Anti football thread ahead of the WC. What a surprise. Millions actually enjoy it, and will watch it. Those that don't, don't watch it. Soaps are on my telly everyday, along with reality crap. I don't watch any of it.
It's purely a mechanism for inadequate heterosexual males to display a tribal pack mentality and utilise a latent aggression that in times past would have been expended over defending personal territory, or the fruits of hunting.
Why inadequate? Why heterosexual? Why male?
The rest is right, but you're just as bad, as exposed by my questions above.
Anti football thread ahead of the WC. What a surprise. Millions actually enjoy it, and will watch it. Those that don't, don't watch it. Soaps are on my telly everyday, along with reality crap. I don't watch any of it.
I think these threads are funny! Football has an ability to move people in a way that no other sport does, hence all these threads from people who claim to not care. I don't know about you but I don't start threads or read threads about things I have no interest in, yet people fall over themselves to tell us they don't care about football. That's the power of the number one sport in the world! Even funnier is people who have no idea about the game giving their ignorant opinions, such as the chap above who thinks only one player is involved at a time, or people like trevgo who think football fans are 'inadequate' (and also only male and heterosexual for reasons known only to himself) but wouldn't dare to generalise about other groups of people.
Anti football thread ahead of the WC. What a surprise. Millions actually enjoy it, and will watch it. Those that don't, don't watch it. Soaps are on my telly everyday, along with reality crap. I don't watch any of it.
It's not that football is a terrible thing, just that it's vastly overhyped and has way more money and media coverage put into it than it objectively deserves compared to other things.
As was said the pack mentality aspect is a major part of it, people aren't anywhere near as interested in games not involving their side. The nationalistic aspect no doubt links to that too, though I don't like flag waving and football has less of that in most ways than the Olympics, as people are far more interested in their local teams than the national side anyway. Opening ceremonies are always largely a political statement, a big reason I dislike them. And of course politics links to corruption as money inevitably gravitates to such events, as seen with both The World Cup and The Olympics.
Football has an ability to move people in a way that no other sport does
I don't see how that's the case at all. There's just a bigger coverage of it which might give that illusion. It can be a very annoying sport with referees deciding games, that's the main emotional element I think.
One of the best things about the WC is it's ability to annoy those who don't like football! Particularly those who look down their noses at it and think they're being clever.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion of course but it gets the coverage it does because an awful lot of people love it. It has the power to emote like nothing else.
Please tell me I'm not the only person who thinks this. Every match looks the same to me, and it honestly bores me to death. My geography teacher is making me watch all of Italy's matches as a part of a school project, ugh.
<sigh> No, you're not the only one Josh. We've had a "I hate football" thread here now almost daily for a while, and will no doubt have them all through the tournament.
Please tell me I'm not the only person who thinks this. Every match looks the same to me, and it honestly bores me to death. My geography teacher is making me watch all of Italy's matches as a part of a school project, ugh.
Football is brilliant but I prefer rugby! I can't wait for the world cup
I have zero interest in football. I'd honestly rather watch grass die.
I'd sooner resit all my A-levels consecutively than watch a single football match.
People wonder why would anti football fans want to create a thread discussing something they are purportedly not interested in, that in itself is the fascination, why ARE so many people so fascinated by football, how does it get and maintain its power?, it's this that creates the interest in those of us not into football because we just do fundamentally don't get why it manages the status and power that it has.
What to me that is infinitely more fascinating than actually watching a football match, is trying to work out exactly why it is so popular and why it manages to work so well as an obsession that the mainstream media is complicit in, you don't get all that coverage for video games and tech and many people with a highly focused special interest are looked down on by mainstream society, and yet if you claim you are a football obsessive then you have a get out of jail free card.
I just know I am going to find "Football Hooligans and Proud" fascinating when it is shown on Channel 5, and it is precisely for these reasons.
Main thing with the World Cup is at least it's free to air, getting behind a local premiership side seems disingenious at best, they are effectively corporations competing against each other for how much money they can throw around to lord it over the rest doing much the same thing, calling entities like Manchester United FC and Liverpool FC "football teams" just scratches the surface of what is really going on.
People who play down the park in little local leagues for the love of it are football teams to me, everything else that represents "football" in the mainstream media to me isn't true football, You can have a rich oligarch from Russia swoop down and lift a team like Manchester CIty FC from near obscurity to top of the Premier League football using raw money as shorthand for actual sporting skills, who in their right mind would want to get behind that?
The mentality of a football fan that internalises the struggle of the team they identify with into their own personal self, meaning that for them the team's ups and downs form part of their own personal life ambitions and dreams is something that is particularly bizarre to those of us who don't "get" football culture.
Getting behind England would be just the same thing, it is a bunch of millionaires and rather arrogant players just as in the Premiership teams that they come from.
If you support "England" and this turns out to be the World Cup that becomes another 1966, just how does that make things better, England have won cricket as a team before but life went on, if England FC won, how would that help us prosper as a country, we've proved we're better at kicking a ball round with a certain amount of skill than another country for a few minutes, now how about bringing back a formidable manufacturing economy, some incredible innovations in science, technology and engineering, and bring back a thriving film industry that can challenge Hollywood, THEN would be when England has truly WON something!
China is winning the real world cup,
So apart from having a look at how foreign broadcasters cover it on my multi sat, I will with a passing interest, hope an underdog country wins, and I hope England lose, which is more interesting to me.
I guess a lot of people not into football hope England lose which gives us a little bit of interest in the match!
Please tell me I'm not the only person who thinks this. Every match looks the same to me, and it honestly bores me to death. My geography teacher is making me watch all of Italy's matches as a part of a school project, ugh.
I hate football if a teacher tried to make me watch football when I was at school I would have not done it,I would tell them there is another show I watch that is on at the sametime.
ITA Howard, it's not so much the sport it's the media circus that comes with it. I can switch off the game but it saturates so much on tv. 10 minutes of the news dedicated to it, analysis programmes, adverts, newspapers, World Cup specials in comedy shows, magazine shows and the inevitable repeats of '66. Football fan heaven but pretty dull for the rest of us, more so when it's not your own national team playing.
I'm not interested in football, even less so when it's other countries football. You have to be a real footie fan to watch the Italian league and the likes. Hoping for decent weather so I can get out and about and let the fans enjoy it without being irritated at the media!
Yes, but rugby union is a much more complex and involving game for a spectator. it requires a large number of players to be actively involved at any one time (rather than just the guy with the ball, in soccer) and has far more strategy and tension, too.
There are many other advantages, both for teams and the audience. However I doubt that many here could ever get past the "it's just fighting" level to appreciate it fully.
Thats the biggest load of crap i've herd for a while
One of the best things about the WC is it's ability to annoy those who don't like football! Particularly those who look down their noses at it and think they're being clever.
No, I think the Premier League annoys plenty more people, including many football fans in lower divisions, and even those in it who know they will always be also rans just struggling to keep up. They need to learn about the excitement of parity and how this has made the NFL successful.
I am not a big fan of football to be honest; I much prefer watching cricket or rugby... and went to a polo match last weekend which was really fun (and at one point a little scary when the ponies charged straight at me as I sat by the boundary).
I might watch a match or two at the World Cup though if there is one that people say might be exciting.
I don't understand why people who dislike football to moan so much about it though - its a few weeks every couple of years when it dominates the media but it doesn't take much effort to avoid it if you want to.
I don't really understand the need to define yourself by the stuff you don't like. If I did that, it would be a very, very long list.
For what it's worth, I have found I can watch any sport (apart from sailing) at a high level (World Championships / Cup / Top level league), but I have enjoyed football at every level from kids, through non-league and all the way up to the Champions league and World Cup. There are a number of reasons for this:
1) At it's core, it is a very simple game. 1 ball, 2 goals, 22 players. Apart from the offside rule, everything else is pretty obvious
2) It has the balance of team effort and individual brilliance/skill. Great teams become more than the sum of their parts. Great players can drive their side to glory (Maradona in 86 for example)
3) The range of sizes involved. Compare Crouch to Messi in stature. Rugby used to have that, but the backs now are massive.
4) The fact you could be a few seconds from a goal at any point. The play moves faster than other games, and all it takes is one killer pass, one slip, and the chance is there. At the end of the previous League 1 season, promotion was decided by one team hitting the bar with a penalty, and the other then running up the other end to score.
5) Every goal matters
6) More chance of an upset - compared to any other team sport, there is more chance of an underdog winning a game in football than any other.
This is why football is popular. And because it is popular, the media will give it more coverage than any other sport.
But if you don't like football, the answer is simple. Don't watch it (there are hundreds of channels, thousands of other things to do). Don't talk about it. Most people are bright enough to know that if someone doesn't like a topic, you don't discuss it with them. After all, I don't talk about BGT, soap operas, ballet or anything else I don't enjoy
Football at the top level can be sublime. When the likes of Suarez, Aguero, Hazard, et al are buzzing, it can be great to watch. However, lower down the Premiership, and then below that, it can be extremely boring. If you measure in goals scored, you could call that exciting, but skill levels vary enormously.
Comments
Why inadequate? Why heterosexual? Why male?
The rest is right, but you're just as bad, as exposed by my questions above.
I think these threads are funny! Football has an ability to move people in a way that no other sport does, hence all these threads from people who claim to not care. I don't know about you but I don't start threads or read threads about things I have no interest in, yet people fall over themselves to tell us they don't care about football. That's the power of the number one sport in the world! Even funnier is people who have no idea about the game giving their ignorant opinions, such as the chap above who thinks only one player is involved at a time, or people like trevgo who think football fans are 'inadequate' (and also only male and heterosexual for reasons known only to himself) but wouldn't dare to generalise about other groups of people.
It's not that football is a terrible thing, just that it's vastly overhyped and has way more money and media coverage put into it than it objectively deserves compared to other things.
As was said the pack mentality aspect is a major part of it, people aren't anywhere near as interested in games not involving their side. The nationalistic aspect no doubt links to that too, though I don't like flag waving and football has less of that in most ways than the Olympics, as people are far more interested in their local teams than the national side anyway. Opening ceremonies are always largely a political statement, a big reason I dislike them. And of course politics links to corruption as money inevitably gravitates to such events, as seen with both The World Cup and The Olympics.
I don't see how that's the case at all. There's just a bigger coverage of it which might give that illusion. It can be a very annoying sport with referees deciding games, that's the main emotional element I think.
Much of what I learned about geography was through football.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion of course but it gets the coverage it does because an awful lot of people love it. It has the power to emote like nothing else.
<sigh> No, you're not the only one Josh. We've had a "I hate football" thread here now almost daily for a while, and will no doubt have them all through the tournament.
"All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football" - Albert Camus
I can agree with that and I watch a lot.
I'm surprised more people don't mention this.
I forgot the rest :kitty:
Football is brilliant but I prefer rugby! I can't wait for the world cup
I'd sooner resit all my A-levels consecutively than watch a single football match.
It's June. Teacher's have pretty much given up by now.
it's just the constant media circus that follows it.
What to me that is infinitely more fascinating than actually watching a football match, is trying to work out exactly why it is so popular and why it manages to work so well as an obsession that the mainstream media is complicit in, you don't get all that coverage for video games and tech and many people with a highly focused special interest are looked down on by mainstream society, and yet if you claim you are a football obsessive then you have a get out of jail free card.
I just know I am going to find "Football Hooligans and Proud" fascinating when it is shown on Channel 5, and it is precisely for these reasons.
Main thing with the World Cup is at least it's free to air, getting behind a local premiership side seems disingenious at best, they are effectively corporations competing against each other for how much money they can throw around to lord it over the rest doing much the same thing, calling entities like Manchester United FC and Liverpool FC "football teams" just scratches the surface of what is really going on.
People who play down the park in little local leagues for the love of it are football teams to me, everything else that represents "football" in the mainstream media to me isn't true football, You can have a rich oligarch from Russia swoop down and lift a team like Manchester CIty FC from near obscurity to top of the Premier League football using raw money as shorthand for actual sporting skills, who in their right mind would want to get behind that?
The mentality of a football fan that internalises the struggle of the team they identify with into their own personal self, meaning that for them the team's ups and downs form part of their own personal life ambitions and dreams is something that is particularly bizarre to those of us who don't "get" football culture.
Getting behind England would be just the same thing, it is a bunch of millionaires and rather arrogant players just as in the Premiership teams that they come from.
If you support "England" and this turns out to be the World Cup that becomes another 1966, just how does that make things better, England have won cricket as a team before but life went on, if England FC won, how would that help us prosper as a country, we've proved we're better at kicking a ball round with a certain amount of skill than another country for a few minutes, now how about bringing back a formidable manufacturing economy, some incredible innovations in science, technology and engineering, and bring back a thriving film industry that can challenge Hollywood, THEN would be when England has truly WON something!
China is winning the real world cup,
So apart from having a look at how foreign broadcasters cover it on my multi sat, I will with a passing interest, hope an underdog country wins, and I hope England lose, which is more interesting to me.
I guess a lot of people not into football hope England lose which gives us a little bit of interest in the match!
Only 15 months to go!!
I hate football if a teacher tried to make me watch football when I was at school I would have not done it,I would tell them there is another show I watch that is on at the sametime.
I'm not interested in football, even less so when it's other countries football. You have to be a real footie fan to watch the Italian league and the likes. Hoping for decent weather so I can get out and about and let the fans enjoy it without being irritated at the media!
Thats the biggest load of crap i've herd for a while
No, I think the Premier League annoys plenty more people, including many football fans in lower divisions, and even those in it who know they will always be also rans just struggling to keep up. They need to learn about the excitement of parity and how this has made the NFL successful.
I might watch a match or two at the World Cup though if there is one that people say might be exciting.
I don't understand why people who dislike football to moan so much about it though - its a few weeks every couple of years when it dominates the media but it doesn't take much effort to avoid it if you want to.
I can kick a ball around a pitch if anyone wants to pay me millions.
No you can't
For what it's worth, I have found I can watch any sport (apart from sailing) at a high level (World Championships / Cup / Top level league), but I have enjoyed football at every level from kids, through non-league and all the way up to the Champions league and World Cup. There are a number of reasons for this:
1) At it's core, it is a very simple game. 1 ball, 2 goals, 22 players. Apart from the offside rule, everything else is pretty obvious
2) It has the balance of team effort and individual brilliance/skill. Great teams become more than the sum of their parts. Great players can drive their side to glory (Maradona in 86 for example)
3) The range of sizes involved. Compare Crouch to Messi in stature. Rugby used to have that, but the backs now are massive.
4) The fact you could be a few seconds from a goal at any point. The play moves faster than other games, and all it takes is one killer pass, one slip, and the chance is there. At the end of the previous League 1 season, promotion was decided by one team hitting the bar with a penalty, and the other then running up the other end to score.
5) Every goal matters
6) More chance of an upset - compared to any other team sport, there is more chance of an underdog winning a game in football than any other.
This is why football is popular. And because it is popular, the media will give it more coverage than any other sport.
But if you don't like football, the answer is simple. Don't watch it (there are hundreds of channels, thousands of other things to do). Don't talk about it. Most people are bright enough to know that if someone doesn't like a topic, you don't discuss it with them. After all, I don't talk about BGT, soap operas, ballet or anything else I don't enjoy