To say the anti-football lot need to calm down a little?

[nowillpowernoproblem]

I didn’t stay up for the match because there was no way to make it work with my job, but if I could’ve I would’ve.

I can’t understand the actual visceral anger on here about it? It’s one night - kids won’t drop dead at school, workplaces won’t fail, but a lot of people will have just had a brilliant night.

I just don’t understand why some people can’t accept that others enjoy other things and it doesn’t need to be a big deal?

First post nails it, perfect opportunity to virtue signal how middle class and superior they are
yesterday also gave the gift of lording it over inferior chav parents who cannot parent because they let their children stay up and watch the game

@LuckyHazelFox

Hoping your country get knocked out of a tournament is not a healthy attitude. Sorry but anybody holding those views really should be nowhere near teaching/coaching/aspirational roles. Nobody has to like the game or the tournament, of course not, but the dramatics about the world cup are ridiculous.

I don't hope my country gets knocked out of the tournament, I actively want them to win, but I can understand people who do. It's so all-encompassing that I can understand wanting a break from the endless discussion and preoccupation about it.

I don't think its 'unhealthy' to know your own mind, to know what you do and don't like and to want a bit of headspace for the things you care about without being constantly corralled into having to follow something you don't. I actually think this is a far healthier mindset than just having to go along with supporting England because everyone else around you is doing it.

Some people don't feel any particular affinity with being English, it's irrelevant to their sense of self and that's OK. Some people don't particularly care about football and that's also OK. Why do you want everyone to be like you?

Which other events would you like to see pubs opening for? I can only really think of other sporting ones, any artistic ones aren't going to pull in the numbers for an individual show/series of shows to make it economical

Can if you want, but people don’t have passion, their choice I suppose?

If the cap fits...

You’ve no idea how many people are sleep deprived on any given day, those with young children etc.

Im not sure it’s something to overly concern yourself with.

Do you worry on New Years Day?

In one sentence, you've just undone all your hard work in trying to rationalise your loathing for England football.

Exactly. A lot of parents to young children are sleep deprived for weeks, months, even years!

People have late nights because they’re at events all year round. Others have insomnia. There are loads of reasons why people won’t have had much sleep for a night, or longer.

They’re still all out on the roads.

Some people are ridiculous.

I enjoyed the game (already up anyway) but saying that people who don't enjoy football are just trying to be superior or unique is ridiculous. No, plenty of people really don't like football. Not everyone likes the same thing.

Typical anti football reaction! I wonder if Prince George was allowed to watch, he seems a keen football fan…

Ashes cricket when the matches are in Australia. Rugby World Cup when matches are in the summer hemisphere. Ryder Cup.

There's loads of sporting events that are 'national' in the same way. But we don't do it for any of those.

My dad was a builder, my mum was a cleaner, we never had foreign holidays (didn't have a UK one until I was 13). Our house was rented. We're as working class as you can get and my dad had no interest in football either, nor did four of his other five brothers.

It doesn't have to be about class at all.

You know as well as I do that many of the posts on here are based in snobbery. The mention of professions, tennis, rugby etc.

As for the DV connection, I agree that when violent men watch football and likely consume far too much alcohol, then DV increases. The root cause is still violent men, very sadly (I'm a DV survivor myself) these men get even angrier at football and DV increases. I don't know what the solution is, unless men stopping hitting women.

What doesn't get talked about is all the incredible work football community organisations do. Some examples of what my - small - EFL club does through programmes and events:

Supports young adults who aren't in work

Gets south Asian women and girls into sport

Delivers an intervention programme for primary children with emotional and social issues or at risk of exclusion

Supports women to improve their mental health

Get school children of all ages active by delivering sessions at schools

Runs schemes for excluded children

Gets children age 9 - 10 moving and learning.

Holding rehabilitation courses for people diagnosed with cancer

Running holiday clubs

This kind of stuff happens every day at every football club in the country, but it never gets mentioned on here.

That poster I quoted has positioned everyone who doesn't want to watch football 24/7 as 'middle class' and 'virtue signalling'.

The prejudice is isn't with me.

Your sample 'most girls' and 'a very large number of boys' is not borne out by the ones going to the local High School and Primary School this morning, they generally looked beyond excited and pleased with the result, if they had watched the match live I am jealous of their stamina!

Fantastic post. We should all be a little more toolioo 😍

Olympics when that’s in an inconvenient time zone as well.

I’m indifferent to football, will probably watch the final if England get that far but that’s about it. It does annoy me that the country seems to stop for very minor matches and that there is an assumption that everyone should be interested just because some people are.

I haven’t watched any of it- it’s not difficult to ignore.

As for the DV connection, I agree that when violent men watch football and likely consume far too much alcohol, then DV increases. The root cause is still violent men, very sadly (I'm a DV survivor myself) these men get even angrier at football and DV increases. I don't know what the solution is, unless men stopping hitting women.

100% agree that the fundamental problem with DV is the men who do it, and also with the good things clubs do in the community.

The downside of football specifically is that it has become in our culture a sort of Saturnalia where rules don't apply any more and all the normal controls and brakes on male behaviour especially come off.

Emotions are wilder, drinking is harder, bad behaviour is acceptable, because hey, it's football and passions run high.

Well, I live opposite one of the most (if not the most) flagged buildings in London. There was massive screen outside, and shouting and screaming ended at 4am. My alarm rings at 5:30. I wish I also had a choice of NOT knowing what the score was, and generally not knowing about football. I didn't choose to stay up until 4, yet still feel like a zombie thanks to someone else's "consideration ".

Exactly this.

I'm quite into gaming, but I don't think anyone would find it acceptable if I stayed up for a 1 am drop and then screeched my way through the first playthrough and ended the playthrough by loudly singing the theme tune to the game whilst managing not to hit a single note.

Cracking up at the poster expecting London to stay silent during an important match. You choose where you live, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.

And if that poster is a care worker/nurse/surgeon/truck driver who accidentally kills someone's loved one because they're too tired to concentrate at work, I suppose that's OK because it was England and it's important?

Perimenopausal women up and down the country are driving quite capably surviving on hardly any sleep. The drama 😆 🤣

That’s because they are not as popular as football.