To wish the people screaming outside would shut up?

[Notcontent]

Yes, I do understand that people are excited about the football, but it’s Tuesday night and my DC, who is completely exhausted, has to get up early for school - the rather scary shouting has just woken her up. Yep, I know someone will say I should move to the middle of nowhere. I would love to - as many people would - but sadly that’s not possible.

Mumsnet really has opened my eyes to how many utterly joyless people there are around.

What a pompous, depressing thread!

Don't like football? Fine. Don't have to but don't you dare look down on people who like it as if they are sub species.
I am 46 and have loved football since I can remember. I stood in the kop when ian rush scored the winning goal against Everton in the 1980s. I have screamed and cried over football. Bloody love it! Been to Wembley several times. Football transcends classes, if they even exist. I'm about as middle class as they come! I'm a married mum of 2 who's a partner in an accountancy practice.

I hate tennis. It's people with bats hitting a ball back and forth. But good god if England had a player in the end stages of Wimbledon playing in the evening I wouldn't begrudge the fans their joy at seeing them win.

Most on this thread are arrogant and superior. Not my sort of people dontcha know

@Sheldonoscopy sorry! I couldn't help but laugh

It's not that I object to other people enjoying themselves - there are loads of stupid, pointless things that other people like (whether it's sports or various TV programmes or fucking spa days.) It's the bullying conformism of those people who act like taking an interest in sport is compulsory.
It's the tiresome nationalism and thuggery associated with this shit - as far as I know, a lot of those who are good at football generally travel from country to country for work, don't they? I'm sure I remember some fairly famous footballers emigrating because they good jobs with football teams in France or Spain or wherever (and good luck to them - it's not a longterm job so you might as well make the most of it while you can) yet all of a sudden it's supposed to matter which country you were born in.

The 2012 Olympics were boring, too, but it's quite interesting that people talk about it being 'happy' for 'everyone'. We were easily able to ignore it; there wasn't as much noise and fuss, and there definitely hadn't been this awful upsurge of nationalism, which is giving the whole business a really worrying edge this time round. There are going to be people who will see the English footballers kicking a ffew more goals as some kind of pro-Brexit 'sign', and there are likely to be more outbreaks of foreigner-bashing this time round.

I see the usual has started in Colombia though. The players who missed penalties have received death threats. And they'll be taken seriously, as the player who scored an own goal in previous World Cup was murdered for it.

I gather last night there was headbutting, cheating, rolling around on the floor in fake agony and taking for ever to get back up after a slip, and even Southgate admitted that he's told "our" team to use that sort of behaviour because that's what other countries do. Heard it discussed on Five Live.

Yeah, beautiful game.

What a bunch of misery guts. I don't follow football generally but I am with the rest of the country in supporting our boys. IT IS COMING HOME and deal with it!

I make no distinction between people boring on about football, cricket, tennis, darts or polo. They are all equally fucking irrelevant to me. The constant boring on about it is a nuisance, and the way social events can get spoiled by people insisting that they be allowed to watch sports on television in the middle of a party, or sulking all the way through something they would normally have enjoyed because there's no tv/wifi or whatever and there's some unexpected extra sport thing happening.
Those of us with other hobbies don't make a big deal out of harassing everyone else to watch us, watch stuff with us, listen to us talk endlessly about the thing we like to do and then get rude and aggressive when other people are clearly bored.

Those of us with other hobbies don't make a big deal out of harassing everyone else to watch us, watch stuff with us, listen to us talk endlessly about the thing we like to do and then get rude and aggressive when other people are clearly bored.

Not all sport fans are as you describe. Most even. Also loads of people are hobby bores, it's ridiculous that people only do it around football, Olympics etc.

And most people don't become aggressive. Aggressive people will use sport as an excuse. But they will use anything as an excuse to be aggressive.

I'm in Scotland, people here are really, really pissed off that England won lol

Good

Mumsnet really has opened my eyes to how many utterly joyless people there are around

Yup. I feel sorry for them tbh.

There are going to be people who will see the English footballers kicking a ffew more goals as some kind of pro-Brexit 'sign', and there are likely to be more outbreaks of foreigner-bashing this time round.

Oh, how ironic that the Guardian had an op-ed that said the england team where more representative of the remainers. This fear of national pride from a sport is mostly only against the English, it ignores the rise in nationalism across the world by those supporting their national team.

This is exactly the point - being completely uninterested in sports doesn't mean your life lacks 'joy' - why would it? There are lots of people for whom sport is simply irrelevant: we just get fed up of other people going on and fucking on about it and trying to make us care about who did what with a ball at some point.

MrsArchchancellorRidcully if mumsnet had a like button I would like your post.

I'm well aware that nationalism is a problem in other countries - but so far, the UK is the only place dealing with a clusterfuck like Brexit, which has really let the vicious xenophobic morons off the leash.

Really? People try and talk endlessly to you about football?

I find it easy to avoid Wimbledon. Occasionally someone might say "did you see the tennis?" and I say "no was it good" and they might tell me about it. It's called a conversation!

This is exactly the point - being completely uninterested in sports doesn't mean your life lacks 'joy' - why would it?

No one has said that. But seeing your arse, because other people are happy about it and are celebrating does make you a joy sucker.

Jesus, you can't enjoy the England team playing because of brexit.

I have heard it all now

Reanimated I know what you mean. I have a hobby, others don't share it and aren't really interested; so I wouldn't talk about it to them unless they asked. I don't think they are odd for not sharing my interest or try and persuade them they are wrong. Whereas apparently I'm bloody weird for not having an interest in football and finding it dull, and they can find nothing else to talk about during major tournaments.

Football and everything it stands for is vile. If you can get that excited over a bunch of overpaid babies kicking a bag of gas around some grass, it's you I feel sorry for.

Move to Scotland - we're greeting up here! Greeting = sobbing. Even I'm supporting the England team this time. What a load of old miseries on here. ReanimatedSGB You take the prize

I don't mind the shouting. My kids do but they're both misery guts at the best of times. They were whining on Sunday that someone was having a BBQ in their garden. A BBQ, in the sun, on an afternoon. Oh the horror. They'd make good mumsnetters one day.

I mind that my birdbath has been knocked over and broken but that's as likely to be the neighbours cat as the neighbours football or one of their football loving friends, so I'm not going to kick up a stink about it.

What I don't understand is the way people talk/feel about the players.

"Our boys"
"So proud."
"National Heroes."
"Make your country proud, boys"
etc.

1. They're not boys, they're men.
2. They're not yours. You don't even know them.
3. Proud? Meh, I suppose I kind of understand. I think it's ott but I get it, sort of.
4. Heroes? Really? Seriously though? What's heroic about kicking a ball about for ninety minutes? I mean, yeah, it's talented but it's not heroic. They haven't scaled a building to rescue a toddler from a balcony, they didn't run into a burning building to save the neighbour's kids from a house fire. They're not in a war zone fighting to protect innocent people. They're kicking a ball into a net. By all means, be happy for them but try to stick within the realms of reality.

If you are in any social setting, someone will come up and say something about the sport event. You say, politely, that you don't know, it's not your sort of thing, and try to make an equally civil small-talk remark about the weather, or 'How do you know [party host] then'. But the person gets all butthurt and 'How can you not watch [uninteresting sport]? What's WRONG with you?' Or they just start going on about what happened and who said what and why this is going to happen next.
At least among actual friends you can say, oh piss off and bore someone else with it without them having a meltdown.

I had five days of horrendous insomnia and just as I was just falling asleep at last my children screamed the house down and what seemed like the entire street.

I was just very happy they won and it was nice to hear so many people happy. The screams didn't last long. I even got the energy to call my son and sang 'Three Lions on our shirt' to him.

I am not that interested in football myself but I am always happy for others and as long as the noise doesn't go on for long it doesn't bother me.

I agree about the Olympics, it was so boring. All those weird little sports especially .

I dont mind football and if people want to make a bit of noise and enjoy a few beers why shouldnt they? Its not every day.

I think I might be offended about Scottish people though. I'l go and have a think about it.