Anyone here like f**tball

[Mich the Tester]

I'm sick and tired of the press coverage and obsessive idiots wobbling on about it constantly.

…and the primitive predecessors of the modern gorilla who went on the rampage in Amsterdam Central Station last Thursday before some f**tball match, terrorizing train passengers, singing songs about gassing Jews and generally making a pain in the arse of themselves.

…and the scumbag tulipepants who beat up the referee of a nearby club’s under 9s (yes, under 9s) after his son’s goal had been disallowed.

[DS23]

i really enjoy the world cup and i maintain a modicum of knowledge so that i can have a conversation with those who have the obsession but otherwise it's boring and boorish. i'm in the client co fantasy league just for a larf. last time i looked i was holding the wooden spoon. i anticipate that i will be keeping it come the end of the season.

[Doggy Styles]

I'm a season ticket holder at a lower league club. I also enjoyed playing the game. So yes, I like f**tball.

If the hooligans and other morons weren't doing bad things around football, they'd do it elsewhere. In fact, many of them probably do.

[norrahe]

In answer to the original question.

Not at all and I couldn't care less if it ceased to exist completely.

I'm sick and tired of the press coverage and obsessive idiots wobbling on about it constantly.

Well said.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm a season ticket holder at a lower league club. I also enjoyed playing the game. So yes, I like f**tball.

If the hooligans and other morons weren't doing bad things around football, they'd do it elsewhere. In fact, many of them probably do.

Don’t tell me football clubs don’t encourage the tribalism. The incessant merchandising of new shirts with one puny stripe altered to sell whole new kits to kids whose parents can’t afford it but don't know any better. The cheap, naff showboating rituals of the players after they’ve scored one measly point. The constant arguing and even shoving around directed at the referee. The pretence that football companies are ‘clubs’ (althought they maybe once were) when actually what you’re watching is reds against blues in a competition of multinationals even less meaningful than arguments about whether to fill up at Shell or BP. The chav players with their abysmal taste in show off bling. Football companies and football contractors (professional players) do very well out of encouraging poorly educated thugs in search of an ‘identity’ to spend all their income on crap that identifies them as part of one particular tribe. The fact that the very same people enjoy beating up the members of the other tribe is obviously neither here nor there, because if the FA or any other football organization gave a stuff they’d start by forcing football companies and contractors to behave like professional sportspeople on and off the field.

Nothing wrong with the concept of a kickball game, but a lot wrong with how it's run.

[Doggy Styles]

Of course clubs actively encourage tribalism, that's the point of having supporters.

They don't actively encourage violence though. They actively discourage it.

Tribalism occurs in all walks of life, most violently amongst rival street-gangs and mischef-makers in towns and cities throughout the country which have no connection to football. Some people are like that.

It's no surprise football gets its share of nutters, because more people follow that than any other sport.

[Incognito]

Don’t tell me football clubs don’t encourage the tribalism.

The fact that the very same people enjoy beating up the members of the other tribe is obviously neither here nor there, because if the FA or any other football organization gave a stuff they’d start by forcing football companies and contractors to behave like professional sportspeople on and off the field.

Cricket

Rugby

Tennis

Volleyball

Sorry, what's your point caller?

[Mich the Tester]

Cricket

Rugby

Tennis

Volleyball

Sorry, what's your point caller?

You’re pointing to isolated, but indeed ugly incidents in other sports. Football has a constant structural problem and as far as I can see it’s doing nothing to get rid of it.

[cojak]

I enjoy f**tball (Mr C doesn't).

On more than one contract where I've had to work away I've specifically picked a pub showing footy, to go in, eat and have a beer without stares or unwanted attention.

These types of pub are non-sexist in my experience - you're there because you like to watch a game or two. And it's been the case in Germany, Switzerland, Brussels, Bristol...

There is a definitely etiquette as well. You're looked upon favourably if you quietly clap a good defensive play, irrespective of who the defenders are...

[Incognito]

You’re pointing to isolated, but indeed ugly incidents in other sports. Football has a constant structural problem and as far as I can see it’s doing nothing to get rid of it.

It's unfortunate because you could argue that football is the most followed sport in the world going by weekly attendances. Now out of that bad element, you could put them in a church on a Sunday and they'd still end up fighting with someone. You can't blame the sport, you blame the society. Look at Japan, I very much doubt the concept of hooliganism has reared its head in the J league (however with the advent of the EPL that may change)