Anybody else dislike football.

[Imtoooldforallthis]

I know iabu so please don't tell me so. But I'm struggling with my husbands love of watching football. I know its really popular but I just hate the mob mentality around watching it. I'm also a bit envious that he has this passion and that he can literally talk to anyone anywhere. We are currently abroad and there is a big match on that is shown in most bars, we have arranged to meet his friends and it will be all about the football, even the wives don't seem to mind it. I feel very out of it. Does anyone else feel the same?

And complaining about the cost of policing in preventing violence and "killing each other" is particularly ironic when the biggest loss of life at a football game in the history of this country was as a result of decisions taken by the police, not by fans.

What absolute nonsense. Considering you hate the game how much time do you spend listening to the players being interviewed to have formed this opinion? I'm guessing not much!
There are very bright footballers just as there are very bright people in any sport. Remember also that many of the players you see discussing a match are doing so in their second language.

@thevegetablesoup

🤍❤️🖤 See you next season
Both our teams will hopefully finish better
😂 x

@JackGrealishsCalves - great name 😉

I love football, I always have, it’s been a constant in my life and my team have always been there. I have a season ticket and also work in the industry so I pretty much live football.

just to give you the flip side of liking something your partner dislikes. My ex used to take the piss and laugh at me when my team lost and just generally make me feel inferior for having an interest he didn’t. It really wears you down after a while. So what I would say, is find a partner who has no interest either, or just let your partner enjoy it even if you think it’s shite.

@MyCatsAreFuckwits yes let's hope so!

You're a wrong @thevegetablesoup. Comparable sized events that are not football do not have anywhere near the level of police resources that football does. As a taxpayer it's annoying when police resources that are funded by all of us are used in such numbers for a sport.

If the football clubs paid the full costs then it would be be such a problem but they don't.

It's is true re the cost of football for policing and other public services. It's disproportionate.

I saw some of the women's game a year or so ago by chance and was surprised that it was a fast-paced, fair, mildly entertaining event. So far from the men's game which I've tried to appreciate but have ended up loathing.

It's tribalism and because it's corrupted by disgusting amounts of money, it's almost irredeemable. You can't hero worship mortals, deify them almost, invest billions of pounds in a culture and it not end up in the state it is. Any sport I do watch, the hook is always the skill, the humanity, the joy. Football I can't watch, literally or figuratively, without seeing the violence, the entitlement and waste.

Football isn't just a sport, it's a snake eating itself and the domestic violence, misogyny, corruption and exclusivity mean I can't have anything to do with it. I deliberately chose a DH who had no interest either.

I agree to an extent re corruption and exclusivity @ShowOfHands but that applies to the clubs at the very top, particularly the top 6 and then the premiership. That is 20
Teams, out of hundreds of clubs in the country. Many hundreds of thousands of us watch lower league teams and despair of the corruption at the very top.

There certainly is some misogyny as there is in wider society. But I don't think the problem is a football one, rather a male one. As you say the woman's game is different.

The policing costs.....as a taxpayer I want people to be able to go about their leisure activities safely whether or not I have a personal interest in what they are......some clubs certainly could and should contribute to costs. But it's just not the case that football fans are mostly warring tribes "who try to kill each other".

I somethings think snobbery towards football is thinly veiled snobbery towards working class people.

Am working class myself. Not snobbery. The game is boring. I literally can not focus for more than 2 minutes because nothing happens. Also all the tribal mentality that goes with it can cross over from annoying to umpleasant if you do not share the feeling.

Each to their own though, and unless it is brought up i do not express my opinion. But it is not snobbery.

Yes, I am an echt prole, and from an area that has produced two very famous Premier League footballers (in fact DH used to play schoolboy leagues with one before he was scouted), and I find the whole thing pretty unattractive.

I hate it and so does dh. Due to this it also means that dc have never shown an interest. We are a happy football free home 😊

I somethings think snobbery towards football is thinly veiled snobbery towards working class people.

I do think there’s some truth in this actually and I speak as someone who finds football very tedious.

The way football players and fans are automatically written off as stupid is pretty suspect.

Actually the strategy of football requires a huge amount of intelligence, patience, tactical ability and emotional literacy.

Someone up thread was taking the mick out of footballers for being dull but they’re not employed for their knowledge of politics or philosophy or avant garde art. Meanwhile the same charge is rarely levelled at cricketers or tennis players.

I'm a man and dislike football. This is particularly annoying at the barbers or in taxis as football seems to be the default conversation starter, if you need to make small talk with a man you don't know. Drives me insane as I couldn't give a shit.

This is a vote for football. I support a non league team who are playing for promotion on Monday. My club is a community club, we host Andy's man club, yoga and lunches for our mature people amongst many other events.

Yes we like a drink on match day but the quality of football is fabulous without the EPL histrionics. I've found a real friendship and support network. It's so far removed from millionaires football

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4917096-does-anyone-else-really-dislike-football

Identical thread by me a whole back!

Like football and tennis and Badminton. Hubby likes all sport especially football.
Sky Sports is great.
Better than watching soaps, reality shows, and programmes on murder.

I grew up in Manchester and merged moss side riots with the football hooliganism that was going on then. Bloody hated it.

have come to see its benefits as ds is into playing it and has a lovely group of mates he plays with.

I've learnt to do other things when it's on, swimming, dog walking, anything really. I have asked though that dh let's me know in advance so I can plan something but also, I don't just turn the tv on at 12:30 and sit for 2 hours ignoring everything and everyone. I used to find it a bit unfair with small kids if he suddenly wandered off to watch it, and weirdly rude before kids.

Was chatting to a fellow mum of younger kids who DOES love football but she's not the one who's off to matches. Dh has a season ticket and leaves her with the kids while he's off to the buildup and the match and then post drinks most weekends. I pointed out it perhaps should be shared. Esp as they're both full time.

I've been defending football during this thread and realised I've forgot to mention that my husband actually hates football 🤣🤣

It's not an issue in our marriage though, and it certainly wasn't a pre-requisite in a relationship that the other person liked or disliked football, I find that really odd. We have plenty of other interests in common.

This.

I feel a bit sorry for you not being able to entertain yourself for a couple of hours on holiday.

Even the village team I see in passing are a bunch of oafish prima donnas. And the language from the players is utterly disgusting, with young families watching. The youth teams are almost as bad. Thankfully DH prefers rugby.

I hate this snobbishness from so many rugby followers.
I watch one of my dc play football and one of my dc play rugby most weekends in season.
It is a complete myth that there are fewer prima donnas in rugby. It is 100% a fallacy that there is less bad language from rugby players or rugby fans.

Me and DH love it. We don't support the same team so there is probably twice as much of it watched/listened to/talked about at home.
What makes me laugh is the assumption that only football has its hooligans. Rugby fans can be absolutely awful. Stuck up twats singing about bestiality and shooting your load in a toad, swilling down the bitter like there's no tomorrow.
That and the idea that the players are all thick. It's true that they are not academics. Many of them are bilingual though, some can speak three or more languages.

I hate it with a passion. I grew up in Glasgow where football and sectarianism are intertwined and that turned me right off the game from an early age. The tribalism gives me the boak. I don't understand how people can get so worked up about something they aren't directly involved in. I despair at the number of people I've known that can name every player in the team they wank over but couldn't name the current home secretary or chancellor.

Exactly this

I loathe it.

Our whole life is governed by dh's bloody team, he has seats in the director's box. No business call is made without discussing the previous day's match, he just assumes everyone else is as into it as him (and they seem to be!) This will be my life forever I think.