To not understand all the obsession with footbaall

[Thomasina79]

Live and let live and I understand people love it, but it’s a mystery to me? DH has been glued to telly today watching Crystal Palace!

Different people like different things.

It's been a brilliant football season. I'm actually feeling a bit low that next week is the last week.
So many amazing players, some great teams coming through to the top of the premier. I'm a championship team fan, so we didn't get much glory this year. But it's been a joy seeing Palace, Forest and Brentford do so well.

I hate everything about football. The game, the man-babies who play, the ridiculous amounts of money involved, the drinking culture, the violence, the passion for something so ridiculous. I can't believe that grown adults worship it. It does make me judge people, and I would never, ever be friends with someone into football.

I wish people would be passionate about something worthwhile instead of what they put into a ball game.

Ridiculous amounts of money aren't involved in all levels of football. Not everyone is a Man City glory supporter (Man City is a bad example this season but generally).

People not into football don't see the many great things that football does too.

One Crystal Palace player funded the women’s team for a year when they were struggling. Another CP player has just announced he is putting his money into a 120 bed shelter for South London homeless. Eze and co regularly work with young people with learning disabilities through the Crystal Palace Foundation.

And the fans, despite living in an area sneered at as a national joke by people who don’t live here, are not known for bad behaviour, and were seen with bin bags collecting rubbish after they gathered in Central London yesterday.

How very dreadful 🙄

@BangersAndGnash not answering the question.

I love everything about football.

I've got friends who aren't interested in football. None of them are judgmental, closed minded and sneering people though, thankfully, and are happy enough to be friends with me, enjoy our mutual interests and see that I'm a person who's more than my football affiliation.

That's nice for you. I'd rather be sneery and judgy ☺️

Yes, I get so very tired of Croydon being vilified all the time. There are a lot of good communities here. I am so happy for all my Palace friends and spent the game on the edge of my sofa. The pics of people litter picking in Covent Garden were great.

I happen to love Aston Villa, Tolstoy, MAFS, Sophocles in the original Greek, Eastenders, a full 5 day test match, Rachmaninov, drum and bass and scampi fries amongst many other things.

Most people can't be put in a box.

Also, DP's team lost in the play off semis this week, which we watched with beer. He managed not to hit me. It had never occurred to me that he would.

Knock yourself out. 🙄

What a sad, sad loss your friendship is to all those football fans.

I expect they're heartbroken. 🤣

Are you always this sexist?

My DD plays football in two teams and for the school. I love watching her play. The England women won the Euros. Chelsea women won the FA Cup today. The days of football only being for boys or men are long gone.

I love football and hate soaps. Am I now a man?

I must be non binary! Must put in an order for blue hair dye.

Sobbing and shaking over here!

Not being sexist, simply speaking the truth that a far larger proportion of boys and men play football than girls and women. DD is an equestrian and it’s no lie that females vastly outnumber males in the sport. If you think that a fact is sexist then that’s your own issue..

I wish people would be passionate about something worthwhile instead of what they put into a ball game.

I'm not a football fan but I don't think I'm better than them or that my hobbies and interests are more worthwhile.

Some of the nicest, most interesting people I know also happen to be passionate about football.

Some of the ridiculous, sneering comments on this thread have made me determined to take more interest in football next season. I think that as a 50-something lover of Italian opera and Taylor Swift, Michelin stars and McDonald's, David Graeber and Jilly Cooper, etc etc, it would be an interesting new diversion. Something to distract me when I'm a bit bogged down in my PhD, perhaps.

Honestly - 'I would never, ever be friends with someone into football'? And yet I bet you bemoan the 'tribalism' of football, don't you?

Most adults understand that people are complex and, as @murasaki says, can't be put into a box. Others, it seems, don't have that level of insight.

Of course it’s sexist. You are glad you had a DD because girls don’t like football is completely sexist. By your logic a far larger proportion of women are nurses than men therefore nursing is a profession for women. The world has changed since the 1950’s, you really should try and keep up with it.

I have completely changed my mind and will not, now, be renewing my season ticket.

Perhaps you could give us list of approved worthwhile passtimes so I can select one to replace the void that football will leave behind?

Because different people like different things…🙄

I manage to go and watch my team home and away and never resort to drink or violence. Though the drink might well have helped this season to be fair. A quiet reflective shandy and get ready for new grounds this season .

And all this aside, it wouldn’t stop us being friends. If anything, would give us a reason to be friends, and that’s the beauty of football.