Having recently spent quite a bit of time devouring the excellent books on football in the 1980s and 1990s by journalist Jon Spurling, I feel like I’ve gone for a long walk down memory lane, albeit with some pretty disturbing recollections amongst the nostalgia.

So you’d be forgiven for thinking an article about inappropriate chanting, racist and homophobic behaviour, trouble in stadiums and questionable refereeing was straight out of those pages. Hell, it even has a goalkeeper coming fan off his line to knock an opponent senseless in the way Harald Schumacher did to Patrick Battiston in the 1982 World Cup.

But all of the incidents in this article took place, not four or five decades ago, but in the last few days. I’m not going to regurgitate all of them, or pass judgement, as that’s been done to death already. But I am asking the question – genuinely – as to whether football is, or is in danger of becoming, a rather ugly watch at the moment.

While we’ve also had some great football, goals and excitement in the FA Cup (remember that?) and the Champions League this week, the naughty list doesn’t make great reading.

After the Liam Roberts foul and eventual red card (for an extremely reckless challenge but not a deliberate attempt to hurt Jean-Philippe Mateta) in the FA Cup fifth round, his club’s fans came out in solidarity with their player on Tuesday with a minute’s applause (and lots of chants) in the eighth-minute - the minute at which he was sent off. While backing their man is perhaps understandable, the way it was done didn’t make for the greatest optics. The alleged chants of ‘let him die’ at the game when the player he injured lay prone and receiving oxygen on the pitch even less so.

On the same weekend, San Diego FC were compelled to condemn fans who sang a homophobic chant throughout their goalless draw with St Louis. This kind of fan behaviour was also witnessed at the aforementioned FA Cup game at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

The next day, fans were heard – and many took to talk-shows afterward to confirm it – booing when FA Cup matches were momentarily halted so that Muslim players could break their Ramadan fast. Given that we have the most multi-cultural league in the world, it was another very bad look but also such an unnecessary one, given how used to delays in games we’ve become (but more on that later).

There’s also been a lot of debate about the use of pyros, not just in Scotland but they’ve seen it more than most, with three clubs sanctioned this week for their fans’ behaviour at the national stadium. The charges for the clubs are because they are unable to stop their fans bringing and letting the pyros off (illegal in the country since 2023) in the stadium, although clearly there are obvious limitations as to how far they can go about it.

And finally – for this article anyway, there are probably more – this weekend also saw the VAR record broken for the longest-time spent deliberating a decision so far when 8 (eight) minutes elapsed as semi-automated cameras failed, angles mattered, and the lines drawn simply added to the confusion.

This is the outlier here. It is the only one on the list where the football authorities have introduced something that the fans either didn’t want, or don’t like.

At the game at Bournemouth where this farcical incident took place, both sets of fans united in ‘it’s not football anymore’ and ‘this is embarrassing’ chants despite one of them benefitting from the eventual decision to disallow the ‘goal’.  But the damage had already been done.

After the referee missed the red card for the goalkeeper’s challenge on the same afternoon, we reached a situation where neither the match officials nor the technology introduced to help them was working as it should. The only thing clear and obvious about any of it was that it’s clearly and obviously in a mess; and if anything getting worse not better, while ruining the enjoyment and spectacle for fans.

If we throw in the new law being introduced to stop goalkeepers time-wasting (I’ve seen some take more than 20 seconds to release the ball, never mind six, and not even be warned by the ref) then that’s yet another example where the ‘beautiful game’ is becoming increasingly less beautiful as players are obviously deploying delaying tactics and in some cases feigning ridiculous injuries or cramp to stop the flow of the game. Those who say it’s added on at the end are missing the point; these instances are to break up play and halt the momentum of a team applying pressure. It’s similar to kicking the ball away except without an automatic yellow card or any recriminations.

The other examples here are, of course, being done by the fans.

But added together, it’s making for some pretty dire and even distasteful viewing for everyone else, whether that’s inside the stadium or for the millions watching worldwide on TV. And it’s a worrying trend if it continues in this direction.

Football has changed so much since the bad old days of the 1970’s and 1980’s when hooliganism, violence and inappropriate chanting was rife and barely even frowned upon. There is a much larger family audience now, and clubs are desperate to attract more younger fans, females and all other types of fans – including from all parts of the local community - to their grounds.

Atmospheres are still sometimes hostile, although in a non-threatening way, and very noisy and partisan, but this co-exists alongside the wider match-going experience of fan zones, family activities and fun that can be found in football at all levels up and down the country.

And while so much is positive nowadays, how much would it take for it to slip back into some of the less attractive habits? Many aspects of our lives are cyclical - think baggy jeans and vinyl - and it’s not that long ago that attendances in the UK (even in the top flight) were incredibly low with stadiums half empty as fans stayed away because of anti-social behaviour outside and inside grounds; before, during and after matches.

Do we really want to risk the incredible progress made in the last quarter of a century?

No one – least of all us – wants to sanitise football and take away some of the parts that make going to a game great - including the fierce rivalry, passion and enjoyment. Goodness knows, VAR is already doing that just fine and without any help from anyone.

But there has to be point where we – as fans – have to draw a line, don’t’ we? If football reflects society, then maybe that explains some of the direction of travel given the divisive, rhetoric-led and social media-driven world we inhabit, but football made changes for the benefit of us all once and reaped the benefits. And as fans, we need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, going forward.

So, let’s not see football go backwards, and most of all, as fans, let’s not be the ones who help take it there.

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