OTT attitudes to World Cup

[Idontpostmuch]

AIBU to think the OTT attitudes to the World Cup are a touch unhealthy, almost sinister. At the end of the England Argentina semi final there was a young child crying. Surely something's wrong when children are having the importance of winning rammed into them at an early age. The team went all out and gave it their best. One team had to lose but they had done amazingly well getting to the semi final. All a bit creepy.

Creepy? Weird.

My child has been known to cry when I buy the wrong type of ice cream so I wouldn't read too much into it.

I suggest you look up the word 'creepy' 😳

Oh the whole thing is absolutely ridiculously overblown. The extreme ramp up and excitement followed by either extreme joy or disappointment is too much for many adults to handle let alone children. And all the flags, songs etc, getting kids so overly invested. It’s like a cult so yes I think the whole thing is a bit creepy or I would say insidious.

I do think it’s a sign of bad mental health as a society that men in particular invest so much in the competition and react so strongly when they lose (and even if they win, if you look at domestic violence figures) it’s like they bottle all their feelings up over the years and this is the one time they’re allowed to explode.

It’s not creepy at all, it’s a bit deal that people are passionate about. That’s just life, experiencing things, loving things, ‘feeling’ things. Your opinion on this is weird

Yes, men are much worse. Thankfully my DH isn't interested in football but I've seen my brother's reactions.

Oh no, a small child who loves a sporting activity sooo much he gets a bit upset when the hopes he had and the excitement he was feeling came to an end. So very ‘creepy’. 🙄

But that’s sport isn’t it? That’s the beauty of it. The moments of pure joy and elation, quickly followed by the moments of despair. I read an article by Matthew Syed who said that getting overly emotionally invested in inconsequential things was what made life interesting.

I think it has been very enjoyable for most people and has encouraged people to engage more with each other and strangers - what is negative about that

you will always have a few obsessive fans, the England Argentina game was always going to be fractious and the media have made a meal out of it

I will miss it when it is over, I appreciate not everyone feels the same but I feel it has been a very positive tournament

Well you should know by now that mint choc chip is superior to neopolitan.

Supporting a football and caring about the outcome of a football match is 'creepy' now?

You sound a bit mad.

Do you think it's 'creepy' to cry at a sad film? If people were pleased their team won, is that a problem too? Or is it only 'creepy' if they're sad about losing?

What about other sports? I cried when my team lost a Champions League final but I also cried when Jessica Ennis won the Olympic Heptathlon. Is that unhealthy and dangerous as well?

Are you not passionate about anything? Surely you understand that the kind of sadness people feel when their team loses is different from the kind of sadness people feel when, eg, someone dies? Both are completely normal emotions.

A lot of the World Cup is ott, however this isn't an example of it. People feel passionate about all sorts of things - sports, music etc.

im a huge tennis fan and will admit to shedding a tear when Andy Murray won Wimbledon.

the fans were disappointed- and that's a perfectly acceptable way to express that disappointment, especially in younger kids.

its ok not to get it, but a bit weird that you think it's creepy. It's not.

Totally this.

Lots of things that people feel strongly about, especially collective experiences that they share with others, are inconsequential in the big scheme of things. People get really emotional at concerts by their favourite band, or the opera, or at films. It's a really normal human experience.

Watching adults get so excited and behave like petulant children over a game is depressing. Small groups of people get paid exorbitant amounts of money to kick a bit of inflated hide into a goal. Whoop-di-fucking-do. Get over it, you bunch of pansies. People are dying, and you’re crying over this?

I agree.

Im not at all interested in football but I have really loved all the fan stuff on Instagram. The English and Mexican fans partying on into the night after England won was particularly memorable.

Even I felt happy at England doing so well, and no feel a bit down now we're out even though I didn't watch any of the matches.

There will always be a handful of people who take it extremes, but on the whole
I think it's quite a good outlet for feelings, people need to learn to cope with losing as well as winning

I agree. My teen ds who likes football but isn't madly into it was banging around the kitchen being foul after England lost. I mean, yeah fine, be a bit bummed for 5 minutes but buggered if it should make you an unpleasant arsehole for the next day / week. Its pathetic.

Oh and don’t forget a fair few of those men being paid so much money to kick a ball have been accused of abuse and rape.

There is actually an article on front page of BBC website which gives people advice on how to 'get over it' : Feeling gutted? Five ways to cope with England's World Cup defeat - BBC News
Also thinks this is a sad reflection of the state of society, no real problems to deal with so people get madly caught up with watching total strangers who play a game with arbitrary rules.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching it, it's quite fun. But within 5 minutes of the end I couldn't care less. And I think club football is even worse, those people are bought and sold, have no link to the club they play at (it's not like they are lads from the local village or anything), clubs run by foreign billionaires half the time, and the whole thing is engineered to maximise profit - with a veneer of paying lip service to 'the fans'.

It isn’t just England. There is something about football that turns people all over the world into hysterical nutcases. I hate the World Cup. Absolutely f-ing hate it. What baffles me is how such a boring game became so popular. And why is it on the goddam news and on the front of every flippin newspaper? Why do politicians feel to need to wade in? Why the hell have we got Argentinian politicians linking a football match to a tragic war that happened over 40 years ago?! The World Cup has nothing to do with “people coming together to celebrate sport.” It’s the exact opposite. It’s people coming together in an orgy of nationalism and hatred.

I had a two women attempt to tell me off at work today for saying “it’s just a game”.

I think kids crying isn’t an example of the OTT nature - they’re kids.

But flags being burned, riots, players getting death threats is really fucking disturbing.

And it’s specific to football. There is unfortunately a strong neanderthal element.

Nah, my partner was telling me the other day about how when he was around 8 England got knocked out of the World Cup and he was crying to his dad about it, who told him it’s not the end of the world. To which my partner replied that his dad (who had been an avid footballer and support for 45+ years) just doesn’t get it and doesn’t understand at all 😅 my partner would still very much have loved England to win but does most certainly not get upset about it!

Did you feel that way about other nation's children crying or just England's? I saw plenty of children crying in the crowds when they had been beaten, its just a release of emotion, its perfectly normal in children.... Adults though you might have a point.

Nothing creepy about a child crying about a lost football match. Sport is the highs and lows, it give hope and takes it away. It’s no different to becoming emotional over a fictional book, film or tv series. I cried at a piece of music the other day, which I found powerful FFS. Otherwise, all there is to life or work sleep eat repeat.

To the pp that said they are abusers and rapists. That is a man problem in all walks of life.

I have no problem with small children (or grown ups) getting emotional about sport. It doesn’t mean that they can’t get emotional about other things, but sport, and especially football, are extremely precious and meaningful to many people.

I absolutely do have an issue with those men that then go home and abuse their wives and kids because their football team lost, or those who think it’s ok to send abuse and threats to the footballers who lost.

A small child crying at the football is not “creepy” and that is a very weird way of looking at it.

It is ok to cry over light entertainment.