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I can’t be expected to deal with that kind of dilemma. I doubt even god could
Maybe we should ask Gary Linekar? 😃
You wouldn’t catch a Rugby team doing this (runs and hides in the bike forum)
Cougar
Shedloads of people call it soccer, every single American for a start. You may scoff at that but I was in the states a couple years back and I was astonished at how popular it’s become in recent years.
Thing is about Soccer though, it's just odd to hear it called that outwith a few named sports shows, so if you do you'll get viewed as an American, and nobody in their right mind has any respect for an Americans opinion on fitba.
So it's not viewed as derogatory by football fans, it's more just a big red beacon above your head which labels you as clueless. And rightly so!
The other reason is if you're Irish and a big Gaa fan, but basically about 3 people in Britain know that the Irish call it Soccer anyhow (and only 1 of them know that they Gaa even exists ). So even if they are trying to be derogatory, nobody understands that they are anyhow. 😆
Not sure anyone posted this yet, but the thread obviously needs it
Cougar
Subscriber
But all those other forms of ‘foot’ball involve mainly carrying the ball around, so technically could be more accurately referred to as ‘handball’.The “foot” in football in all its various guises comes from the fact that it’s played on foot (as opposed to, say, horseback), it’s nothing to do with kicking or carrying anything.
Are they not both originated from the same or similar sources? Canny mind the history, but did the 2 sports not just diverge many moons ago. So technically rugby is football, it's just called rugby cause that's where the modern day rules originated (just guessing on that last point.)?
Must admit though, I still don't understand rugby. 😆 the 7s seem a bit easier to understand, and a more interesting game.
I suggest that if you only like rugby, well technically you are a football fan, you just like a perverted version of the game. So get off yer high horse! 😆
So technically rugby is football,
I think the last word on that has to go to our nations sage, Liam Gallagher. For some bizarre reason, he was having the birth of rugby explained to him during an interview. It was explained that during a game of football at Rugby school, somebody picked up the ball and ran with it and rugby was thus created
His reply...
“Yeah, well if that’d been at our school, someone would have *ed the *!”
Wise words indeed
😆
I don't like Marmite either.
Canny mind the history, but did the 2 sports not just diverge many moons ago.
Football / soccer is fully "association football."
Rugby is fully "rugby football."
The longer forms have fallen into disuse is all.
Ah, from Wikipedia:
<< The rules of association football were codified in England by FA in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. >>
The entry for Rugby gives a history going back to the 1100s. The TL;DR version is that football and rugby were both formalised into two rulesets in the late 1800s, before then it was I suppose a bit like playing pool in several different pubs, you'd play to whatever house rules they'd come up with.
rugby is football. Its the rugby code of football - one of many codes of football.
As in the RFU - Rugby Football Union
and how someone can be so passionate about something you’re not directly involved with, whether they’re watching in a stadium or the comfort of their own living room.
its a very odd thing and hard to explain. I am like this about Edinburgh rugby. I can actually get the shakes from adrenaline while watching a game - Scotland as well of course.
When in a stadium that is a big crowd you also get the crowd effects of the shared emotion - like at concerts, big church events or any sort of mass gathering you get a shared and amplified emotion. When you hear 50 000 people singing flower of Scotland even tho you know its a made up dirge its still powerful on the emotions
I made the same point back in the good ol’ days of page 2 and in response I had somebody suggesting they felt pity for me and my football bereft life.
It was [checks thread] page 3, and I expressed pity as you suggested you couldn't be arsed to find out about something other people find interesting, which suggests you're a bit narrow minded...
and how someone can be so passionate about something you’re not directly involved with, whether they’re watching in a stadium or the comfort of their own living room
are you actually in possession of a soul?Have you even a passing appreciation of history or culture?
It’s no coincidence that most successful football clubs are from the birthplaces of the industrial revolution. All the ‘big’ teams started as teams representing mills and factories in the towns and Cities. Just check out what these clubs call themselves (ie: Arsenal - the Gunners). Their histories are deeply rooted in these communities. This has been passed down through generations in working class communities which didn’t have a right lot of other stuff to get excited about. This explains the rivalry between say Manchester and Liverpool, but also the absolutely rabid rivalries between teams like Blackburn and Burnley
It’s called ‘the national game’ for very deep-seated historical and cultural reasons. A failure to appreciate that is just wilful ignorance IMHO, which there seems to be a lot of on this thread, with a healthy dollop of snobbery thrown in.
In the unlikely event that you fancied educating yourself about aspects of this then you could do far worse than read this...
It just refers to the northern clubs, but it’s a great read and puts the clubs histories in context with where they’re from, and the industries that made those communities
It was [checks thread] page 3, and I expressed pity as you suggested you couldn’t be arsed to find out about something other people find interesting, which suggests you’re a bit narrow minded…
No it really doesn’t as other people have also expressed. It’s not that I can’t be arsed, it’s that I don’t give a shit about football. Why should I make time to look in to a game that I have zero interest in? That would just be weird and the fact you think it isn’t and actually feel pity for me is the real issue here. Not everyone likes or wants to discuss football.
Imagine being raised in the U.K. to call it “soccer.” What kind of weird upbringing would that be?!
I don’t really get what Bruce and Caher are disagreeing about? I grew up calling it soccer, because in Ireland “football” was Gaelic Football, and it still very much is. Shortly after coming to live here, I just adjusted to calling it football. Jesus wept though, most of this thread is just weird. I’m relieved sometimes that I just kinda like most sport, some more than others for sure, and obviously, “motorsport” is an oxymoron 😉 but I can understand nerdsters that don’t get on with sport struggling with the blanket coverage it, especially football, gets sometimes. It must feel suffocating for them. Never have I followed somebody else’s comment of “I don’t really follow football” with further comments about the games at the weekend.
What I also don’t get is people who love a specific code of football - like binners for example, and plenty of the people on the rugby threads who can do nothing except disparage the sport that they don’t follow. I like both rugby and football equally, and have a side interest in American Football which waxes and wains. I have little interest in cricket and tease mates that love it, but having tried a go at batting against a good bowler, can appreciate the skill and speed of reaction involved. The bloke nearly killed me, despite me thinking an upbringing of hurling would give me an eye for hitting a moving ball with a stick. I’m not about to follow it, but disparage it? Not a chance.
Golfers can **** right off though. 😂
and how someone can be so passionate about something you’re not directly involved with, whether they’re watching in a stadium or the comfort of their own living room.
its a very odd thing and hard to explain. I am like this about Edinburgh rugby. I can actually get the shakes from adrenaline while watching a game
Ah, but I bet you've never laid into Mrs TJ after a bad result, whereas the link between domestic violence and football spectating is well known.
feel pity for me is the real issue here
Last time, then I'll stop. You've said many times now that you couldn't be arsed to talk with someone just because you don't like their chosen past time, and then followed up with "why should I?". My response is that appears on the face of it to be relatively self centered. Imagine your in that taxi, and the only thing the driver can converse about is football...are you going to blank him just because you can't be interested, and why the hell should you? Or are you going to grit you teeth sigh inwardly a bit, and have a chat about football (even though you hate it) just well, because he's a nice enough bloke and it doesn't cost anything, it's just 20 minutes and what the hell, it might be OK just to empathise with another human for the cab ride..?
WTF? I would simply instigate a different conversation with the man. A bit like I have for years without a single issue. There’s seriously something amiss with how you’re coming across here. If your theoretical cab driver can only talk about football he’s the narrow minded one that I’m feeling pity for here. I’d have no choice but to blank him and that would be on him for only having one single interest in the whole world. What a bizarre scenario you’ve constructed to help make your point.
I’ve never discussed football in 43 years and (I know you’ll find this difficult to believe) it has never, not once, caused any issues with having a conversation.
whereas the link between domestic violence and football spectating is well known.
That's a bit disingenuous, The link between sports teams performance and domestic violence is well established, my partner worked a rape crisis line in Chicago for a while and Monday nights were the busiest because that's when NFL is broadcast. Superbowl Sunday was always a busier day.
Be honest, you’re just waiting for ‘I’m a Celebrity...’ to start again so that you can chat to cab drivers about something you can get really into 😉
whereas the link between domestic violence and football spectating is well known.
Tell me about it. I’m married to a Bolton fan
*bursts into tears*
If your theoretical cab driver can only talk about football he’s the narrow minded one
I've been in situations where the only common language is footy. It's quite astonishing what a kick about or a chat about a Premiership team can achieve. You clearly don't get what I'm talking about, Lets leave it.
You’ve got me binners! I’ll literally chat shit about anything other than terrestrial TV and team sports. It’s because I have no empathy, am narrow minded and routinely jump out of cabs without paying if the driver mentions the F word
I’ve been in situations where the only common language is footy.
Then you now have my deepest sympathies and possibly some pity too! 😉 I have never been in that situation and if I ever am I’ll just be honest and say ‘sorry, it’s gonna be a quiet ride’
I don’t really get what Bruce and Caher are disagreeing about?
TJ said he hated soccer (or words to that effect). Caher said soccer was a derogatory term. I thought he was joking so I pulled him up on it thinking he would say, 'I was only joking' so that I could say, 'STW has literally disappeared up it's own arse, someone has used the Edinburgh Defense on TJ!!!!'
Turns out he wasn't joking. Not only that, he's from Ireland and has cousins who play GAA and a couple of weeks ago he explained to a Munster rugby fan that soccer is a derogatory term.
It's all TJ's fault.
I've no interest in watching these sports on the screen down the pub whilst all the armchair pundits shout their advice from the bar. My mates say but surely you'd watch the World Cup, er no it's the same thing, means nothing to me at all, couldn't care less.
I've been asked if I'd like to come to watch a local team play as they did well in the FA Cup play offs or something a few years ago, I passed on that offer.
As I've seen others mention, maybe it stems from school, one of the sports teachers was horrid bullying man, if you weren't any good at football/rugby/athletics etc then he made a point of make sure you knew it. I remember the lads he didn't like were put on the worse condition trampolines when we did that a few times.
Ironically his son who was a pupil at the school, ended up burning down the pavilion at the bottom of the school field where a lot of the equipment was stored
Turns out he wasn’t joking. Not only that, he’s from Ireland and has cousins who play GAA and a couple of weeks ago he explained to a Munster rugby fan that soccer is a derogatory term.
Well, it’s not an entirely derogatory term - as Caher and I weren’t being pejorative when referring to it as “soccer” when in Ireland. However, whenever I hear somebody in the UK referring to it as “soccer”, I can be pretty sure why he or she is using that term. It’s very much an “I don’t like football and I refuse to even refer to it using that word.” It’s just being ****y to do so.
EDIT: I’d probably advise somebody Irish to cal it football if coming to the UK - nobody’s going to die, but sometimes, calling it soccer doesn’t sound right, that’s all.
I see, so it's blasphemous to refer to it as anything other than the one true football?
I expressed pity as you suggested you couldn’t be arsed to find out about something other people find interesting, which suggests you’re a bit narrow minded…
Yet your football fan wanting to talk to non-football fans about something that will bore their tits off to the exclusion of any other topic of conversation is wholly altruistic and broad of mind? Do me a quaver.
My response is that appears on the face of it to be relatively self centered. Imagine your in that taxi, and the only thing the driver can converse about is football…are you going to blank him just because you can’t be interested, and why the hell should you?
Why the hell shouldn't I? I'm paying him to do a job, not to be my friend.
I don't particularly want to talk to a complete stranger about something I am interested in (not least because I'm Aspie), I'm not someone who desperately needs a voice constantly filling an empty space like a bag of wasps.
He's the one demanding to talk at a captive audience about something I'm not just disinterested in but actively dislike, because it's the only topic of conversation he is interested in, yet I'm the one that's self-centred and narrow-minded? Do me a flaming hot monster munch.
whenever I hear somebody in the UK referring to it as “soccer”, I can be pretty sure why he or she is using that term. It’s very much an “I don’t like football and I refuse to even refer to it using that word.”
I rather suspect that more likely it's said mostly to wind up people who think it's massively important. See also, "wendyball."
Football and soccer are both valid names for the sport. "Football" is more common in the UK but "soccer" is a term I might use (being as I am an occasional American Football fan) where saying "football" would be ambiguous. Getting bent out of shape about it is a bit, well... sad.
You’ve got me binners! I’ll literally chat shit about anything other than terrestrial TV and team sports
Methinks the lady does protest too much. You’re just gutted that there’s been no Love Island this year 😉
I see, so it’s blasphemous to refer to it as anything other than the one true football?
😀
Are you ok dude? Of course it’s not - you can call it whatever you want. But don’t go getting yourself so wound up about it. The common nomenclature for it in the U.K. is “football” - I mean you can go calling it soccer if you want, and actually, if you do, then a football fan probably will realise you don’t really know much about it. So that might work for you? Amazingly enough, when I go back to Ireland for a visit, I remember to refer to it as soccer, so that people know what I’m talking about. It’s just crazy isn’t it?
EDIT: I’d probably advise somebody Irish to call it football if coming to the UK – nobody’s going to die, but sometimes, calling it soccer doesn’t sound right, that’s all.
which is a exactly the conversion I had out in the ride with the Munster fan - it was banter - i just mentioned that they do not call it soccer in England as it is a kind of put down.
At university, my Rugby playing flatmates would call it soccer and it irked me, as it was meant as a put-down. Later, I crossed the dark side and played rugby too.
I rather suspect that more likely it’s said mostly to wind up people who think it’s massively important. See also, “wendyball.”
Why thank you. I mean, that wasn’t my point at all. 😀
If it was, you hid it well.
I see, so it’s blasphemous to refer to it as anything other than the one true football?
burn the heretic!!!!
I think Wendyball is disrespectful.
The football/soccer thing annoys me though. The friends I have who are into football are from Ireland and so I hear it called soccer more than I hear it called football.
I'll normally call it football but occasionally soccer slips out. From some people's reactions you'd think I'd just dropped my trousers and shat on their shoes.
To some people it's literally heresy and, I'm sorry, but I refuse to take your sport that seriously.
At university, my Rugby playing flatmates would call it soccer and it irked me, as it was meant as a put-down
To be fair though, you could rock up to any university in the UK and simply ask anyone the question “Who are the biggest bunch of ****s on this campus?”, and with not a moments hesitation, every single person will give you the same answer...
The rugby club
I think Wendyball is disrespectful.
Team sport fandom is pretty much founded on the notion that what you support is so much better than everything else, I'm not seeing it as excessively disrespectful, especially when compared to other things I've heard come out of fans' mouths over the years.
What it is though is lazy and tedious. It ceased being funny about a hundred years ago. See also in my world, Microsoft "Windoze." Pass the needle and thread, my sides have split.
If it was, you hid it well.
Remind me to spell it out more clearly for you in future. Jeezus...this forum sometimes...so bloody binary.
😝
Like many others I get asked who I support quite often. When I say I really cannot stand football, (soccer or even association football) - they always pursue the conversation. I find the most effective answer that will stop them is to say Accrington Stanley. Seems to satisfy their curiosity, but suggest we have no common ground on the subject (or something else, I don’t know).
Just say you support Liverpool.
Absolutely nobody wants to talk about football with a Scouser at the moment, apart from another Scouser. They’re unbearable. But the accent and the haircut and the shell suit normally gives them away. 😉
Up until i was 40 years old i had no interest in watching football. I would be out on the bike enjoying the quiet roads when England were playing.
3 years ago my lad pestered me to take him to a game and we have been going ever since. I now actually enjoy it (how can you not enjoy it when you are following the mighty Rotherham? :).
Funnily enough my newfound love of football has not turned me into a racist, wife beating, lager swilling idiot.
Team sport fandom is pretty much founded on the notion that what you support is so much better than everything else
Is this not the same for all sports? Its like arguing whos better Vouilloz or Minnaar. Discussing the intricacies is something I personally enjoy trying to understand why a player made a the right or wrong decision or what lines riders are taking at a race weekend. But, just for the record Boston Celtics are the best basketball team ever the banners prove it.
Hilariously middle class football ****er thread!
But all those other forms of ‘foot’ball involve mainly carrying the ball around, so technically could be more accurately referred to as ‘handball’.
Since there's already a sport called handball, maybe 'carryball' would be more descriptive.
And the real handball is far more entertaining and watchable, and is a shame that it's only ever on during the Olympics.
I think Wendyball is disrespectful.
I'd say it's more derogatory than disrepectful, and is aimed not so much at the original game kicking a ball to score goals, but is aimed more at the apparent play acting and falling over feigning major trauma every time someone is or is nearly tripped over. Every time someone holds their shin or something appealing to the ref, they should be forced to play a game of Rugby football at the equivalent level.