Football is broken, and Chester aren't part of the problem
Digesting Kieran Maguire's appearance on The Breakdown earlier this week
After speaking with Kieran Maguire earlier this week for The Breakdown podcast, I started to stew on some of the things he brought to light.
We live in an era where football has been taken away from the working classes. It has happened by stealth over a number of years, where the blue touchpaper was set alight when the First Division, it was felt, was in need of a rebrand in the early. That heralded the arrival of the Premier League back in 1992.
Now, not everybody might agree with the sentiment here, but the Premier League, in my view at least, was a good thing to happen to English football, and it was something that happened when it needed to, with the game in this country coming out of the darkness of the 1980s, where hooliganism defined the national sport, where stadiums were not fit for purpose, and where we endured some of the bleakest moments of the game.
KIERAN MAGUIRE JOINS THE BREAKDOWN
The tragedy of the Hillsborough Disaster had a profound effect on football in this country. The loss of 97 lives at a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was a dark moment for not only the game or the sport, but the nation as a whole. The fallout that came after, where the lies and smears from the tabloid press and law enforcement caused families to seek justice for more than 30 years, was shameful.
The ramifications for football in this country were significant. A 31-day inquiry led by Lord Justice Taylor led to the publication of the Taylor Report in 1990. It was effectively a blueprint for what the future of the English game should be. Safer stadiums for fans.
The first new stadium to comply with all the regulations set forth by the Taylor Report? The Deva Stadium. One of the numerous firsts this football club has achieved. First foreign manager? Chester. First club with an American owner? Chester.
