Reply to: Football - Played, watched and run by idiots

[original PM]

well that escalated quickly!

[shaunbhoy]

true dat!

Brazil are great at football - but how did they do in the olympics?

Ditto Italy and France.

Yeah. And they are sh!te at World Wars too!!!

[original PM]

true dat!

Brazil are great at football - but how did they do in the olympics?

Ditto Italy and France.

[Doggy Styles]

But 14th when it is the sport your whole country is crazy about and virtually everyone plays as a kid?

Isn't that a tired argument?

There's 100 other countries whose kids play it just as much, and none of those countries are diluting the talent pool by trying to be competitive across the range of sports that we are.

[original PM]

That's equally the case in the UK, hence why players have a reputation for being thick chavs.

yes but there is a difference here - many of the uk's young footballers fail to make it but do end up with careers etc and at the very least they know they can go on the rock n roll.

in the developing world it could literally be the difference between life n death.

[d000hg]

Add in the fact that for some of those kids it is the only way they will get out of poverty

That's equally the case in the UK, hence why players have a reputation for being thick chavs.

[original PM]

But 14th when it is the sport your whole country is crazy about and virtually everyone plays as a kid?

yes but you will find that in almost all developing countries football is a major sport as it needs very little equipment.

Add in the fact that for some of those kids it is the only way they will get out of poverty and you have some pretty strong reasons why En-ger-land are not the best - merely very good.

[Mich the Tester]

You take it too seriously sas.

You all take it too seriously. It's only kickball. Much less important than riding bikes, running round in circles, knock over the three little sticks, hit the little ball in the little hole and chase the egg.

[d000hg]

I thought a stato like Sas would realise that 14th out of 207 is pretty good, that's the lowest England have been in a long while.

But 14th when it is the sport your whole country is crazy about and virtually everyone plays as a kid?

[Doggy Styles]

At least in England, this is true. I note from some of the threads that England-Scotland was 3-2.
The fact that we were stretched by such a poor team proves my point.
We should just abandon football - we've proved that intelligent application and money can make England a world beater in any other sport we choose.
The only one that resists is football as it is run by a bunch of self-interested, old-fashioned cretins, watched by thickos who don't mind paying a week's salary for a ticket and played by a bunch of narcissistic, overpaid mediocrities who fondly think they are "world class".

You take it too seriously sas. I enjoyed a good game of football last night for its own sake. Rankings and expectations don't come into it.

Money drives all sports. In all those other sports the money is generated by the national team, so they call the shots. That's not true of football.

[shaunbhoy]

Speaking of thick managers:

BBC Sport - Man Utd: David Moyes criticises Premier League fixture list

Luckily he's Scottish, perhaps they don't teach probability at school there.

Yes. Just the latest in a long line of thick Scottish Managers that have seen that proud footballing institution languish in the doldrums for so long.

[Doggy Styles]

Agreed, 11 asides should be scrapped for kids.

They did that at least 10 years ago, probably more.

I don't know about the country as a whole, but it's everywhere I've seen kids football played in my area.

Our local club runs more than 20 teams of various age groups under 12, and play 7 or 8 a side on smaller pitches with small goals. Obviously the other clubs in the area they play against do the same, including those over in Luton.

[gingerjedi]

I thought a stato like Sas would realise that 14th out of 207 is pretty good, that's the lowest England have been in a long while.

[d000hg]

Speaking of thick managers:

BBC Sport - Man Utd: David Moyes criticises Premier League fixture list

Luckily he's Scottish, perhaps they don't teach probability at school there.

[quackhandle]

Agreed, 11 asides should be scrapped for kids.

Also parents should not be allowed to attend these games, they are often hurling abuse at the kids and punch ups are fairly common.

Madness.

+1 The reason why I quit being a coach, didn't do it to argue with parents. I realised I liked coaching but hated being a manager. The league I was in had mini soccer (6v6) for under 10s. This was good, however the under 11's was straight to 11-a-side, full pitch, big goals. No wonder some kids move to another sport.

10 yrs ago I coached at a soccer school down south for two years, it was all about having fun not goals or results and ALL the parents were brilliant.

qh