World Cup- is it really all that?

[RebeccaBunchLawyer]

Just that really.

A group of lads dashing around after a ball, on a patch of grass.

Am I missing something? Why is it so exciting? Is it the actual game, or the fact that it only happens every 4 years? Also, these young men are paid more per week than most hard-working folk (with
proper jobs) earn in a year, so surely they should be winning the odd match anyway?

Why are people so delighted when they actually win? Have I just answered my own question??!

Yabu. I'm sure there's things you like that other people don't get.
I'm not a football fan but I will watch the England matches with my kids and partner who are fans, and I'm happy when they win.

Yanbu Op, i totally agree, i hate football, yes even the world cup, it means nothing to me. I also hate the ridiculous wage they're paid, at the fans expense. I know lots of people love it, but i don't understand why. Lke you say, it's just kicking a ball.

Rosesgarden. Do you read books, watch TV, Listen to music? Just curious

Ah, I see from you’re post history you like Coronation Street.

From this point forward I shall ignore the World Cup and i shall embrace the vastly superior cultural benefits of watching The Street.

So op why don't you tell me what you love doing / watching / playing and I'll make that sound crap too and wonder why the hell you like it

OP, there are a lot of people who do very little work and get paid excessively for what they actually do, not just footballers.
Most CEO and MDs of large corporations for a start.

I'm not into football, but even I watch the England games with any family who are around at the time. Not through patriotism but sharing family experiences, sharing whats important to others.

Usernumbers1234, first of all, it's DailyMailBestForBums, as in, it's only fit to wipe my arse.

Secondly, maybe you should be "disgusted" by the perpetrators of violence, rather than those of us who call it out. My own anecdotal experience is of women treading on eggshells because their husbands' teams lose. Those husbands get angry and lash out. I've seen it linked to alcohol and I've seen it in teetotal houses. It's just an excuse for violent males to attack their women, but you saying football isn't responsible won't stop women being assaulted.

Excellent example of the culture of violence in football is how aggressive and defensive your post was, when I mentioned the proven correlation between football and DV.

And I'm as entitled to hate it as you are to like it...

Lke you say, it's just kicking a ball.

Yes. Yes it is.

Like William Shakespeare just put some words on paper.

Like Mo Farah just puts one foot in front of the other.

Like Meryl Streep just pretends to be someone else.

Like Lewis Hamilton just drives a car round and round.

Like Mozart just put some musical notes together.

Most things can be broken down to just something. But just because you don’t ‘get’ something, doesn’t stop it meaning a great deal to a lot of people.

I’m not a football fan, but I can appreciate a good game. What I don’t do is to dismiss football, or other things that I don’t particularly enjoy, as just....

So you don’t get it. You don’t have to.

If you don’t like football then you’ll never understand so no point trying to explain. You could say the same about tennis or any other sports competition. Everyone is our house loves football except my DS, who said exactly what you did. We watch every match we can during normal football season it’s what we like.

Dailymailbestforbums (fair correction! I did think mums was strange...)

Obviously I’m disgusted by the perpetrators, don’t be silly now.

I’m sure it happens, I’m sure teetotallers commit DV too. I’m sure you have some anecdotal evidence about football fans.

On average, England loses a game once or twice a year. If that, and most of them are friendlies that nobody cares about. We lose one tournament game that means anything once every 2 years (longer actually if you take account of tournaments we don’t qualify for). That’s 5 days a decade.....and World Cup football is a major of domestic violence is it?

If England didn’t enter tournaments at all would domestic violence reduce by 40% like the post I keep seeing claims? Of course it wouldn’t.

You’re blaming the wrong thing.

*is a major cause

Surely if you have a modicum of intelligence you can understand why lots of people relish a thing that you personally don't?

Dailymailbestforbums

Also “proven correlation to domestic violence and football”

Please link me to the evidence

I hate football, just absolutely cannot stand it,

I haven't had to watch a single second of any game (XH was very into football)

Only DD2 and me in the house, and she hates it as much as I do. No problem with others enjoying it, it just doesn't impact on us at all. I couldn't even name any current player of any team, anywhere in the world

I'm Scottish, and even if Scotland were playing and brought home the World Cup, I still couldn't care less

Still being defensive, User. Why do you care what i think anyway?

And as for the statistics, you have access to the same internet as me...

Yanbu.

dailymailbum- You seem to be confusing disagreement with being defensive.

and I’ve googled it extensively and all I can find is:

DV reports increase during major football tournaments by 30-40%
Alcohol consumption increases during major football tournaments by 120-140%
Alcohol is a factor in over 35% of domestic violence reports.
Christmas and New Year see a markedly higher increase of domestic violence reports than we see during major football tournaments.
Domestic violence is just as much of an issue in cultures where football isn’t the main sport. In fact more so (USA, India).

Not a single study makes a scientific conclusion that Football Causes Domestic Violence. They state that there is an increase in reports.

Correlation is not Causation.

Why do I care what you think?

I don’t really. But this is a forum for exchanging views and I care about that. I’m not arrogant enough to just post my views and not read and try to understand others and if possible to learn more about a topic.

I’ve had some interesting exchanges with people who work in DV about the subject on the other thread and elsewhere. they have said they haven’t seen anything like the increase in this tournament so far, granted England haven’t lost a game that mattered yet. But they feel it’s more to do with games kicking off earlier in the working day when most are at work and the games are over by 845.

Whilst other recent tournaments have been 4pm 630pm and 830pm kickoffs, resulting in far more extensive drinking sessions and the problems that brings for DV. Like every Christmas Day, when there’s no football on.

I don't enjoy football as a rule. I like the World Cup a little though and I am cheering England on.

I don't enjoy any sport but I understand why others do because I am not hard of thinking

There is a direct correlation between football and increased DV, that’s a fact.

I say that as a football fan, and as a woman.

Dickheads are to be found everywhere, and in my experience DV perpetrators will find any excuse, XH wasn’t a football fan but managed to batter the shite out of me whenever it suited him.

DP and I happily watch football together, no DV of any kind in our relationship.

However, I do not dismiss the well publicised links between football and domestic violence.

Hating football because of it is a bit daft though, unless you hate pubs for the same reason, or anywhere that sells alcohol (also a direct correlation between alcohol and DV).

Hate the perpetrators, not the crappy excuses they use for being abusive fuckers.

usernumbers1234 Nothing wrong with watching the odd soap. Apart from being a bit of escapism, sometimes (but not often now) reflecting real life. On the other hand, grown overpaid men (earning more than top surgeons) kcking a ball around a field......

How could you be bothered looking up my posting history, just to make that point.

usernumbers1234 Nothing wrong with watching the odd soap. Apart from being a bit of escapism, sometimes (but not often now) reflecting real life. On the other hand, grown overpaid men (earning more than top surgeons) kcking a ball around a field......

How could you be bothered looking up my posting history, just to make that point.

Good post unicorns. I still think the correlation/causation is blurred massively by the linkage to alcohol.

But you are absolutely right. The issue is the perpetrators, not the excuses.

And what exactly are the cultural benefits of watching football?

Nothing wrong with watching the odd soap. Apart from being a bit of escapism, sometimes (but not often now) reflecting real life. On the other hand, grown overpaid men (earning more than top surgeons) kcking a ball around a field.....

I find superiority contests about who has the most worthy viewing schedule utterly barmy. It doesn’t make you more interesting. It makes you different. It’s fairly puerile denigrating what other people enjoy though.