How can you care about soccer?

[fitzroyalty]

Like SLK I used to be a big ground ball fan myself, supported Utd but now I could'nt care unless I've had a wee flutter on them. What i used to hate was  being told by Liverpool fans and the like that "you're just a glory hunter" for supporting Utd and that shite. Also have a know it all p***k of a mate (Arsenal fan) who will always goes on about Arsenal being a "true" football club and being a family club and this shite true to their roots, once I hear crap like that being spouted about a multi-million £ business it makes me wanna puke!

[GBXII]

This is a good thread. Was thinking the same thing myself recently. I can understand how young people love soccer so much, I used to be mad into it myself and was a huge Roy Keane fan, but as you get older you realise that these clubs (English and Scottish ones) represent a fantasy world. So fair enough being interested in them, I still am myself, but to be so passionate about them, just can't understand it...

[boojangles]

Something to watch on a Saturday night is one thing but religious following of premiership teams is purely a pack mentality pastime that whilst it generates a decent ammount of healthy social interaction during the formative years but once you realise it for what it is then surely it's time to grow up and do other things that are more meaningful to your own place and you will get far more from. Typically (though with exception) a real lazy, selfish pastime that offers nothing to the world in which they live in. They just love maintaining the facad that it is on what must be a fairly empty existance.

I feel sad for grown men from this island who follow these teams in that way, because they have no sense of the world around them (exceptions excluded)


The GAA is of course part of a pack mentality, the difference being that it actually has an impact/meaning to the world that you live in

No harm Skull but thats very condescending and a form of snobbery.

I enjoy the GAA, heavily involved with club and follow the county as well, though its all the about club for me.

But I enjoy the soccer as much as the GAA. To be told to grow up cause of this is highly insulting. I am fully aware of the world around me and presonally couldn't do any more for the club than I currently do. Do we have to do everything in life to suit the club, town, parish etc? Do we f**k. Its about looking after your own needs and this bullshit of having to toe the line with what others think is a real weakness of this country. We lived under the rule of the church for that long, we forgot how to think for oursleves and look at what they done in the meantime (off subject I know).

If it makes me happy, well excuse me for been selfish and not caring about now it affects all those around me.

Soccer  or any other sport will never mean as much to me as GAA but everything else you said there is 100%

[SidelineKick]

I would say my main gripe with soccer is the diving and play acting.

I liked watching Ruddock, Jones, Dicks, Ince, hard players.

Now its all diving and rolling around, then up again 30 seconds later for a quick 5 step limp then back to normal.  Does this not piss genuine soccer fans off or do you choose to ignore it?

The referees arent even standing up to it.  It seriously makes me sick.

Basically alot of these players are taking the piss.  Running round like fairies, diving here and there and getting an absolute fortune for it, thanks to the good old supporters.

[Roger]

As a football supporter I find it hard to be passionate about English, Scottish or Irish club teams although I am passionate about the NI team as it represents my country.  I tend to follow the development and careers of all players from NI in leagues around the country but with no real passion for the team. I don't get why two people from here can argue about two teams from there. Each to their own but it's not for me.  

When I was younger I used to support an English team passionately and would still look out for their results but without much interest.  The interest  as I got older since I could never really get to see them but I took a lot more interest in Irish and Scottish league teams and used to attend regularly. Now I follow the sport on telly and don't bother going to games except NI ones.  

[corn02]

Two words – Robbie Fowler.

[SidelineKick]

Two words - snort snort.

[corn02]

Two words - snort snort.

I can see you are well versed on the truth.

Thanks to Everton for the fabrication though, provided plenty of motivation for God.

[GBXII]

I would say my main gripe with soccer is the diving and play acting.

I liked watching Ruddock, Jones, Dicks, Ince, hard players.

Now its all diving and rolling around, then up again 30 seconds later for a quick 5 step limp then back to normal.  Does this not piss genuine soccer fans off or do you choose to ignore it?

The referees arent even standing up to it.  It seriously makes me sick.

Basically alot of these players are taking the piss.  Running round like fairies, diving here and there and getting an absolute fortune for it, thanks to the good old supporters.

Bit off topic but anyway...I don't really agree that theres loads of what you said going on even though it is there. I would say that the biggest problem with the game, that makes it hard to watch, is the fact that a player gets tackled, maybe fouled but nothing serious, and then proceeds to roll around on the ground before hopping to his feet, all in an attempt to get the player booked/sent off.

It probably stems from the fact that referees are so easily conned, and it is particularly the south Americans and Europeans that do it.

[bingobus]

I would say my main gripe with soccer is the diving and play acting.

I liked watching Ruddock, Jones, Dicks, Ince, hard players.

Now its all diving and rolling around, then up again 30 seconds later for a quick 5 step limp then back to normal.  Does this not piss genuine soccer fans off or do you choose to ignore it?

The referees arent even standing up to it.  It seriously makes me sick.

Basically alot of these players are taking the piss.  Running round like fairies, diving here and there and getting an absolute fortune for it, thanks to the good old supporters.

The diving is bad to watch and needs to be addressed. I do think in the EPL it isn't as bad as elsewhere and it has improved over the years.

Its a minority that do it.

I'd totally agree it has its faults but what sport hasn't. Doesn't mean that you can't enjoy for what it is.

My biggest gripe with some of the GAA is the "nothing compares to our game" mentality and everything else is inferior. Thats very insular looking and if we all carried that mentality we'd have got nowhere. The games are still full of weakness - discipline system, skill levels, overemphasis on fitness/strength, diving, cheating to get players sent off. All these happen in our games, yet we use some of them to beat other games. Its an inferior complex.
The GAA is great but it is far from perfect.

[SidelineKick]

Two words - snort snort.

I can see you are well versed on the truth.

Thanks to Everton for the fabrication though, provided plenty of motivation for God.

You know its hilarious, when we were in Liverpool for Aintree we kept asking taxi drivers are you a red or a blue.  The version of events for each scandal differed massivley depending on who you talked to.

For example, a well known red whose wife had apparently snorted coke of someones tool in a toilet in a club:

Blue - yeah mate she's a dirty bitch, real dirty.

Red - nah mate, thats a load of bull shit.

[SidelineKick]

Two words - snort snort.

I can see you are well versed on the truth.

Thanks to Everton for the fabrication though, provided plenty of motivation for God.

You see this is the type of thing I'm on about. God. f**k me.

[bingobus]

Two words - snort snort.

I can see you are well versed on the truth.

Thanks to Everton for the fabrication though, provided plenty of motivation for God.

You know its hilarious, when we were in Liverpool for Aintree we kept asking taxi drivers are you a red or a blue.  The version of events for each scandal differed massivley depending on who you talked to.

For example, a well known red whose wife had apparently snorted coke of someones tool in a toilet in a club:

Blue - yeah mate she's a dirty bitch, real dirty.

Red - nah mate, thats a load of bull shit.

Taxi Drivers = Greatest storytellers of all time reagrdless of location, sport, politisc, religion etc.

[corn02]

Two words - snort snort.

I can see you are well versed on the truth.

Thanks to Everton for the fabrication though, provided plenty of motivation for God.

You see this is the type of thing I'm on about. God. f**k me.

Coming from the man who thinks Francie Bellew is God?

[SidelineKick]

Corn I'm afraid there is a difference between admiring somebody and calling them God.

When have I ever said or typed that he was God?