Keir RADNEDGE
2010-19: football’s last golden decade
The past decade may be viewed, in time, as the game’s last golden era. From 2010 to 2019 it scaled the highest peaks of worldwide popularity. No other sport approached even the foothills. No other TV competition, not even the Olympic Games, administered such global hypnosis.
The reverse face of the coin was the tarnishing of that gold by criminal skulduggery in the corridors of power. However, the greed which scarred the game would not have been possible without the zillion-dollar temptations generated by the game’s acceleration into financial overdrive.
Out on the pitch the dominant force was Spanish. The national team launched the decade by triumphing in both the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012, while
