Commercialisation and advertising has taken over the game of football

A person watches a football game for... well, the football. They tune in to the TV or drive up to the stadium for the sport, for their favorite club or team; not for commercials. Unfortunately, fans today gets the reverse treatment. Expecting to enjoy a game of soccer, they instead get bombarded with brand names and logo in a way that takes away from their enjoyment of the game. Advertising is everywhere in football. Just look at the uniforms of the players; they're either covered in multiple company logos, or dominated by one large one. One can hardly even tell what club the player represents, but one can certainly tell who's paying them.^[1] And the problem is only growing. In the United States, Major League Soccer is allowing teams to add one more sponsor logo to their uniforms; by removing the MLS logo from the sleeves.^[2] The logo of the league itself is being replaced by another ad. Nothing could be better representative of the ad problem in football than that. As if that wasn't enough, company sponsors also have control over ticket sales. For example, during the Women's FIFA World Cup 2019, Visa customers had first access to match tickets.^[3] Sponsoring the league or the tournament is one thing, but taking tickets away from dedicated fans who happen to not use Visa is somewhat absurd. It really feels as though this sponsorship deal is shoving Visa down people's throats. Fans can't enjoy the sport anymore without kowtowing to brands, just as the leagues themselves do. All this commercialization goes to show that football is no longer focused on the sport itself, or competition, or even team spirit. The name of the game today is money. The club needs money; the league needs money; even the players want money. And it's natural to want to get paid. But the way they beat people over the head with these advertisements, it feels as though making money is all that matters.