ARE we ever going to get back to the point where we can just enjoy football again? Are the days of being an optimistic supporter, as opposed to an armchair critic and analyst sliding further into depression, gone forever?

I hope not, I believe not, but it is becoming increasingly tough to recall a time where we were just happy to watch the beautiful game. It’s a bleak time to be a football fan or fanatic.

Of course, we have to start with the increasingly horrific revelations, coming daily, pertaining to FIFA.

How are we expected to continue to have any faith in the world’s most popular sport by a country mile when there seemingly isn’t a corner of the globe not affected by acts of bribery, dishonesty and unmitigated greed from those entrusted with the honour of holding ultimate power?

The pantomime FIFA election last week is just the latest thing to leave an almighty stench emanating from an organisation that has essentially acted like a rogue state for decades.

Bribery on a huge scale, more and more troubling allegations pertaining to World Cup’s past and future, a complete lack of faith that FIFA will actually commit to the root and branch reform they so desperately need.

And it isn’t as if the corruption and fraudulent behaviour is currently the most troubling thing associated with FIFA. It pales in comparison to the humanitarian issues surrounding Qatar 2022.

How many people will die to ensure a World Cup in Qatar that absolutely no-one wants to see, in the middle of winter?

Current estimates from the International Trade Union Confederation claims about 12 labourers will die each week building the stadia for the World Cup, migrant workers whose death toll is likely to top 4000 over the course of the next seven years. More workers will die to bring us a World Cup than those who perished in the 9/11 atrocity that destroyed New York’s Twin Towers. It is beyond perverse.

And while it is perhaps understandable football fans currently feel so gloomy in the backdrop of this football crisis, it isn’t as if we’ve especially been enjoying ourselves anyway.

The Premier League, to some the best and/or most entertaining domestic league in the world, to others an obscene and grotesque cash cow that is in danger of exploding like Mr Creosote, just one wafer-thin mint away from fans saying “enough is enough,” and turning away for good.

Clubs like West Ham, Swansea and Stoke City now have infinitely more spending power than the likes of Inter Milan, Lyon or Borussia Dortmund, yet supporters are generally feeling none of the benefit. Clubs like Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea are charging fans an absolute fortune to watch their team and many, many clubs throughout the football pyramid are fleecing away supporters with drastically increased prices. I could watch Dortmund or Ajax for less than it would cost to follow Spurs or Arsenal all year home and away even accounting for airfare. It simply isn’t right.

And let’s not even start on the attitude of some modern day players. I am far more supportive of footballers than most, I believe they often get a bad press that isn’t deserved – current example, Raheem Sterling – but you can’t defend the indefensible.

We’ve had three players in the Football League fail drug tests for cocaine in the past month and in the latest ‘ah, what a proud moment’ incident, Cardiff defender Sean Morrison capped a night on the town with a dump on the street. Literally, as the kids are so fond of saying. No more heroes anymore?

And even if football was affordable or the key protagonists in it likeable, which it increasingly it isn’t and they aren’t (congratulations by the way, to Champions League winner and serial biter/occasional racial abuser Luis Suarez) we still find it impossible to enjoy ourselves in an increasingly cynical era where social media is our King.

Take, for example, your own Newport County AFC.

It escaped many people’s attention, but the Exiles finished ninth in League Two last term, their best campaign since the early 1980s, but how many of you were actually enjoying yourselves?

The atmosphere got worse and worse at Rodney Parade after Justin Edinburgh left, despite the best intentions of the 200 or so die-hards who stand in the lower part of the Hazell stand and never stop singing.

It’s almost hilarious to hear the whining and moaning about the dismantling of last season’s squad, because by and large it is coming from the same people who lambasted the players for not making the play-offs.

Incredibly and seemingly without irony, we’ve already had a reader on the Argus website declare that County should sack Terry Butcher. It is two months until the new season starts and Butcher actually gets judged on a meaningful game, but apparently he’s already a disaster.

And then there is the constant sniping and moaning about the County board, specifically Les Scadding and Howard Greenhaf.

They’ve fronted up at the AGM, they’ve made clear they want new investment and it is clear from the balance sheets that Scadding has personally sunk a great deal of money to the club. They should build a statue for Les in Newport, not moan about the fact he enjoys a life outside of the Exiles.

Yet, and unrelentingly so, they are sniped at. Particularly Howard Greenhaf, a decent bloke who works hard for the club and puts his money where his mouth is. Has he been an occasional foot in mouth culprit? Absolutely. But the club need to change their PR across the board and the fact is, financially, there are many Football League clubs worse off than County.

More than anything, I hope Butcher is given a chance, as is County’s new squad, because it feels like a good start is going to be necessary to re-engage some pretty disenfranchised supporters.

Football’s got 99 problems, so let’s hope your County aren’t one when the new campaign gets underway.

Because we’ve got more than enough to be miserable about already as the beautiful game gets uglier and uglier.