Every time a genuine fan misses out on a ticket which falls into the hands of a corporate partner the game I grew up to love dies a little bit more.
So when, on May 23, the "UEFA Family" are sat in the posh seats at the Olympic Stadium in Athens watching two teams most of them don't care for and thousands of genuine fans are locked outside or left back at home the feeling that football is dying before our very eyes will become almost inescapable.

Liverpool fans are just the latest victims of this slow death as football supporters in general have been treated with contempt by the game's ruling bodies for decades.
The big difference this time is that it seems many fans have decided enough is enough and confronted those in power.
They have had enough of being on the second tier of a two-tier system which rewards those with deep pockets at the expense of those with big hearts.
They are sick of travelling the length and breadth of the country supporting their team no matter what the circumstances, only to find that when the big occasions come round the corporates have swallowed up most of the tickets.
UEFA stand accused of treating fans with contempt. And an allocation of just 34,000 tickets between both sets of fans in this year's Champions League final would give even the world's finest defence barrister all the trouble he could possibly need should they wish to mount a defence.
With almost 30,000 tickets having gone elsewhere they have created a charter for touts and the idle rich.
So much so that there is a distinct possibility that Liverpool fans - who numbered almost 40,000 in Istanbul two years ago - will be out-numbered by those in the corporate sections of the ground.
That is unless the travelling Reds pay the hundreds of Pounds touts will inevitably charge for tickets in the build up to the game.
How can that possibly be right?
Make no mistake about it, should Athens somehow turn into the festival of colour which made Istanbul so special, UEFA will claim it as their success story.
And that is despite the fact they have made it as difficult for genuine fans to attend the game as they possibly could.
But should there be problems with ticketless fans they will no doubt go all Pontious Pilate on us and have nothing to do with it. You can almost hear Michel Platini telling the world UEFA have done nothing wrong, it is all down to those who travel without tickets.
UEFA have conspired to produce a situation where far too many proper fans are on the outside looking in and they cannot hide away from that fact.
But the problem is not going to get any better. Does anyone really think they will have taken heed of the complaints and started an urgent review of ticketing for next year's final in Moscow?
There's more chance of Dave Whelan singing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" than of that happening.
The UEFA marketing department will currently be bringing sponsors and corporate partners on board by the day, with all of them being told their 30 pieces of silver will guarantee them a seat (or hundreds of them) at European football's biggest occasion.
Whoever gets to Moscow next season could be faced with an even worse situation than the Liverpool fans are facing now - things will get worse, not better.
And how about our own club?
One of the main reasons Liverpool are building a new stadium is to increase the number of corporate boxes.
Each corporate box holder at the current Anfield has been given ten tickets for the final. They were promised them when they signed up for a box.
There were no demands of loyalty like those placed on ordinary fans, just a simple deal in which paying for a box was enough to guarantee ten tickets should Liverpool reach the final.
So when the new Anfield is built, how many more tickets for big games will be taken up by the corporate sector?
The balance is already moving away from real fans, a further shift could kill the game we love altogether.
Maybe the only solution locally is for Liverpool's new owners to change the way the club does business.
Would it be too much for ask that corporate fans are subject to the same loyalty test as ordinary fans when it comes to getting tickets for finals and other big games?
Maybe then things really could start to get better.

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