My boyfriend (M23) is great, but football seems to come before everything else… including me (F20)

Me (F20) and my boyfriend (M23) have been dating for almost 2 years. We're both students at different univiersities and live around an hour away from each other. We are only able to see each other around once a week, twice if we're lucky.

To make up for this we used to go out for day dates, where he'd take me out and we'd spend the day together. This stopped for a little while, because his team's football games started taking place on Saturdays. He'd also go on away games across the country with his friends, so I never saw him. So, why not hang out Sunday? Well he started taking up coaching children for free, and their games would be Sundays. They also train Saturday morning, and Tuesdays. These were usually our free days since I'd ocassionaly spend Tuesday night with him as Wednesday is my day off of uni.

This was quite irritating to me as it meant that I would end up only seeing him for a few hours one evening a week after my classes! I brought this up to him and he got better with it, but it still meant he missed out on lots of things to do with me. He's not met many of my friends because everytime he has been invited, it would fall on some sort of game he had to see. Once, he invited me over to his house and I ended up having to watch a game with him. He even took me to a game with his friends once.

It just feels to me that I have accomodated meeting his friends, but he has not made much of an effort on the other side! It would get to the point where I was at his house, spending time with him, and he had made plans whilst I was there to leave in half an hour as he got a last minute ticket to see the game… when he had already planned to spend the day with me.

Well, one time (maybe to prove a point), he went out with me whilst there was a game on. But, every second he could, he was on his phone, checking the score and checking Twitter. To be honest, whenever we are out he checks scores for the football at least once.

I understand that it is important for him to have his own life and hobbies, but to me it seems a bit obsessive and I don't feel like a priority. It's such a shame because he's perfect in every other way, he's attentive, sweet, he plans days out when we do get to spend time together.

I'm just a little concerned that when we start working, we won't ever see each other! He's about to go into a profession that has very early and late hours, and then with both his coaching volunteering and the games he watches, it seems like he won't have time for us anymore.

I’m planning to talk to him about this again, but I’m not really sure how to explain it without sounding controlling or like I want him to give up something he loves. I’d really appreciate advice.

TL;DR: My boyfriend and I already only see each other about once a week because of distance, but football seems to take priority over most of our limited time together. He plays, coaches, travels for away games, checks scores constantly when we’re together, and has cut plans short before for matches. He’s a great boyfriend otherwise, but I’m worried this might not be compatible long-term.