The religion of football

Now this is gonna shock some people as Im a bloke. But I dont understand the fascination of football. No really I dont. I dont understand why people are so obsessed with watching it and treating it like some holy grail. Me personally I get no interest from it at all, it bores me to tears, in fact I would rather watch a kettle boil or some paint dry or some grass grow. That is my veiw on football.

I get banter because of it all the time "Err you f**king pussy, you dont like football, you must be a sissy". I get scorned because I dont play football in my spare time. Sorry but its hilarious in my eyes that someone kicking a ball about can make such an impression.

Rugby, thats different. Thats a real sport. Then theres the football violence, well its between firms outta the way most the time, let em kill each other.

Then there is American football. I have watched this. I have played it on the computer, and I have played it with Americans. And nope I still dont get it.

Football is awesome. All the other sports are okay but none are as interesting as football. Maybe golf is, but besides that, football is on top.

You see what I just did there and you see what you did with liking rugby?

It's all opinion, man. It's all subjective. Doubie.

True, it is all opinion. But just find the obsession hilarious. Still I have have to listen to people talking about it for hours on end every day. And they may as well be speaking in Latin as far as Im concearned lol.

oh well at least you will save a fortune not follwing a premier league team.

True never looked at it that way before.

I don't get it either. I'm not a sports fan generally though, always thought people took it a bit too seriously.

I will watch sports like rugby/skiing for the fights/crashes though.

Yeah, American football too complex eh?

Why we like it.

Well I understand that American Football and Brain Damage are closely linked. But no I just don't get it. There seems to be no flow. Its just start stop, start stop all the time.

Maybe Im just a thick stupid retard though who dosn't understand complex thingies.

I personally don't get the fascination with sports of any kind, but then my hubby doesn't understand what I could possibly get from internet forum discussions with people I've never met irl. Meh, to each his own.

That's because you're used to your version never stopping. But it's like comparing two completely different things. Yes, it is stop and go, but filled with strategy with each go. Like a grandmaster chess match that isn't on the speed clock. Lot of time in between moves with that isn't there? Only this is with real warriors instead of wooden pieces.

Really!

No F___ing way!

Are you honestly trying to tell me that you don't worship Maradona!? Infamous lies... I don't believe you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really hate lying infadels!

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Firstly, I have to agree with Townie that rugby union is better than football. In my opinion, rugby is by far the greatest game on the planet, but having said that, football is exciting in a way I can't quite explain.

On the face of it, football can be dull. It is a defensively oriented game where the mindset is that the winning team is the one that concedes the fewest goals, rather than the one that scores the most. I hope that makes sense.

But when a game of football is played between two well matched teams it can provide a spellbinding contest where, even a 0 - 0 draw leaves you feeling breathless at the end of it.

I'm a sporting lass. I grew up in a sporting family and embraced sport from early childhood. I love playing sport. I love the intensity of competition and the feeling of exhausted exhileration at the end of a game. Watching any sport isn't as good as playing, but it's still pretty darned good.

Perhaps the most significant cultural difference between football and rugby, Townie, is that football is all about the fans, whereas rugby is all about the players.

In football, the fans rule the game. Ask any manager who has been hounded out of his club by fans protests...!! At Real Madrid, if the fans start to wave white hankies at a match, then they're telling the directors that it's time for the manager to be sacked. And he invariably is. At Real Madrid, the people rule.

Football fans embrace their club in a way the players and owners don't. Players come and go. Managers come and go. But the fans are in it for life. To a football fan, the shirt... the badge... the history... it MEANS something. Football is the game of the masses.

Rugby, however, has the image of an elitist game. A "Game for ruffians played by gentlemen". But it's hard, challenging, physically intense and exhausting.... I know... I've played it. Rugby searches you like no other sport. If there is anything lacking in your character, then 80 minutes on a rugby pitch will expose it for all to see.

The game is all about the players, which makes it less tribal than football. Yes, there are club rivalries, but they find expression in post-match drinking contests... sing-songs... good natured banter. It's a different world.

To Leon, please allow me to explain a little of the game's origins. Founded at Rugby public school in England in the mid 19th century, the game was first devised for the children of gentlemen families who attended the school. These young men would one day grow up to be the people who would run the Empire and rugby football was intended to instil the qualities of courage, stoicism, organisation, determination, teamwork, leadership and fortitude.

In short, it was intended to produce men of a calibre who, the Victorians believed, would rule the world.

Britain no longer rules the world, but the nature of the game, in a playing sense, hasn't changed. As I said before... if you're lacking in any way, rugby will find you out.

Football, on the other hand, is "a game for gentlemen played by ruffians". It's the sport of the working classes... the masses... It caught on with the working classes, mostly in the industrial north and became their outlet from a life of exploitation, drudgery and dangerous, dirty, hard labour. A man who spent 70 hours a week down a coal pit for a pittance wage could run around in the fresh air and forget his desperately awful life for a while.

Football became escapism for the working classes.

These cultures have ingrained themselves into British society. They're so deep now that they're an integral part of our national character and even if we're no longer global masters at either sport, we still have our island mentality and we see them as "ours". We play them in our own way regardless of what the rest of the world does (even though the rest of the world does it better..!!).

We have our sporting institutions and rituals and they mean a lot to us. We know we're not the best, but we'd rather be mediocre on the world stage than change. It's OUR football, and OUR rugby. We love it as it is, warts and all.

These are our escapes from the everyday world. The allegiances forged in childhood last for life. The anticipation in the build up to a game isn't always matched by the eventual game itself, but when it is.... wow... it's worth the wait.

I suppose you have to be brought up with it to understand.

Jennifer makes a good point here. I wasn't bought up with football. My dad worked abroad a lot when I was a little kid. Also I spent the first years of my life in new Zealand so my younger social interactions and influences were different to the people I work with.

Also when I moved to uk it was my mum who took me to rugbyatches. This might explain why I like rugby more as well. Football was never a big deal in my family so I will have been conditioned with these views in my early life.

Lucky you @ growing up in New Zealand. I've never been but mum and dad went there for the British Lions tour in 2005 and fell in love with the place. They've been back twice since and love it.

They sure love their rugby, don't they..? And they play it better than anybody. In '05, Dad played in a couple of "friendly" matches, once in Wellington and once in Auckland, against the Ponsonby Veterans XV. Dad's as tough a grizzled old back row forward as there is, but he said it was some of the hardest rugby he'd ever played. Even at over 45's level, they play hard. Poor dad.. in his mid 50's at the time and well out of shape(like most of the lads on tour) but the Kiwi boys didn't back off. He and the rest of the tour boys came off well hammered, but mum said she'd not seen him with such a beaming smile all over his face in a long time.

He loved every minute of it.

I'd love to visit New Zealand. Perhaps we may go there one day. Who knows..?

I think football is a fantastic sport. I think the passion and caring about it comes down to having something that doesn't matter to care about. I mean it doesn't make a realistic difference to me who wins the Euros. Nothing, bar a few celebratory drinks, in my life will change based on who wins this competition, but I can care about it and have something that doesn't matter to put my focus into.

Not sure if I've articulated that very well but it's nice to have something to be passionate about that isn't real. I have a nice peaceful life and all the drama, pain and fighting on a football field.