes, champions - of all European countries rather than an increasingly meaningless series of All-Star games featuring the same old closed shop of clubs every season.
Musical interludes - when my team scores a goal, I'm very happy and I don't need 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' or 'Tom Hark' drowning out our celebrations to help me feel this way thank you very much. See also 'Let Me Entertain You' and 'Carmina Burana' being used to whip up crowd fever at Bury v Rochdale etc.
TV pundits - It's commonly accepted that TV football punditry first came of age in the 1974 World Cup, with strong-minded individuals who gave firm opinions without worrying who they offended. Compare that to now - restricted to former players reluctant to criticise anyone they played with, or may work with again, in a smug-fest bereft of any analysis other than telling us precisely what has just happened, or stating well-worn cliches. Soul-destroying.
Fans leaving early - You paid a lot of money for your ticket, your team are 1-0 up and the game is on a knife-edge - but well, you know, the car park is pretty busy and we need to go to Waitrose as well, and... why can't some people stay and support their team til the end of the match?
Premier League prices - is it any wonder empty spaces are appearing all over the place? If clubs continue to charge the earth to see sub-standard fare, especially in an economic climate like we have now, then this is what will happen - as the next generation of fans, confined to the armchair as children, stay away.
Radio phone-ins - I'm not sure what's worse: callers who babble on incoherently in a 'My team's better than your team' style, callers who babble incoherently as if they know something we don't ('He's got to go, Alan') or the preening, know-it-all, I've-got-famous-friends presenters themselves.
Modern stadia - Fans walking from the station, through the town, into the pub and into ground ... get real, daddio! Now it's all pseudo-Tesco superstores, in out-of-town craters inaccessible to the carless and with the atmosphere of the Moon Arena.
