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To not understand all the obsession with footbaall

320 replies

Thomasina79 · 17/05/2025 19:14

Live and let live and I understand people love it, but it’s a mystery to me? DH has been glued to telly today watching Crystal Palace!

OP posts:
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5
ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 13:40

ACLtrouble · 18/05/2025 13:38

Care to elaborate?

If you can't see the cliché and dismissive sneering in your post I doubt I can enlighten you further.

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 18/05/2025 13:40

Love/hate football. It annoys me when my team have a mehhh attitude and just kick the ball without purpose but when they look like they care..

It can give you goosebumps! Staduim vibes. Love it.

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 13:39

TwistedWonder · 18/05/2025 12:43

Of course they won’t. It’s par for the course on here. Sneering and looking down on people so they can wallow in their imagined superiority

That's why I said that the patronising sneerers would pop up. And they have.

ACLtrouble · 18/05/2025 13:38

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 13:36

More clichés and sneering.

Care to elaborate?

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 13:36

ACLtrouble · 18/05/2025 12:04

Never have and never will understand the obsession with watching disgustingly overpaid men kick a ball around! Not having to attend matches or football practice sessions that most of my mum friends seem to be begrudgingly stuck at every Saturday morning is one of the reasons I’m very I just have a DD..!

Edited

More clichés and sneering.

Cososom · 18/05/2025 13:32

I'm not a fan, but ds and dh are CPFC season ticket holders and were at Wembley yesterday. They had a joyful time!

When I met dh, ds was 8 years old and just starting to get into football. It's the thing that's bonded them together, and it's been so, so wonderful to watch over the years. Ds is now 22 and runs his own Sunday league team, which has also been a fabulous experience for him. He has made such good friends through football and, whilst I don't 'get it' myself, I can absolutely see how love of football has been such a positive for him.

Yes, premier league footballers are certainly overpaid and sometimes terrible role models. No, I don't particularly enjoy seeing fat, bald, tattooed men in ill-fitting nylon football shirts yelling and swearing on the terraces, and some men undoubtedly use football as an excuse to behave like thugs.

But...yesterday was absolutely lovely. Ds and dh haven't stopped texting each other all morning about their plans for European jaunts, and we'll all be going to the open-top bus parade on BH Monday because it will be a fabulous event, once in a lifetime.

Football brings people together, bonds friends and families and creates communities. I could happily live the rest of my life never watching another football match, but I will never sneer because I have seen how it's brought nothing but positivity to people I love.

JackGrealishsCalves · 18/05/2025 13:18

CordeliaChaste · 18/05/2025 10:42

Can’t bear laddish football culture. It’s gross. And imagine caring about 11 millionaire strangers so much? I can’t comprehend. People feel such a need to ‘belong,’ it’s low self esteem.

Oh Cordelia, you have completely shown yourself up to know absolutely fuck all.

  1. Not all footballers are millionaires.
  2. Most of us went with our parents and got hooked into their team.
  3. Our parents/grandparents certainly didn't follow millionaires as they didn't exist back then.
  4. It's a social thing, nothing to do with self esteem and is a family thing.
  5. Without fans smaller clubs would go under and communities would suffer.
But take the award for most predictable post of the day 👏
Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 18/05/2025 13:11

I watch rugby and I cannot stand football. The tribalism and grown men throwing themselves about like they've been snippered makes me cringe.
Whereas rugby players take a beating and nearly always respect the ref.
It always makes me smile when you see a great big 6"8 hulking man take a telling off from a wee 5"4 person that he could crush with 1 hand.
Rugby's definitely more respectful

bittertwisted · 18/05/2025 13:08

I love football
lifelong Liverpool fan (am a scouser)
3 obsessed sons
i want palace to bring their historic cup to anfield on Sunday, when Liverpool lift the Premiership trophy
going to the match with my boys is magical

JackGrealishsCalves · 18/05/2025 13:08

I love both football and cricket, you must really think I'm weird.
I support a different team, football and cricket, to DH and DS so it makes for some interesting conversations.
I dated a guy once who wasn't into sport, it was very boring.
MN does make me laugh when it comes to football, you never see posts started about how people hate tennis and find it boring, the snobbery is very real 😅

Dancer777 · 18/05/2025 13:07

I follow football closely and can honestly say it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done.

I’ve been to well over 500 games in the UK and around 100 games overseas including many World Cups and European Championships.

I have met some wonderful people who will remain lifelong friends. I’ve visited places I’d never normally visit and have made memories to last a lifetime.

I feel very lucky.

tobee · 18/05/2025 13:07

Waves back @Matchingcollarandcuffs !

Zoflorabore · 18/05/2025 13:02

DuncinToffee · 18/05/2025 10:30

My (mens) team is playing their final game at the ground that has been their home since 1892.

If you want to know what it means to the fans, just read the many stories they are telling.

My son is there and said everyone is crying 💙 COYB

TonTonMacoute · 18/05/2025 12:58

I don't share it (I find football incredibly boring as a sport) but I get pretty hooked on the Tour de France when it's on, so I understand it.

ZoggyStirdust · 18/05/2025 12:55

whynotmereally · 17/05/2025 20:37

Societal conformity 🐑

Oh how clever, call people sheep (or do you use the word sheeple)

why so sneery? I presume all your interests are so much more…individual…

TwinklyFawn · 18/05/2025 12:48

I love football. I support Newcastle United. I hate tennis with a passion though. It would be boring if we all liked the same things.

JockTamsonsBairns · 18/05/2025 12:46

Also, I'm not sure about the "vile culture"?

This isn't Milwall in 1986.

My son and his pals frequently go to watch our nearest local club, Darlington FC.
£5 to get in, a few hundred fans, and they enjoy seeing the game.

Nothing vile about it.

spoonbillstretford · 18/05/2025 12:46

There are threads every five minutes on Mumsnet moaning about how people are so isolated and that nothing exists now which brings people together.

Yet when people talk about being part of a football community then they are accused of following the crowd and conformity. A sixth form debating society would do better.

TwistedWonder · 18/05/2025 12:43

spoonbillstretford · 18/05/2025 12:39

I hope the bigots and haters will actually learn something from the more informed posts on this thread. They claim to be against prejudice and hatred but are putting the boot in online and are exemplifying what they are supposed to hate. Pun intended.

Edited

Of course they won’t. It’s par for the course on here. Sneering and looking down on people so they can wallow in their imagined superiority

JockTamsonsBairns · 18/05/2025 12:42

I'm a massive football fan, and have been for 50+ years. I can't imagine my life without it.

My club hasn't done very well for several years now, but still, I persevere.
Because it's not just about the winning, or the trophies - it's given me so much more than that.

DH and DS2 are Man Utd fans, and go to home games regularly. I support a different club, but no longer have a season ticket unfortunately.
DS1 supports the same club as me, so there are interesting times in our family!

I don't need anyone to understand my obsession with football, but I do take exception to the snobbery and sneering that goes on.

It's a traditional 'working class' game. But, that's fine. I'm working class, and I don't feel ashamed of that.

DH and DS2 are also big cricket fans. I hate cricket - but I don't need to 'understand' their love for it?

We're all different.

spoonbillstretford · 18/05/2025 12:39

I hope the bigots and haters will actually learn something from the more informed posts on this thread. They claim to be against prejudice and hatred but are putting the boot in online and are exemplifying what they are supposed to hate. Pun intended.

Kago2790 · 18/05/2025 12:38

I mean look at these Palace fans at the final whistle:

https://x.com/MenInBlazers/status/1923815059534524841

It can bring great joy and camaraderie.

https://x.com/MenInBlazers/status/1923815059534524841

whynotmereally · 18/05/2025 12:38

PointsSouth · 18/05/2025 11:47

Golly, that's an acute insight. And so utterly without precedent. I'm going to have to take that away and give it serious thought. I mean - gosh. I feel this might be a turning point.

Well done! Here's a pound.....

Why the shitty reply? Did I hit a nerve? Where’s my pound?

Shivermetimbers0112 · 18/05/2025 12:25

MoistVonL · 18/05/2025 11:50

I don’t like it because the performative dives and play acting around trying to get a penalty are stupid and childish. Rugby players are actually bleeding and still want to get back in the game.

It just taints the whole thing, rolling around like a whiny brat when there’s nothing bloody wrong with them.

But that’s ok, I don’t have to like it. Plenty of other people do.
There are loads of things in the world to enjoy, I don’t need to personally approve of all of them.

Nonsense…..

To not understand all the obsession with  footbaall
JockTamsonsBairns · 18/05/2025 12:10

Jabberwok · 17/05/2025 21:02

It's about belonging, the communal spirit. The skill, the passion, the highs and all to often, the lows.
it's about your community, your town, your city, or it was until money, the mighty mammon destroyed the top tiers of the game.
It's about the mate who's surname name you don't know but have stood near for 20 years, watching his children grow and leave home and now he's bringing the grand kids.
It's about the shared release of a goal. Of shared despair at one conceded.
It's about crying as a 45 year old man as your team drop out of the league without shame or embarrassment.
It's about your left back scoring with his right boot to promote you for the second season in a row, closing part of the city with your calibration. It's about winning 7-0 to pip another team to go up. It's about Wembley victory and defeat.
It's about raising money for the lad who played 500 times for your team and can't afford a special bed for his illness.
It's about Bradley Lowery, Hillsborough, Bradford, Heysel.
It's collective feeling, love and hate.

Is football a matter of life and death, no its more important than that.

I love this 💙

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