OPINION

The past 30 years have let fans dream, says FFT’s first female columnist...

A lot has changed in football over the past 30 years. The names and incarnations of leagues and cups, the way we used to get results on Teletext, and the now endless streaming on smartphones. There have been changes to the laws and (say it quietly) the arrival of VAR, plus everything else in between.

But no matter how much the game and everything around it evolves, one thing will never change – fans always dare to dream.

As a supporter, you never know what’s around the corner, and that’s why we all keep coming back for more. It’s the tales of glory and heartbreak that unfold in every campaign that keep us all hanging on.

In the first season after FourFourTwo launched, Brighton & Hove Albion were in the third tier and finished 16th in the table. There will not be a single Albion supporter who will have predicted that three decades later, Brighton would have just played their first season in European competition after finishing sixth in the Premier League.