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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not understand all the obsession with footbaall

320 replies

Thomasina79 · 17/05/2025 19:14

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!

OP posts:
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5
MyKingdomForACat · 18/05/2025 14:17

TwistedWonder · 18/05/2025 12:43

Of course they won’t. It’s par for the course on here. Sneering and looking down on people so they can wallow in their imagined superiority

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Absolutely this. Hating on the Euros and the World Cup because it’s beneath them. Two examples I’ve witnessed are from working class women who think they’ve elevated themselves. They haven’t. They just have a deep seated hatred of men because of their fathers. Neither would acknowledge this or even be aware but to have such a hatred of football tells me lots about their characters. It’s the greatest and my team are playing at Wembley next Sunday for a place in the Championship. Fabulous x

cramptramp · 18/05/2025 14:22

It’s either in your heart, or it’s not. I love it. I couldn’t be with a man who didn’t.

whynotmereally · 18/05/2025 14:27

Cososom · 18/05/2025 13:58

Nice backpedal. That's absolutely not what your original post was saying!

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Why would I back pedal? I actually quite like the British pride when we play it n the euros etc. I answered the question the op asked. Correctly.

Americano75 · 18/05/2025 14:41

I think the love of football is in my dna. I had the privilege of watching my team lift the trophy yet again, and it never gets old. Also support Liverpool so it's been a dream season!

Currently got the women's Cup Final on, it's wonderful to see how big the crowd is and how much the women's game has developed in the past few years.

Americano75 · 18/05/2025 14:42

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 14:04

Lovely to see Hibs Women secure their first Scottish league title in 18 years this afternoon.

I didn't get home in time to catch it, what a result for them!

Puttinginthemiles · 18/05/2025 14:49

daisychain01 · 18/05/2025 04:47

It's a waste of life because you have to sit through an awful lot of mediocre dull and boring games as some sort of torturous sacrifice for the odd game like yesterday's Crystal Palace win which was historic. Most Cup Finals are a real let down and let's please not talk about the World Cup, the Euros etc which England always crash out of, after excessive amounts of hype, with flags on every pub and car and then everyone blokes covered in tattoos wearing football strip at the age of 50+ surprised that we lose on penalties. It's so predictable!

Except of course England won their last penalty shoot out in the World Cup and the Euros...

bittertwisted · 18/05/2025 14:52

Cososom · 18/05/2025 13:32

I'm not a fan, but ds and dh are CPFC season ticket holders and were at Wembley yesterday. They had a joyful time!

When I met dh, ds was 8 years old and just starting to get into football. It's the thing that's bonded them together, and it's been so, so wonderful to watch over the years. Ds is now 22 and runs his own Sunday league team, which has also been a fabulous experience for him. He has made such good friends through football and, whilst I don't 'get it' myself, I can absolutely see how love of football has been such a positive for him.

Yes, premier league footballers are certainly overpaid and sometimes terrible role models. No, I don't particularly enjoy seeing fat, bald, tattooed men in ill-fitting nylon football shirts yelling and swearing on the terraces, and some men undoubtedly use football as an excuse to behave like thugs.

But...yesterday was absolutely lovely. Ds and dh haven't stopped texting each other all morning about their plans for European jaunts, and we'll all be going to the open-top bus parade on BH Monday because it will be a fabulous event, once in a lifetime.

Football brings people together, bonds friends and families and creates communities. I could happily live the rest of my life never watching another football match, but I will never sneer because I have seen how it's brought nothing but positivity to people I love.

We get to go to the Liverpool parade on the 26th
been before and it is absolutely wonderful
Your DS will remember it for life

PointsSouth · 18/05/2025 14:52

whynotmereally · 18/05/2025 12:38

Why the shitty reply? Did I hit a nerve? Where’s my pound?

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Whereas the sheep emoji was all rainbows and kindness, of course.

bittertwisted · 18/05/2025 14:57

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 18/05/2025 13:11

I watch rugby and I cannot stand football. The tribalism and grown men throwing themselves about like they've been snippered makes me cringe.
Whereas rugby players take a beating and nearly always respect the ref.
It always makes me smile when you see a great big 6"8 hulking man take a telling off from a wee 5"4 person that he could crush with 1 hand.
Rugby's definitely more respectful

Hate the sneery snobbery of rugby
hated taking my boys training, snobby, cliquey mums
when England won the rugby World Cup my ex husband drank all day with his nice, middle class football hating mates
he came home and tried to kick my 12 week pregnancy out of me

lovely rugby

Kirbert2 · 18/05/2025 14:57

Love football!

My son got incredibly ill and hasn't been able to play but surprised his team this morning for their last game of the season. He got a guard of honour and it was all about pure sportsmanship.

To be fair, I'm not keen on the Premiere League overall. Much prefer the Championship and lower leagues.

My son is a Leeds United fan and I'm....not which makes things a lot of fun too. 😂

Puttinginthemiles · 18/05/2025 16:01

Rugby's definitely more respectful

Towards the referees maybe so. In terms of what rugby players get up to, less so.

Visiblyabove25 · 18/05/2025 16:04

Rugby's definitely more respectful
Towards the referees maybe so. In terms of what rugby players get up to, less so.

This is very much my experience too - having grown up around football, I was shocked & disgusted at the behaviour & attitudes of DH’s rugby club mates.

It still doesn’t mean I don’t “get” rugby though - I see why people like it, it’s just not for me. And this idea that rugby is the “gentleman’s sport” is nothing but classism.

Rewis · 18/05/2025 16:08

Just got back from a football game. Was coaching my team to 4-1 victory. Great weather, hanging out with friends, exercising, winning, feeling the excitement of the game. What's not to enjoy!

MasterBeth · 18/05/2025 16:37

Visiblyabove25 · 18/05/2025 16:04

Rugby's definitely more respectful
Towards the referees maybe so. In terms of what rugby players get up to, less so.

This is very much my experience too - having grown up around football, I was shocked & disgusted at the behaviour & attitudes of DH’s rugby club mates.

It still doesn’t mean I don’t “get” rugby though - I see why people like it, it’s just not for me. And this idea that rugby is the “gentleman’s sport” is nothing but classism.

Edited

Gouging people's eyes. Fingers up the arse. Obscene misogynist locker room culture.

Just because rugby players call the ref "Sir" doesn't turn them into paragons of virtue.

elusiveemz · 18/05/2025 16:53

ACLtrouble · 18/05/2025 12:04

Never have and never will understand the obsession with watching disgustingly overpaid men kick a ball around! Not having to attend matches or football practice sessions that most of my mum friends seem to be begrudgingly stuck at every Saturday morning is one of the reasons I’m very I just have a DD..!

Edited

I bloody love my Saturday mornings watching my son playing football. It's an amazing community (of mums and dads!) and we all get on. My daughter will be joining a Sunday one soon so my entire weekend will be taken over with games, plus the three nights of training....and I can't wait!

Dancer777 · 18/05/2025 17:21

Puttinginthemiles · 18/05/2025 14:49

Except of course England won their last penalty shoot out in the World Cup and the Euros...

Edited
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I was in Moscow to see England finally win a world cup penalty shootout when they beat Colombia.

I suspect they won’t be playing over there again anytime soon so was good to get the chance to go when we did.

Hillarious · 18/05/2025 18:55

Letter in yesterday’s Guardian reads: Our football-mad step-grandson, aged seven,came to stay recently, travelling in one of his many souvenir shirts, a West Ham one. ‘Is someone forcing you to wear that?’ asked the border official. If you don’t get football, OP, that’s fine, but thankfully a lot of us do, and all that is going on in that conversation, and the fact that it happened at all.

NeedAnyHelpWithThatPaperBag · 18/05/2025 19:09

I still think football/sport is the male equivalent of soap operas.

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 19:12

NeedAnyHelpWithThatPaperBag · 18/05/2025 19:09

I still think football/sport is the male equivalent of soap operas.

Plenty of women are interested in football.

TwistedWonder · 18/05/2025 19:14

ilovesooty · 18/05/2025 19:12

Plenty of women are interested in football.

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Agree. I like football and don’t watch soaps.

There’s a lot of outdated, inaccurate stereotyping on this thread

Americano75 · 18/05/2025 19:16

I love football and soaps.

TooGoodToGoto · 18/05/2025 19:16

TwistedWonder · 18/05/2025 19:14

Agree. I like football and don’t watch soaps.

There’s a lot of outdated, inaccurate stereotyping on this thread

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Sometimes I feel watching my team is like a soap opera, but such is the game of football, highs and lows…

Love it though…

BinLordSeverustheMagnificent · 18/05/2025 19:17

Different strokes for different folks.

I’m far from a die hard but I follow my local team and keep an eye on the Premier League. I would’ve watched the FA Cup Final but I was out.

I’m not sure why me and others who enjoy it need to be “understood”.

elusiveemz · 18/05/2025 19:17

NeedAnyHelpWithThatPaperBag · 18/05/2025 19:09

I still think football/sport is the male equivalent of soap operas.

Never watched a soap.

Love football.

House0fBamboo · 18/05/2025 19:24

NeedAnyHelpWithThatPaperBag · 18/05/2025 19:09

I still think football/sport is the male equivalent of soap operas.

Why? I've never watched a soap opera or pretty much anything that isn't the news or sport but love football darts and snooker and I'm female. Ive attended matches since I was 18 months old- took all the children boys or girls and they still attend with me. (None of them inc the females watch soap operas either)

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