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

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

I’d have been less shocked if you’d said you were into goat porn. Some things are just better left unsaid….<wink emoji>

It’s on the football threads. There’s always one going on here

Ah, that would be why I’ve not seen it. That being the case, they’re a tool.

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

Progress?

You realise that in chipping in here, you’re as bad as them? 🙂

I’d have been less shocked if you’d said you were into goat porn. Some things are just better left unsaid….<wink emoji>

They don’t have to be mutually exclusive!:D

I too had no idea that people went in to footy specific threads to act like tools. I just avoid them through lack of interest.

if you’d said you were into goat porn.

Stopping kidding about.

A 55 year esports fan. And from your username I’ve always assumed you were into coprophilia………that makes you….unique.

Anyway, if you’d like to set your iPlayer settings to location NI, you can watch 15 Limerick men playing 15 Cork men in the All Ireland Championship semi final. The winners will go on to play 15 men from Clare in the final.

And they’re all amateurs.

It’s quite fast, mind.

And from your username I’ve always assumed you were into coprophilia………that makes you….unique.

To be fair.  You’re pretty unique that you knew what the word was for that (or even that there was a word for that).  I had to look it up. 😉

I had to look it up.

I’m here from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Coprophages

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.

Think I vaguely remember that too. I considered it for two second and thought nah **** that lololol.

I don’t really have much interest in cycling. I always say that I won’t bother watching the big races (Giro, TdF), but something draws me in and I end up watching a few races – like the Strade Bianchi one that’s on now.

I’m left baffled as to why this is so popular all around the world. Compared to a game of football it’s just so tedious. There are occasional moments of excitement, but for most of the 240+ minutes it’s just a snoozefest. What am I missing?

What am I missing?

Just the punctures and occasional spectator accident.

Well, I for one, prefer to watch the international submarine racing championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blAB_JqAJNw

What am I missing?

Road cycling, not a lot.  I like a bit of track cycling but even get bored of that after 20 minutes but I don’t think watching sports is for me.  Would be willing to have a go at most of them and love cycling but watching someone else do it is not for me.

Huh? Who?

IT Crowd. ‘Are We Not Men?’ episode.

The feeling when you are part of a crowd living for the moment is brilliant

And then along came VAR…

Stopping kidding about.

deserved more attention

Rugby is not immune from simulation. Off the top of my head Stuart Hogg against South Africa comes to mind.

I’d imagine all the reasons given above for not liking football would equally apply to rugby.

Apart from in rugby the refs tell them off for it and they get roundly mocked on social media

Maybe they should bring back inter-village football as the national sport.

“This murdering play”: the violent origins of English football

No need, just go to Magaluf and throw a ball in.

Apart from in rugby the refs tell them off for it and they get roundly mocked on social media

So, the same then.

I’ve never really been bothered by football, didn’t support a team as a kid, my Dad liked rugby league, cricket and cycling (he was from Yorkshire), my Mums family were from Wales so it was all rugby uninon. Did feel a bit left out as a teenager and young man as workmates and friends talked about football, but never had the negative experiences some of you had, which sound nuts. I do like lots of other sports though, spectating and playing.

But, like all sports, you need to be invested in it to get it I suppose. I said I don’t support a team, well now I do. My team have won a cup and got promoted this season, last season they didn’t win a game. I’m now discussing team selection, tactical shape, form of the players, and have taken part in a pitch invasion for their cup win. It’s an under 10 girls team FFS. My daughter has started playing this season, and she loves it, the kids are ace and the parents are all really nice. I now have a team I really want to win, even though I don’t play for them. So I wouldn’t say football is pants.

I can see how you’d get fed up of it being the main topic of conversation if you don’t like it though. I work in an academic setting, where the main topic of conversation is much more cultural- theatre, films that don’t have explosions in them etc. It drives me mad, as I honestly can’t see any difference between a pantomime and a Shakespeare play,its just a load of people remembering to say things without reading them. They don’t even mean it, it’s made up emotions. Which is fine, it’s not for me.

I do think there is snobbery around it – not rugby ruperts etc, but just that you can’t signify class through showy displays of buying stuff, it’s now all about making a thing about your taste. Want to seem like a working class hero even though you’re a VW driving graphic designer? Bang on about football. Want to seem like you’re a bit above everyone? Make a big deal about how much you hate watching sport. just like what you like, no-one cares.

films that don’t have explosions in them

What!

Make a big deal about how much you hate watching sport. just like what you like, no-one cares.

I can say with certainty that I’ve never come across this in real life. People that won’t shut up about sports, soaps and reality TV on the other hand. Never seen it as a class thing either. Folks from all walks of life harping on and on and on and on. Just stick some variety in there people!

A compelling football match is one of the best sporting spectacles IMO. But what proportion of games are compelling? 5%? 10%? Definitely not as high as 20%.

Sitting through four shite games, minimum, to see a single good one doesn’t seem a good return on the time investment to me.

:unsure:

I have to say tho I dislike football I totally get the way we get invested in our teams.  Watching Scotland or Edinburgh play rugby I can end up shaking with adrenaline even watching at home on the TV.

Going to a match with a big crowd is totally captivating.  Its the same phenomenon as a big rave or a big religious event.  You have the communal emotions, a bit of singing and a feeling of belonging to your tribe.  Does weird things to your head and I assume releases all sorts of neurotransmitters.

footballs still shite tho B-) :whistle: :yes:

I do think there is snobbery around it – not rugby ruperts etc, but just that you can’t signify class through showy displays of buying stuff, it’s now all about making a thing about your taste

Trouble with that is it varies in differnt partsd of the UK

Rugby is a working class game in Wales and Scottish borders.  In Edinburgh its a posh boys game as it is in much of England

Cricket is a working class game in Yorkshire, its not in other parts of England or always so in Scotland ( generalisation alert)

Cricket is a working class game in Yorkshire

Even that is a generalisation – cricket in the Dales is a very, very different affair from league cricket around Sheffield or Bradford…

Rugby’s still a posh boys game in Ireland too. Outside Dublin GAA runs through the towns and villages like a stick of rock. If you’re out and about at 5pm on a Saturday you’ll see people of all ages coming back from either playing or watching.

Sometime football fan here though I have no real emotional investment in any of it.

Like most things in life I find that the more you put in, the more you get out. The great thing about football is that there is so much more to it than just goals. This is part of the reason why VAR has been so controversial as it has removed some of the nuance that can make a game exciting.

I find that if you can follow a few sub plots, understand how teams setup and what tactics they use, and appreciate the art of defending all games have an element of interest.

That said the Euros this year have not been of great quality, most players seem tired and the so called best teams haven’t really been performing.

I find that if you can follow a few sub plots, understand how teams setup and what tactics they use, and appreciate the art of defending all games have an element of interest.

Which is precisely why I struggle with Footie – I genuinely don’t know enough about it – unless it is obvious like a quick winger versus a slow left/right back.

On the other hand, I can see subplots developing in cricket. I can see bowlers trying to set batters up, batters trying to manipulate the field etc. To an extent, rugby too – I can see teams trying to work doglegs in defensive lines or overload rucks etc.

We should call it soccer really to differentiate from other football codes :scratch:

Its main advantage as a sport is a very low barrier to entry.  a ball and 4 jumpers is all you need and a bit of land to play on.  Rugby is a complex game with loads to learn to play it and cricket requires a very carefully tended bit of land and bats and pads and keepers gloves.

Rugby is a complex game with loads to learn to play it and cricket requires a very carefully tended bit of land and bats and pads and keepers gloves.

What? If football needs 4 jumpers and a ball why doesn’t rugby?

Street cricket isn’t a thing?

What % of any sports events are good?   Most aren’t

Street cricket isn’t a thing?

Yup. The go-to in India/Pakistan seems to be a stack of bricks, a tennis ball, electrical tape, a crudely fashioned bat from a plank of wood and a second smaller pile of rocks. Upwards of 30 fielders, not a defensive shot in sight and all the bowlers are the speed of light (albeit a lot with actions that might not pass muster with the ICC).

Tag rugby is I guess the park equivalent of jumpers for goalposts, of course it has been upgraded to kit with velcro tags and whatever else but some way of marking the goal line and a ball and you could have a game no issue.

Absolutely street cricket is a thing, also the game on the asian subcontinent where even organised games are on overlapping pitches, you might be fielding at cover but because outfields overlap you’ve got half an eye behind you so you don’t get whacked in the back of the head at midwicket in another game.

Simulation, and to a lesser extent appealing for corners and handballs etc., that clearly aren’t, are the football blight but rugby’s all about cheating. Pushing the offside line at a ruck, holding on just enough to slow a tackle down without getting pinged, pushing in at the side in a scrum to get a penalty, hands in the ruck when the ref can’t see….. except in rugby pushing the boundary and cheating just enough is all part of the game. That’s before entirely manufactured and pre-planned cheating like physios with blood capsules in their medical bag!!

Cricket – in the modern day the claimed catch that wasn’t rarely happens now because of DRS but used to be a common thing. Sweetie juice on the ball. Dirt in the pocket of a Cambridge graduate. Bowlers following through to create a bit of rough for your spinner. And as for walking or not. Your choice, but when I played I never walked. If I hit it to second slip i’d practically stand my ground until given. Because plenty of times I’d been given when I hadn’t hit it and then I put my bat under my arm and walked off just the same. Because that’s what umpires are there to do.

It’s part of the game, not some moral affront, and all sports have their versions of it.

^^^

Wandering OT, but Simon Wilde wrote a book more than 20 years ago about match fixing, cheating and downright skulduggery in cricket – unimaginatively titled “It’s Not Cricket”.

Corruption and cheating was endemic from day 1 and the ‘Golden Age’ construct is largely that – just a construct.

Folks from all walks of life harping on and on and on and on about not liking football.

FTFY.

How about netball? Ten years ago I could not give a single **** about it, but my daughters play, we go every weekend to see them play in their club, they are both in the school A Team, I now understand the game, the positions, the rules, the scoring and I really enjoy it – we’ve seen it at the Commonwealth Games, our local pro team (Leeds) – the point is, if you understand the game, you are significantly more likely to enjoy it – and football is much, much more than putting a ball in the net or rolling around on the floor pretending to be hurt.