To cancel plans because of the football?

[XmasConfusion]

Dinner with two school mums next Saturday. Been planned for ages. Don't know them very well..

Me and my family are England fans and been watching and following pretty seriously.

AIBU to not go on Saturday as its England v France?

All of those would be last minute things though.
The football was forseeable to any England football fan.

@WalkingOnTheCracks DH and I had the chance to see a show we've badly wanted to see (it was a cinema showing of the play Prima Facie; one night only at our cinema, which is the only cinema on the island we live on) but we already had long standing plans with people that we value, so we missed it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ah, so the objection is not that it's rude to cancel, but that the situation might have been avoided. If it couldn't be avoided, it's fine. If it could, it's rude.

I don't see how that distinction would make any difference at all to the person who's stood up.

OP - I can 100% guarantee that they will bot invite you again if you cancel.

It's a load of blokes kicking a ball around.

Will you make provision to see this show another way?

@WalkingOnTheCracks The distinction is that it could have been avoided by the OP not making plans when England might be playing, if watching the match is non-negotiable for them. No plans, no cancelling, nobody disappointed, no problem!

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz In the unlikely event our cinema shows it again, or it just happens to be on when we're visiting somewhere else. It's no longer running in the West End so it's down to chance really.

A group of friends invited us to a Christmas do on Friday months ago.

We could have gone but for various reasons declined (too much shit going on in December).

They are going for Christmas Dinner at the local pub which is usually the one with the football on.

We are secretly relieved we declined now, because it will be awful. Poor service and it be so noisy no one can talk to each other and half the group wanting to crane their necks to see the match rather than be sociable.

We dodged a bullet. And instead can cuddle up on the sofa with excessive snacks.

However OP if you cancel and England get thrashed, you are going to regret not going!!!

I wouldn’t have an issue if a friend was meant to see me Saturday night but cancelled because of the football
I’m not a fan of football myself but I get it
If you cancelled the day of the the match I’d be annoyed, someone cancelled on coming to our wedding day because of a boxing match that had been planned for weeks and I wish they had the decency to at least give a weeks notice!

Many people here don’t seem
to understand what ‘guarantee’ means. It
means that in the event of the guarantor being wrong, some kind of recompense will be offered.

OP, should they invite you again, please report back and I’m sure @underneaththeash will be happy to send you a tenner.

So if the cousin from NZ had said, “I’ll try to
call you that week, but can’t promise anything’, it would be rude to cancel
friends because you should have kept the week clear.

What rubbish. You don't know the people concerned and have no idea how they will feel about it. Stop projecting!

@WalkingOnTheCracks If a phone call was as life or death as this 'historic' football match seems to be, then no I wouldn't make plans that might clash with it. Or if the plans were already made I'd say 'Great cousin, it'd be fab to chat, but I'm out from 7-10 on the 10th so won't be reachable then'.

I give up. I live in a world where my friends, and promises I've made to them, come above everything but the most unforeseen / emergency situations. Others clearly do not.

The Twain shall never be friends with each other.

I would have said to friends 'Yes I'd love to go out for a meal, however my cousin from NZ is coming over around that time. I haven't seen her for 3 years and she'll have a pretty full schedule, so I might need to cancel with a couple of days notice. Is that OK, or do you want to wait arranging our meal for another time?'

I will!

The chance of three intelligent women being interested in something so banal is pretty low.

I don't know anyone that isn't at least somewhat interested in the match. Even though some people won't watch it, pretty much everyone will be interested in the result and hoping for an England win.

Are you saying that only the unintelligent would enjoy football, or that anyone (everyone) who enjoys football is unintelligent?

But that still doesn't mean they are petty enough to never invite the OP out again!

Do you think that you sound intelligent by making that comment? You don't, you just sound like a silly snob.

What did you decide in the end OP?
@XmasConfusion

Hellllllo. I was honest. It was all good. Nobody banished me from future social events. We have rearranged for the new year. Phewwwww.

Hurrah! And an indication that you're a good fit with these new friends 😁

Brilliant! Perhaps England will be inspired by your courage and go on to beat France!

But….but…@underneaththeash guaranteed 100% that they wouldn’t! How can things have turned out this way? I mean, guaranteed….