Is this just me being oversensitive?  For many years I find myself disgusted with the apparent feral and tribal actions brought out in people whilst watching football that I see on TV.  Well, my 10yo likes football a bit, so last night Spurs were playing on the big screen – at Center Parcs.

Families had gathered, but as each goal was scored the celebrations got more and more  threatening, with people leaping out of thier chairs at the top of thier voices, fists branded at the screen, screaming at it.  Then the language started, the words **** prick being shouted at the ref many time.  I came very close to challenging a guy about his language near my son, but was worried about stating a ruckus over behaviour.

im sitting there watching this increasingly violent and abusive activity in a family environment I cannot believe others find it acceptable for thier children.  In my 47 years, I’ve never experienced a crowd of 60 or so people  become so feral and animalistic I started to get nervous enough to want to move me and Jnr out of there.

Frankly I think it’s disgusting, and I’ve vowed never to take him to a football match as a result.

Yes, generally. Football grounds would a good place to start the cull.

Football and alcohol. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s not just football though. Rugby always had an element of this and it’s got worse over the years.

What do you expect at Center Parcs, apart from the obvious… 😉

It’s not just football though. Rugby always had an element of this and it’s got worse over the years.

Im a long time playing and watching rugby, I’ve never experienced a crowd like that.

Tricky one… As you may have established, i’m a fan, Liverpool fan and over the years i was told off for language in pubs… But i grew up, had a child and am far more chilled/reserved. But i totally get your point.

You kids will have heard all the words before and many times after, so you’re fighting a losing battle there… but I get your point.

However, when i was more shouty, i wasn’t a bad person, i wasn’t beating people up just because i had a bit of passion… I was the same guy, just a bit foolish.

My son has been to many footy games and there’s language… but many clubs have ‘kids’ areas where it’s very much frowned upon to have swearing etc. It’s not foolproof, but it helps.

watching rugby, I’ve never experienced a crowd like that.

Recent England Wales game in the pub it was equally bad, lots of swearing and fist shaking at eachother, i thought it was very close to getting out of hand… but happily it never… But you wouldn’t have approved 🙂

One of the most exciting and high pressure games I’ve ever seen.
However you could have called the thread Centre parcs full of cavemen.

I’ve been to a few pl games this season and apart from some exceptions bad language has been to a minimum and the stewards deal with excess. The feeling when a stadium erupts is hard to replicate and worth it.

Take your kid to a game and sit in the family zones.

Always remember watching my first professional football match with my dad and older brother, aged about 7. It was a nightmare (Wolves vs Southampton). When the whistle blew I breathed a sigh of relief and started walking towards the exit, only to realise with abject horror that it was only half time and there was still ANOTHER 45 MINUTES TO GO

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Interesting what you say about England/Wales rugby Weeksy. I’ve sat at plenty of games at Twickenham next to supporters of the opposing team & never once had a negative experience. There’s no shortage of booze either so what is it?..

Always suspected centre parks was a chav trap. Will show my missus this thread the next time she suggests we go. Ta.

It’s not just football though. Rugby always had an element of this

How is this even relevant? Football fans might be, but hey, it’s ok because fans of another, unrelated sport are too? Boxing? Hockey? Cricket? Tiddlywinks?
Apparently Pompey supporters at the recent cup game were fighting each other, not just Sunderland fans. But that’s because, Pompey.

There’s proof to support your thoughts OP, domestic abuse increases depending on how badly the supported team does. During the World Cup domestic abuse rates rose by 38% if England lost.

https://fullfact.org/crime/world-cup-domestic-abuse/

You get all sorts at Centre Parcs but to look down your nose at the place perhaps says more about you than those who visit.

As for the football….. I guess the counter argument would be that you basically took your child to the pub at night. I’m sure quite a few in there will have been enjoying a bit of adult time after a day with the kids so maybe didn’t feel the need to watch their p’s and q’s? There’s a limit of course but I wouldn’t take my kids to the pub at night then be surprised that they heard some choice language.

Lots of tribes (football, Rugby, Cycling ,Climbing, motorsport, you name it) have their bad sides, just educate your kids about it and teach them how to recognise the types to avoid/manage. As Mike said The feeling when a stadium erupts is hard to replicate and worth it. To miss out on that because of the risk of small minority spoiling it is sad.

There is something odd about a person who picks a team to support from a list and then gets so passionate about the team they picked. They could have picked any team, none were relevant to their lives before they picked one.
I like to see some people win more at some sports more than others but I don’t get emotional/angry/fighty if they don’t win.

Guess football just appeals to these unbalanced people more than other sports.

Sounds like you would have been better with a hot chocolate and a nice mills and boon.

Honestly, someone shouting or leaping out their chair is threatening? Get a grip. Don’t ever visit Fort William WC, you’ll be getting counselling for years after.

As for the cavemen comment, that’s saying more about your prejudices and attitudes than theirs.

You should see the fuss at a cricket match if they serve the scones with just jam.

Guess football just appeals to these unbalanced people more than other sports.

OP, that’s a bit of a sweeping generalisation?

Yes you will hear some fruity language and a lot of passion being expressed, but it was in a bar between 8-10pm.

people getting caught up in the moment, the excitement of it all… hence the fist pumping/shouting/ finger pointing… that’s not unique to football though is it?

add beer into the mix…. you’ll get people swearing

tribalism appears all over the place

football supporters being cavemen, is up there with all bloody cyclists are the same… it’s a blinkered view, one swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that

I love football, but as someone who as a kid used to go to Stamford Bridge during the 1970’s I suggest your offspring are getting away quite lightly. Football is great but it serves the same social purpose as Gladiator fights did in Rome.

There is something odd about a person who picks a team to support from a list and then gets so passionate about the team they picked. They could have picked any team, none were relevant to their lives before they picked one.

WTF ? Of course they’re relevant before, my family, parents, grandparents etc all supported Liverpool, we all grew up less than 1/2 a mile from the stadium. We lived, breathed and supported the team. My mum (and brothers and sisters took a 3 day train ride to Rome in 1977 for the European cup final and also to Paris etc.. I’ve travelled to Madrid to see Liverpool play, it was the last game i went to with the old man before he died.
Me and my son now share the same passion, the same memories and the same love for it…

The team wasn’t picked at random, it was part of my life from birth.

Cavemen ..possibly
Tribalistic ..probably ..
Passionate ..definitely..and I wouldn’t have it any other way ..
Could I ask the question of the OP though ..have you up to this point in your life been so insulated from the fact that at just about every ground in the country you are going to hear chants / bad language ?
Wherever you get a group of supporters cheering on their team you are unfortunately going to get the same..even in a bar showing a live game ..
Sorry it’s taken you this long to find out ..

Yeah but weeksy,it’s only a game of footy init 😉

Mostly these days Haggis… it’s not a huge part of my life like it was back when living there.. I didn’t miss a home game for 10+ years back in them days.

I’ve played football for decades and still do, but the whole supporting thing I gave up on ages ago, came to the conclusion that spending a generally disappointing afternoon in the company of mostly boring shouty **** wasn’t a good use of time. I find it odd that folk invest so much energy in something they can’t influence, and don’t even play as a sport.

kerley
There is something odd about a person who picks a team to support from a list and then gets so passionate about the team they picked. They could have picked any team, none were relevant to their lives before they picked one.

It is a funny one.

I’ve never been into football at all, so it’s never been on in my house. When my lad was 6 we got an XBox and he wanted to get Fifa because his mates were playing it. So we did. When he was choosing his first team to play, he pretty randomly picked Chelsea as he knew nothing about any of the teams. He’s now 10 and a massive Chelsea fan, which is amazing it’s stuck given were we live most people, including his mates, are Birmingham City supporters.

There’s proof to support your thoughts OP, domestic abuse increases depending on how badly the supported team does. During the World Cup domestic abuse rates rose by 38% if England lost.

That doesn’t prove much, if anything, though. Beyond enough people support football passionately enough that it affects statistics at an overall population level. Does similar happen after a general election if your party loses? What about cyclists, are we more likely to beat up our partners after a stressful commute (not enough cyclists to affect the overall figures, but I’d put money on domestic abuse committed by cyclists spiking after a bad day just like any other group.

At least they are not throwing bottles of piss at the players or trying to knock certain ones off or blocking the route of a race while completely pissed up and wearing speedo’s

I assume the OP would think an afternoon on Dutch Corner would be a splendid day out with the family

I think you’ve got a number of things happening
– lots of blokes away with the kids and wife, letting off steam
– alcohol
– an unusually dramatic game
Saying that, I’ve noticed the general anger in our society (e.g. over brexit, culture war issues etc) is now coming back into football, in a more mainstream way rather than the small hooligan element.
I prefer just to watch the games that interest me at home now. I tried to go to support my local non-league team a while back, which sells itself as a family club, but the language was too far on the foul side, I don’t have children, but if I did I wouldn’t want them to expose them to it.
I think the first time I heard adults swearing and general adult banter was watching a cricket match at the age of around 8. I think in the past there were more taboos about using bad language and showing aggression in front of women and children.
In the past football grounds were more segregated, i.e. the more tribal factions had their own ends, but now it is more family-oriented in general, this complicates things when you get a few “hardcore” idiots in seats next to families. I’ve been at a spurs game when a number of people asked one man to stop swearing or they would inform the stewards, which did shut him up in fairness. But if he was with more people I doubt people would have spoken up.

Wow.

To answer several questions;

I’m not a regular a CP and nor have I found it full of “chavs”. In my experience it’s full of working to middle class families in the majority, who have come to experience a quieter yet activity based break with their children.

i haven’t been to a football match before, and I didn’t know there are family areas. but nether am I a stranger to passion, drunkenness or swearing in an adult context.  Yet in my experience of also being drunk with very passionate rugby fans – Kiwis, Aussies, Welsh, nothing like last night kicked off – my generalisation is based on my – limited – football experience.

It’s isn’t my sensitivities I’m addressing but those of my 10yo.  It’s funny how many keyboard warriors will sit behind a keyboard and imply your a pussy in a thread, but fail to sit back and  think of a single adult in a baying crowd with the interests of his children at heart and how threatening that feels.

Passionate behaviour?  I’ve been to also cheered at many sports events but I’ve never experienced teeth clenched, frothing at the mouth, jumping out of a seat, fists raised and general gorilla type demonstrations of competitiveness in public, let alone in front of children.  It was a Neanderthal display of thuggery bordering on actual violence.

As mentioned, I didn’t take my kid to a “pub”.   I took them to a family centre which has a big screen which was arranged to show the match.  Yes, there was a bar.  This does not excuse the language and behaviour of said idiots in front of many children or varying ages,  their is perhaps a time and a place.

Like I said, it’s my choice not to expose him to the thuggery.   In his own words this morning he really enjoyed the football game but got scared of language and aggression.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it, very rarely does it turn into actual fisticuffs. Shouting and chanting at each other are part of the tribal/pack animal instinct that’s embedded in most of us (humans, not footie supporters). Various NZ teams like a bit of shouty intimidation before a game and everyone thinks ‘ah, isn’t that nice’. 😂

Ask your boy if he wants another go at watching it with a crowd, although he may have been worried, at his age I bet he thought it was mildly exciting as well?

PS; Spurs v Man City on telly again at 12:30 on Saturday. COYS!

 It was a Neanderthal display of thuggery bordering on actual violence.

Thuggery is on the pitch in Rugby.

🙂

Does that search bring any results for football? Probably not eh.

Does that search bring any results for football? Probably not eh.

Of course not, I’ve explicitly cherry picked my evidence to make a sweeping generalisation about a massive group of people.

As mentioned, I didn’t take my kid to a “pub”. I took them to a family centre which has a big screen which was arranged to show the match. Yes, there was a bar.

Don’t know which CP you were at but at Whinfell the ‘family area’ next to the pool is set up to look suspiciously like a pub.

In his own words this morning he really enjoyed the football game but got scared of language and aggression.

The way I see that it, thats a job well done by yourself.

He’s enjoyed the footy and learnt something ….. Life isn’t always loving dads, caring mums and friendly faces…. The world can be big n scary…. you’ve showed him that in a controlled environment.

Although I defo take the point that you were in CP and that kind of behaviour isn’t appropriate …. So take him to a real match, in a big stadium with a big atmosphere.

I’ll never forget being impressed as an 8 year old hearing “C’mon you Spurs” start in one portion of White Hart Lane and “move around” to the other side…. although, now thinking about it, I can also remember mentioning to my dad not liking the swearing.

Can’t wait to hear how it sounds in the new ground …. and I’ll be happily taking my lad to see it and hear it …. worts and all… just like life ??

Good luck

nether am I a stranger to passion, drunkenness or swearing in an adult context

That evening was meant to be just between us.

Can’t wait to hear how it sounds in the new ground …. and I’ll be happily taking my lad to see it and hear it …. worts and all… just like life ??

It’s sounded amazing on the TV games so far, looks amazing