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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that there are a lot more pressing legislative issues than footballall

58 replies

BlowDryRat · 20/04/2021 16:28

Apparently PM Johnson is looking at using legislation to stop English clubs joining the European Super League - BBC News. I can't help but think that there are issues that have been waiting for years for legislative attention and should be prioritised over sodding football. The state of the housing market, sexual crime reform, women's rights, child poverty...

AIBU?

OP posts:
HunterHearstHelmsley · 20/04/2021 17:25

It is massively important to a lot of people. Myself included. I care more about football than the housing market.

HeartsAndClubs · 20/04/2021 17:33

I’m no football fan but this has to do with far more than just those 6 clubs.

Thousands and thousands of jobs will be lost, and the fact that there essentially won’t be leagues any more because they’ll have nothing to play for could affect football right from grass roots level, and that includes e.g. football in schools where many children who are in poverty find the only activity they can compete in, and potentially be good at.

While most people realise that they will never make it big in football, do we want a system such as exists in the US where you have to gain a scholarship to be recognised rather than be recognised during your general playing of the game?

dementedma · 20/04/2021 17:37

Football has only been about money for years and is corrupt as hell. The fans who have been happily stumping up stupid amounts of money on replica kits at exorbitant prices and paying sky high prices for season tickets have been feeding this beast. Dont complain now that it bitten you.

ilovesooty · 20/04/2021 17:45

@ssd

It might not be important to the great and good of mn, but it is important to an awful lot if people eg. The fans

But let's all trash football,eh??

Might be different if it was rugby??

Exactly. I don't actually believe a word Johnson says but this is very important to me.
aiwblam · 20/04/2021 17:49

Like everything these days, it’s about one thing: money.

Crosstrainer · 20/04/2021 17:49

@RedHelenB

Yabu, he'll go with whatever he thinks will get him the popular vote!
Spot on....
dreamingbohemian · 20/04/2021 17:52

No one is saying it can't be important to you

It's just galling to see the government drop everything and hold crisis talks and promise immediate action, when they're doing fuck all about things that are actually killing people

Newrumpus · 20/04/2021 18:02

The timing is shocking but you need to blame ESL for that. If action isn’t taken until the pandemic and a wide range of other social problems are completely resolved, it will be far too late. I don’t for a minute trust Johnson on this nor do I symptomise with EUFA, however action does need to be timely.

campion · 20/04/2021 18:05

Smoke screen. Popular vote.

Isn't this an example of capitalism, something Johnson espouses?
What it's got to do with the government completely escapes me.

I don't hold any brief for football but UEFA, the FA etc should be the ones to deal with it. He'll probably end up making matters worse.

MyNameIsArthur · 20/04/2021 18:05

I'm rather annoyed the coronavirus press briefing was hijacked by questions about football. I think it was very bad taste

CarmelBeach · 20/04/2021 18:20

@dementedma

Football has only been about money for years and is corrupt as hell. The fans who have been happily stumping up stupid amounts of money on replica kits at exorbitant prices and paying sky high prices for season tickets have been feeding this beast. Dont complain now that it bitten you.
Well yes.

It's like if events groups got a contract to support particular singers who would only use particular venues. Jobs would be lost etc. But would government interfere there?

I doubt it. I am just baffled by the whole thing.

Football has been about money since I was a little kid....probably before.

Some posters have said their team is one of them. What's the effect on season tickets etc?

JustAnotherOldMan · 20/04/2021 18:23

It’s got nothing to do with Football and everything to do with politics, couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the Tories, the Government will ‘make a stand against Europe’, to garner public support (3 of the clubs are in the Red Wall North now under Tory control), and show how they in step with the common person and not a bunch of cronies after all.

topcat2014 · 20/04/2021 18:24

I accept that football is important to a lot of people, but I fail to see why some peoples choice of leisure activity is anything to do with the state.

Same goes for all culture. Just leave the people to it. Should be nothing to do with state administration.

DynamoKev · 20/04/2021 18:28

YANBU
Its ridiculous all the fans moaning, too.
Stop buying the £100 tickets and the £100 replica kit and paying sky hundreds. Stop it now or else your herd-like devotion will just perpetuate the gouging. There’s only one way back to it being a grass roots game rather than expensive advertising and that’s fan power (if its not already too late)

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 20/04/2021 18:32

Financially it's very important, money is what it is all about. It's not about the football for the government. This could quite easily ruin the English game which means lots of losses of jobs, money and so much more.

Lucyccfc68 · 20/04/2021 18:49

It’s a global, multi billion pound business.

Just because you don’t like football, doesn’t mean it’s not important.

Boris does need to piss off though. He is using this as an opportunity for votes. He is desperate, after the absolute balls up he and his government have made of Covid.

CarmelBeach · 20/04/2021 18:54

@WhenISnappedAndFarted

Financially it's very important, money is what it is all about. It's not about the football for the government. This could quite easily ruin the English game which means lots of losses of jobs, money and so much more.
But they don't care about that

It's capitalism surely? Just like they don't care about job losses on the high street. As long as they get their money, they don't usually interfere.

I'm also thinking it must be populist. I didn't watch the presser but I can't believe journos asked about it there!

DuchessOfBuggerAll · 20/04/2021 19:02

This is all very convenient for BJ isn't it? Takes the minds of the proles away from the real pressing issues. Wouldn't surprise me if he'd had a hand in cooking it up.

JustAnotherOldMan · 20/04/2021 19:12

@DuchessOfBuggerAll

This is all very convenient for BJ isn't it? Takes the minds of the proles away from the real pressing issues. Wouldn't surprise me if he'd had a hand in cooking it up.
BoJo is using it as his ‘We will fight them on the beaches” moment, to the millions of football fans (voters)

We shall fight them in the changing rooms
We shall fight them in the dugout and technical arena
We shall fight by passing out from the back and spreading the ball across the park
We shall never surrender to the ESL

Fluffinell · 20/04/2021 19:28

Genuinely surprised at the responses. I thought there would be much more widespread support for the Govt stepping in on this. For those saying it’s not a Govt matter, it is. It’s a DCMS matter. Its worth over 20 billion per year for the economy. We need it. As an aside, I want my kids to be able to access sport in the future also. We’d lose so much with a Super League. Separately a thing that really annoys me about it is someone being quoted as saying (something like) it’s the future fans that matter, not the legacy fans. They wouldn’t be where they were without their ‘legacy’ fans Angry

ginghamstarfish · 20/04/2021 19:35

I agree, can think of few things less important for the government to be doing.

CarmelBeach · 20/04/2021 19:40

But so would every other matter be under DCMS.

Not saying it's never happened but I am not aware of them ever getting involved when cinemas became largely unstaffed, when large production companies bought others, potentially putting people out of work.

This morning, I kept thinking I must be missing something commercial, but increasingly it sounds like a good populist bandwagon.

CarmelBeach · 20/04/2021 19:41

Sorry, I thought I had quoted Fluffinell.

Justanotherlurker · 20/04/2021 20:05

Where are they treating it as a top priority, do you have problem multitasking and think that all of Government is suddenly sidelined into this rather than your pet project?

You being outraged over this says more about your lack of understanding of not only government workings rather than Boris making a 5 minute statement that he will pass over to some of the civil service to look into.

CarmelBeach · 20/04/2021 20:25

@Justanotherlurker

Where are they treating it as a top priority, do you have problem multitasking and think that all of Government is suddenly sidelined into this rather than your pet project?

You being outraged over this says more about your lack of understanding of not only government workings rather than Boris making a 5 minute statement that he will pass over to some of the civil service to look into.

But that means we pay billions more to consultants when we are all in dire straits money wise

Because of changes in football! It doesn't need to be on a government list at all.

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