Football – it’s just a bit pants really, isn’t it?

Sorry, I don’t follow. No, I have a TV.  I just dont find watching football interesting but I am interested in the result.  I will talk about it with friends, what results mean. but don’t like watching it.

@squirelking I don’t think this thread needs to be about sectarian issues. I completely understand the link and don’t disagree how this is wrong. Feel free to give me another whoop de du, but I was born to a catholic mum from Belfast and a Welsh protestant father who was a former soldier (parachute regiment), we lived in Belfast before we were forced to leave and move to Liverpool in the late 1970’s. Probably like a lot of people from Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, I could write a book on the sectarian issues that I have seen and how it has shaped my entire life)

My statement about living in Liverpool and not particularly liking football was to highlight that in a football mad city I am one of the rare ones who has no interest. But so what if I get asked about it? What does it really matter? Just politely say so. Personally if a work colleague wanted to talk to me about his passion, I’ll listen. It doesn’t matter what that passion is or how much interest I have in it.

When the ashes is on people talk about cricket. My father in law talks about it incessantly. Cricket bores the pants of me, but I’ll listen.

The sectarian issues being linked to football I do 100% agree is wrong. Similar to how I also feel about religion. But I don’t think this thread is discussing that. This thread originated with the OP asking why football is so popular. He doesn’t like it and wants to know if it is just him. However there is no interest to try to understand why it is popular (globally) and no interest to have an open discussion on the reasons.

To a non-sportsball watcher that’s even more weird. What do you get from that?

“Ooh, did you hear in the 27th minute, when Jones passed the ball to Smith, and then back to Jones? We’ll never hear the likes of that again, amazing stuff.” It’s like watching a rock concert on mute.

My comment was about cricket not football. And whilst yes, superficially from the outside it must seem weird but Test Match Special is imo a special case. It’s so much more than listening to the commentary of a bloke throwing a ball and another bloke attempting to hit it with a stick. For context, my wife who has zero interest in cricket likes having it on in the background – actually asks me when the next test match starts and is disappointed when a match is finished inside 5 days. Apart from when Boycott was on obviously. Less than 10 days to the WI series – happy days.

Thinking about it – audio commentary is about my threshold for following someone else doing a sport unless you are there in person. You can get on with other stuff at the same time then – on its own it’s not enough to preoccupy me.

Being at a sporting event is different though. Can’t stand watching downhill on telly/computer but being at Fort Bill is awesome. Same for triathlon, kayak racing etc etc. I know the sports well which helps but are dreadful watching on telly but the atmosphere and seeing it in person is brilliant. And of course TdF in person is an atmosphere you could not help getting sucked into. I got dragged to watch golf at the open once and even liked that. Golf- the most tedious pastime in the world turned out to be a brilliant day out! There is no way I’d consider watching it on the telly.  The only sport I detested as much in real life as I had on telly was ice hockey. And I’ve not been to a basketball ball match or baseball – I suspect I’d not enjoy either of those too. That might be as much about not really appreciating the nuance. I just found ice hockey tediously repetitive. I think I actually managed to doze off at one point.

I’m a Villa season ticket holder and stand in the Holte end*. Fantastic, exciting and passionate football. I can’t bring myself to watch international games and an left wondering what on earth the sudden influx of “fans” must make of this dreadful boring spectacle.

*Aston Villa, the Holte is the massive stand behind the goal and while it’s an all seater end, Nobody but nobody ever sits. Ok, a few did last season once when we were 5-1 up and it was starting to get a bit dull.
Admittedly last season was a bit special and I doubt we’ll ever see such excitement again.

What I don’t get is the need for fans to incessantly talk about it and bring it up in conversation with people who don’t have any interest in it.

I just say “sorry, I think football is shit” which seems to work.  I am pretty good at killing conversations dead!

The behaviour of some football fans is downright creepy and cult like.

What exactly is creepy or cult-like? What behaviour do you see to come to this absurd opinion?

When people refer to the team in the first/second person, rather than the third…

“We did really well tonight with a flat pack 4”

“We’ve got you next weekend in the league….”

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGJHHHJ!  NOOOOOOOOO

I used to go to matches but the diving and attacking refs just to the point it ruined my enjoyment so I stopped going.

Diving needs to be dealt with as does arguing with refs

I’m pretty agnostic in that I don’t really watch any sport. I do have friends who seem to watch it (on TV mostly) almost non-stop). If I have one particular bugbear then it’s folk who won’t socialise in other ways (riding, eating, drinking etc).because there’s some event on that they’d rather stay home to watch.

I just say “sorry, I think football is shit” which seems to work. I am pretty good at killing conversations dead!

You could always just say you have no interest rather than saying it’s shit. When people talk incessantly about car racing or golf I just say I’ve no interest.

I just say “sorry, I think football is shit” which seems to work.  I am pretty good at killing conversations dead!

Yeah I usually just say similar stated as matter of fact as if there’s no universe in which I’m any different! Definitely now in late forties as compared with ie twenties reaction seems more accepting. Probably think I’m a lost cause or something. “don’t waste your time on this one!”

@theotherjonv your point would have merit if I’d claimed football was the exclusive cause. But I didn’t. All I said was that DV rates go up after a game.

I’ve heard folk on the floor above (at work) kicking chairs across their office when a game is on, I know for a fact they were sober at the time and are otherwise not the emotional type. If they were the type to be violent with someone else then I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a trigger.

Rather than trying to pick my question apart could you have a stab at answering it, what other sport sees DV rates to go up afterwards? Since you think alcohol is a major factor I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding examples from rugby, cricket and bowls where alcohol consumption in the grounds is allowed.

For the ‘I just don’t get it’ middle class bedwetters

Says the man-child that can’t take any criticism of the things he likes without resorting to playground insults.

what other sport sees DV rates to go up afterwards?

Did you read the article? It cited American football and said that more research was needed.

Football is something where any kid can dream of becoming a hero one day and there’s plenty of role models for them from all backgrounds. For that I think it’s great.
The drunk chanting gangs of blokes can do one (lived rear a football ground once, then used to use the train past Wembley a lot). And all the punditry is pretty dull tbh.
Tbh I don’t find it any more or less interesting to watch than any other ball sports, can be worth watching or can be dull as anything. I just can’t be arsed with football culture as a whole so have never taken any interest in the game itself. Well, not since school days anyway. England games are only notable for the opportunity to ride quieter roads..

Says the man-child that can’t take any criticism of the things he likes without resorting to playground insults

The reason these (regular) threads trigger me, and others, so much as it does is because the criticism of football (as is the case with many posters here) comes down to one thing and one thing only….

Snobbery

Pure and simple

@w00dster that’s fair and sorry for making assumptions about your background. The sectarian thing is why I have such an aversion to the sport though, it goes hand in hand with a whole culture I want nothing to do with. And yes, I realise there’s more to football than the old firm and their east coast equivalent but its so ingrained at this point that I’m not going to change.

Thankfully I have changed jobs and moved to a more professional level where people are happy to accept I’m not interested and only talk about it in general (what did you do at the weekend) terms. I can’t remember the last time a colleague told me they would be happy running over cyclists because they shouldn’t be on the road either or asked me about any of my other “gay/wee faggot” hobbies.

The reason these (regular) threads trigger me, and others, so much as it does is because the criticism of football (as is the case with many posters here) comes down to one thing and one thing only….

Snobbery

Pure and simple

@binners see my post above. How would you feel in my position? I’m happy to live and let live, it’s just cathartic to have a moan is all. I’m aware that the majority of people aren’t as I describe but I’ve had enough of those that are. How many of us have similarly jumped into to Euros thread to belittle and insult those interested in the game? Maybe reflect on that before flinging insults and accusations.

Snobbery

Pure and simple

Sorry Binners but that is bollocks. I agree with you on most things (especially baked goods) but not this. No snobbery on my behalf. Christ, I grew up on a Yorkshire council estate with a labourer for a father and a miner for a stepdad. No middle class snobbery here. I just don’t like watching any sports, will play any, and find football in particular to have a large percentage (in my experience) of weird fans. Grown men crying, acting like children when a team loses, talking about games as if they’re taking part, making assumptions based on others not following it etc.

It’s even bad at a kids level. Walked and rode by local games and the behaviour of some of the parents is pathetic to say the least. Not like that at the kids basketball and cricket games I’ve been to.

Snobbery

Pure and simple

Shite.

Pure and simple.

Rather than trying to pick my question apart could you have a stab at answering it, what other sport sees DV rates to go up afterwards?

I did. When I’ve gone to the trouble of answering perhaps you’d have a stab at reading it?

I didn’t try to pick your question apart; I thought it was a reasonable and balanced review of the actual data behind the trope. You might not have said in actual words, but to me the question was a pretty clear insinuation of it.

your point would have merit if I’d claimed football was the exclusive cause.

It’s not the cause, exclusive or otherwise. There’s a correlation.

Sorry Binners but that is bollocks

I’m not accusing all critics of it, but have a read back over this thread. There’s plenty of it on display, particularly by those who site rugby as a comparison

The undercurrent is clear. Look at those frightful people with their replica shirts, their tattoos and their fizzy lager, watching their big tellies and smoking. Can they not buy themselves some nice stonewashed denim and drink a nice craft IPA?

I suppose I’m just as guilty of reverse snobbery, because when I think of Rugby I think of this, but the implied superiority really irritates me. That’s tribalism for you 😉

It’s rugby 6 nations time again lads. Time to get those jeans and brown shoes out of the cupboard #FRAIRL #IRLRUGBY pic.twitter.com/fLJvLt0nG9

— Sam “Ace” Rothstein ?? (@Conor1971) February 2, 2024

That picture is frightening ? are you sure it isn’t a chelsea boot convention?

I wouldn’t bother anymore Binners the thread title itself is incendiary, imagine if PistonHeads had a thread ‘Mountain Biking – a bit pants really, isn’t it’ that would wind a few people here up and I have enough mates who certainly think cyclists are a nuisance and it’s a child’s hobby. You cannot make someone like a passion.

Binners – your caricature of rugby as middle class is pretty regionalised. Putting league to one side* (as it’s obviously bollox there), try living in Wales. I did my primary school years in Wales in the late 70s and early 80s. Union was (and I think still is) the life blood of communities, as classless as pretty much any sport I could imagine, both to watch and play. I accept that’s not the case throughout the UK but it’s disingenuous to portray it as exclusively red trousered.

*I’d say league fans are pretty much the prototype for all sports to aspire to, as as how to behave, support and banter.

Anyway, nearly time for the F1, live on Channel 4.

@convert – my hatred of Rugby (and believe me, i HATE rugby!) is deep-seated and personal and ironically I blame the Welsh. When I was at school our PE teacher was a Welsh, rugby-obsessed psycopath – think the Brian Glover charachter in Kes if he’d have been from Merthyr Tydfil – who had us playing Rugby every week, regardless of the weather.

One week some knuckle-dragging neanderthal tackled me and before I’d had opportunity to desperately get rid of the egg, his full body weight landed on my leg, I heard it snap even before I felt it.

In hospital, as I surveyed the x-ray of the splintered wreckage of my knee, the surgeon said ‘well that’s your rugby career over’. It was the happiest day of my life 🙂

Just to make sure I’m answering the question fully

Since you think alcohol is a major factor

Not me, that’s what the reports say

I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding examples from rugby, cricket and bowls where alcohol consumption in the grounds is allowed.

No, I can’t find reports or studies where none exist. But I’d reflect that looking at actual attendances, football with about 1m spectators has an order of magnitude more spectators as rugby on an average fixture weekend, hard to tell for cricket as there are far more days with cricket on but I found data that total attendance in England in 2022 was 2.3m so football covers that in about 2 weeks, and there’s about 45 weeks in the football season, so about 20x the rate (also note that’s cricket’s total including internationals, the football data is for an average league weekend)

I can’t find data for bowls but suspect it’s not that high 😉

And then there are far more TV watchers, at home with mates, at the pub, in fan parks, etc.

Like I say i can’t find the data but given football is orders of magnitude more popular than the others, likely that on a like for like basis then incidents of DV will also be orders of magnitude higher and worth doing a study on.

And yes, I’ll admit that as the ‘working class’ national sport, and our national obsession with getting mullered, that I suspect toxic drunkenness is worse at football than at other sports even on a per capita basis. But the issue isn’t football per se (again, if it was you’d expect teetotal fans to be beating the partners every time their team loses) – it’s alcohol.

“Anyway, nearly time for the F1, live on Channel 4.”
oh good, off out on the bike then.
Not so sure footy is just working class as the next King of Britannia is a big fan

As is the new PM. He’s a lifelong Gooner.

So at least now Engerland are through we’ll be spared the toe-curling sight of Boris in a box fresh Engerland kit, or Dave trying to remember if he supported Villa or West Ham (same colour shirts, so an easy mistake to make) or Rishi pretending to support Southampton but didn’t know who’d qualified for the Euros

You have to tiptoe around some senior people at my work if their team plays badly and certain colours are pretty much banned from the office. That’s not normal behaviour.

No it’s totally normalised behaviour. Which is part of the problem. You go into work and someone says to you “keep out of Steve’s way today, Liverpool lost last night so he’s like a bear with a sore head,” the expected response is “OK, thanks for the heads-up” rather than “WTF, is he 12?”

Men sometimes do this, not necessarily because they want it to lead to a deep conversation about tactics or team allegiances, but because they are just trying to make conversation. It’s assumed to be a safe opening gambit as a topic, like the weather.

Sure, and that’s fair enough. But having established “I have no interest in the weather” they’ve got nothing else so rather than changing the subject, poking at their phone for a bit or otherwise ****ing off and leaving you alone they proceed to channel their inner John Kettley for the next 40 minutes.

I cannot think offhand of a single other topic of conversation which spawns this sort of behaviour, football is unique in this regard. Perhaps because as others have alluded to it’s a Lowest Common Denominator?

I’ve not been to a basketball ball match or baseball – I suspect I’d not enjoy either of those too.

I investigated baseball on holiday in Chicago a few years ago. It was on in a “sports bar” I went to, the guy coincidentally sat next to me was well into it so I asked him to explain. My conclusion after gaining a better understanding and watching it all evening is that it’s cricket with all the excitement removed.

On the upside, the lass he failed to chat up turned out to be far more entertaining than the baseball and merited a return trip. 🙂

The reason these (regular) threads trigger me,

Sorry, “regular”? This is the first one I recall seeing.

He’s a lifelong Gooner.

WTF is a gooner?

When you see footage of British Indian and Pakistani cricket supporters coming together to support England in the Euros at Edgbaston yesterday, it is clear that quite a lot of good can come from soccer.

Soccer?

Sorry, “regular”? This is the first one I recall seeing.

There was one a while back, I only remember because someone who wasn’t actually into football was telling how he read about it anyway so he had something to talk about and “connect” with clients and that people really should do the same as it’s an international language. Or something.

Came across as a real life Roy.

Soccer?

A contraction of “Association Football,” just as rugby is a contraction of “Rugby Football.”  Other footballs are available also.

There was one a while back,

Ah, right.  So “regular” means “this happened once before.”  [thumbs up emoji]

Came across as a real life Roy.

Huh?  Who?

It’s on the football threads. There’s always one going on here where us poor unfortunates who are afflicted with a love of the sport go to bemoan our teams awful parasitic or murderous oil baron owners/insane managerial sacking/star strikers present terrible form/inexplicable VAR decisions/the awful brand of football played by Gareth Southgates squad

Delete as applicable.

With tedious regularity, rather than leave us to our misery, some Olly or other will pop in to tell us how ‘soccer’ is rubbish whereas Rugby is a ‘real man’s’ game or a ‘gentleman’s’ game. Then they proceed to bore us with some other tedious nonsense about footballists all being pansies, whereas a rugby player could be hoofed in the nads by a cart horse and still play a full match, drenched in blood, with their cobblers literally hanging by a thread out of the bottom of their shorts

It seems we’ve now moved in from that and they’re now starting specific threads about it

Football is a shower of shite, pub skittles is where it at.

I need to post so that you all have someone to unify you all in your bemusement. 😀

I’m a 55 year old man that occasionally watches a bit of eSports. Specifically Counter Strike.

We walk among you.

With tedious regularity, rather than leave us to our misery, some Olly or other will pop in to tell us how ‘soccer’ is rubbish

Apologies, may have got the wrong end of the stick earlier. If you have to deal with that calibre of numpty on a regular basis you have every right to be grumpy about it.

I watched the footie yesterday in a room full of bespectacled middle-aged lesbians. They weren’t tattooed but did drink a moderate quantity of lager, although they tidied up quite quickly afterwards. There was one replica shirt on display