Football, just a working class cult?

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cm1179 said:
anyone who says the footballers have more passion is deluded, most football players are just classless.
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Despite being an avid football fan I would agree with this. Whilst I have met some lovely footballers the majority I have met and the impression you get watching them on tv are morons with money. Horrible little people I would never associate with if I actually knew them.

As I say I love football, but the stupidest thing about it is how they deride the term passion and use it as an excuse to act like a troglodyte. Enjoy the game, hate the players.
 
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No1newts said:
Enjoy the game, hate the players.
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This used to be my belief with regards the game. I enjoyed watching it, not as much as a good rugby game, but I still enjoyed it. Over time, however, I have slowly lost interest. I'm at the point where I used to watch games regularly but now I barely even bother to check the results any more. Can't say I miss it - although I do get quizzed over it occasionally.
 
bitslice said:
Two options.

it's either repressed homoerotic male bonding
or
it's too much effort to develop an interest in something less passive
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:rolleyes:

bitslice said:
Maybe it's just the people I've met, but I've never known a football fan have an interest in anything but football. Art, history, food, film, politics, music, religion, literature - not a flicker of interest or knowledge.
But ask them about who was goalie in the 1967 away game against FucWits United, and they are able to give you a complete analysis of the entire game.
And I thought Rain Man was special :rolleyes:
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I don't believe for a second that you haven't met a football fan that doesn't have an interest in anything else. Hard to believe how much rubbish is spouted on these forums sometimes.
 
dmpoole said:
That goes down as the biggest piece of crap I've read on these forums.
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selective quoting again :mad:
"Maybe it's just the people I've met"

So for my sample pool, that's pretty much true :p
Believe me I look for something else to talk about, but there's never much there. Not that they are unintelligent in the slightest, it's just that's all they really enjoy talking about. Like I'm sure Fox would prefer to discuss BMW's over Japanese arthouse.

You know people like this mate so don't pretend you don't, I've lived in Stoke too. You're more likely to be proffered a random match score from strangers than an opinion of the weather.

n1blo said:
I get this on a daily basis, it's never interested me. Just hate how it's meant to be common ground between males. Can't we get something else more exciting?
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This x 1,000

Sometimes I actually fake an interest because I need to rub along with some people, when secretly I'm dying of boredom inside. OK, sometimes I also want to stab their eyes with a pencil for being so sodding dull too :)

Sport, great, pick something like women's netball or something and I could see the point. But memorising scores and league placings and this faux sense of community? :confused: I don't care about having something in common with another group of men, but I'd happily listen to their obsessive car interests, just so long as it some depth to it.

nydryl said:
I don't believe for a second that you haven't met a football fan that doesn't have an interest in anything else.
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Maybe I just try avoid people who I think are going to like football?
Yes, some do have other interests, like bodybuilding or tattoos or getting ****ed or the 100&1 things that I'm also supposed to identify with as a male - but just don't. Yes I'm sure they could discuss something else for 2 minutes, but if they can discuss football for 4 hours straight then I class them as having little interest outside football, sorry.

Funny how defensive football people get if someone has a different opinion :)
 
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Try harder to find common ground if you don't like football. One guy in my office hates it so I just speak to him about cinema/films. Another guy music. It isn't hard.
 
Man Utd Vs Chelsea in the 60s/70s: 11 mancs taking on 11 cockneys for the pride of the town.

Man Utd Vs Chelsea in the 80s/early 90s: 22 mostly English players battling for the pride of their club.

Man Utd Vs Chelsea today: bunch of overpaid players from all over the world showing off to try n score their next Ferrari



Give me International level games any day, more passion per game than an entire premier league season!
 
ubersonic said:
Give me International level games any day, more passion per game than an entire premier league season!
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Interesting as I'd say it's going very much the other way. Most players seems to realise that it's the club that pay their wages and have less passion at international level. Obviously there are loads of examples for either side of that argument. England, as an example, seem to lack passion these days.
 
The only problem i have with football are the people who complain 'footballers are paid too much money.'

Footballers are not payed by their club, they are paid, indirectly, by the fans. The cost of that ticket, official merchandise and who knows what else paraphernalia adds up to an insane amount of money. Billionaire russian oil barons dont invest in the game 'for the sport', they do it for the bonkers financial returns. The only reason footballers get payed so much is because year after year, millions upon millions of public money is showered on these crying pathetic ****s by you, the general public.

Its actually become a bit of a class lottery these days. 'Go on johnny! You get good at footy and maybe someday we wont have to live in a 1 bed mud hut!'. Working class dads push their sons into football as a supposed 'easy way out' of class mobility
 
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BunnyKillBot said:
Footballers are not payed by their club, they are paid, indirectly, by the fans.
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Your looking at it wrong, they are paid by the club, and in order to pay them ridiculous amounts the club then charges the fans ridiculous amounts. The was a time where you worse a red/black/blue/etc and white scarf to the game that cost a couple of quid, now club scarf are more expansive (albeit cooler) even when accounting for inflation.

£50 for a man utd home shirt, its extortion, and its extortion the fans have to pay for, who remembers bullying the kids in fake/copy football shifts in P.E? it was/is the done thing, fans that years ago would have been fine wearing the teams official £5/£10 coloured shirt now have to fork out £50 to not look like a *****.

I suppose however it would be fair to say "players are not paid by their club, they are overpaid, indirectly, by the money the club extorts from its fans" that's more apt
 
bitslice said:
You know people like this mate so don't pretend you don't, I've lived in Stoke too. You're more likely to be proffered a random match score from strangers than an opinion of the weather.
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I've lived in Stoke for nearly 53 years (apart from the times in Nigeria) and I can honestly say I've never met anyone who's only interest is football.
While pee'ing in a pub toilet (and I pee in quite a few) I can also say that no stranger has ever spoke to me about football.
The commonest quotes being 'Crap weather' or 'I can't believe I'm pee'ing all this money down here' or other such nonsense things.
 
dmpoole said:
I've lived in Stoke for nearly 53 years (apart from the times in Nigeria) and I can honestly say I've never met anyone who's only interest is football.
While pee'ing in a pub toilet (and I pee in quite a few) I can also say that no stranger has ever spoke to me about football.
The commonest quotes being 'Crap weather' or 'I can't believe I'm pee'ing all this money down here' or other such nonsense things.
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Do you ever make a post that doesn't mention alcohol or pubs? :p
 
Crikey, a lot of football fan bashing in here.

Valid in Scotland there is more than just a conflict of interest and so the rivalry is going to be more fierce. The Catholic/Protestant divide does after all go back a few hundred years, and that's not really something you can escape. It's a bit like every other religious divide in the world, just this one has seemingly manifested itself primarily in football. Although I have to say, certain things such as Asda having to change their logo from green to blue are excessive and not something I think as a Londoner I can fully appreciate.

But as for the general bashing of football fan's themselves. Please get of your high and mighty thrones and do one. Some of the droll I've read on here is ridiculous. No interest in anything else aside from football? Do me a favour, shut up. I'm a football fan and my interests spread a lot further than just football as is the case with many of my mates from a whole range of social class back grounds who also have an avid interest in the game.

Some people just want to hate and despise certain divisions of society purely because they have a dislike for what they associate with. This isn't aimed at OP specifically, but at the general audience who are slating football fans as a whole. I sympathise with OP for the level at which is gets in Scotland, it can't be pretty. But we had the whole extreme hooliganism in England as well and it was stamped out to the best that could be done. If it wasn't for the religious divide in Scotland it probably would be possible to do so there too.

But for heavens sake back of the lot of you. Us football fans don't come to you bitching about how you have no passion for anything and say oh all you're interested in is your politics.
 
n1blo said:
"Watch the football last night?"

"I'm afraid I didn't, though, I take it one team won, or was there a draw? Exciting isn't it, and there will be more games similar to this, on a regular basis?! My god, sounds enthralling. Do tell me more about the teams and their players, I'm keen to learn every possible detail you have about clubs and there... zzzzzz"

I get this on a daily basis, it's never interested me. Just hate how it's meant to be common ground between males. Can't we get something else more exciting?
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Definitely, its a boring load of pish. The whole deluded group achievement thing baffles me as well "YEAAHHH WE'RE GOING TO THE PREMIER LEAGUES WOOO!!" No you're not going anywhere, the team you for some reason support is going somewhere, you are going back to your job at mcdonalds or whatever, nothing has changed or improved for you :rolleyes:

Its 2011, this game is well over 100 years old, its not gonna fly forever. Scotland needs to modernise, from what i can gather we're crap at football anyways god knows why it has such a following...
 
OK, I am not a football fan. In fact I seem to have something missing in my genetics (dad is the same) where I just can't get excited about any form of sport at all, watching or participating..

That aside, while football culture in this country is definitely not ideal, I don't think there's anything wrong with it in general. To say the "upper classes" don't play or watch football is nonsense, although to say that there are many many more who would be considered working class in this country is not nonsense...

It's probably also worth looking outside of the nation, given it's one of the worlds truly global sports, other countries have exactly the same sort of followings as this one. Albeit we do seem to like a fight more in this country than in some others (though that's not just football)
 
J-FRO said:
But as for the general bashing of football fan's themselves. Please get of your high and mighty thrones and do one. Some of the droll I've read on here is ridiculous.
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I don't have a problem with the majority of the fans, I'd say about 90% of my friends are avid followers, no problem with that, as I know everyone has varied hobbies and that's what makes life so interesting! I don't even have a problem with football perse it's just the fact that you, as a male, are expected to know all these intricate details. I'm not interested!

J-FRO said:
No interest in anything else aside from football? Do me a favour, shut up. If it wasn't for the religious divide in Scotland it probably would be possible to do so there too
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Thing is, there isn't a religious divide. It's just idiotic. They don't have a clue about the supposed religion they follow, they never go to church, they just like the fact that they can hate someone and it's accepted. Because if they were to show the same aggression towards other religions they'd be classed as a racist. In summary they are fools.

This only applies to the diehard Catholic, Protestants etc..
 
I much prefer to play sports than watch them. I grew up playing football, cricket and rugby for clubs and i lost interest in sports when i was 16. I still enjoy watching cricket or rugby if its international teams but i won't get annoyed if i miss a game. I like watching international football more than the british premier league. Back in the 90s i was a hardcore fan of man united and used to know all the players and buy books and mags etc. but that stopped when i was 16. My dad supports Middlesbrough and is always moaning about their poor performance. I like the game of football but i don't like where the game is today, they are more celebrities than sports players and the game seems fixed sometimes.

But what i find funny is the way people say "my team" won or lost or "we took a hit", we? you mean the team you support. They speak as if they are a part of the team, fanatical obsession, people are more interest in sports than news that is happening in the world. They speak as if they are actually on the team or they were playing in the game. Mean while they just sat on their chair and watch the TV.
 
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