One law for football fans?

I think you’ve answered your question. Football is king, it seems, in this country. I was shocked to see the scenes on London streets on the News last night and saddened to see that some schools had turned the whole of yesterday into some kind of football fest, with pupils wearing read and white clothes and face paints.
TV schedules have bowed to its importance, too, with regular programmes being cancelled or moved. The reports and results are the headline news when we do get any bulletins, rarely at usual times.
Women are regarded as soft targets at demonstrations and there was a desire to minimise attention being drawn to a heinous crime committed by a member of the police force.

I agree with all of the above. All I want us to be able to take the slapstick out in golf so my ball will go down the hole but that is considered too risky to allow but congregating in drunken thousands is ok apparently. Appalling.

Slapstick!

The stick with a flag on it! Flippin' predictive text on my Kindle.

BigBertha1: my predictive text changed red to read in my post!! Grrh!

As she is well aware, I share DW Ashcombe's distaste for the entire football culture. 22 overpaid prima-donna yobs chasing a bag of wind round a field. And now I believe there is far more interest worldwide in female teams too. Talk about lowering themselves! But politicians know it keeps the proles happy, and Scots fans in London have always been drunk and disorderly. Decades ago I was in Trafalgar Square and there were kilted ones in the fountains, inevitably rewarding (?) the onlookers with full detail of what they wore under the kilt.

Here in France the website I use for news is no better. At present every third item is headed 'Euro' which to me is a currency, but no it's some football competition.

As for London policing, this week a report said the Met has institutional corruption, and predictably Ms Dick denies this. Who polices the police? There seems to be a general confusion between upholding the law and being above it.......

You could describe any sport or indeed any activity in that kind of way. GN a load of people tapping away on keyboards chasing each other round the internet. Football is not in itself a bad thing.

It is ridiculous that, in the midst of a pandemic, mass gatherings are allowed. Football seems to be a law unto itself.

But politicians know it keeps the proles happy

You sound very snooty, and up yourself.

The Scotland fans virtually took over London yesterday, they outnumbered the Police.

I could describe the benefits that both my sons gained from football, understanding of teamwork, cooperation, better health, friends etc, the issue of fans congregating is a seperate issue, but the disdain for football is very interesting to watch.

Riverwalk

^But politicians know it keeps the proles happy^

You sound very snooty, and up yourself.

Completely, my dear, completely!

Galaxy

I could describe the benefits that both my sons gained from football, understanding of teamwork, cooperation, better health, friends etc, the issue of fans congregating is a seperate issue, but the disdain for football is very interesting to watch.

There is a huge distinction between the undeniable health etc benefits of any sport and the laddish culture that surrounds football.

The sight of those football fans would make anyone feel snooty. What louts.

My first and only encounter with football fans was decades ago in London, on the escalators at some station. As it happens, they were Scottish. It was as if a crowd of wild animals had descended on us, hideous and terrifying.

I do realise that not all fans are like this, but I wouldn’t like to be associated with an interest where anybody behaved in that way.

Have you been to a football match lately. That culture has changed considerably. It's a fairly family orientated activity these days. Of course there are elements of bad behaviour but the disdain for football is often snobbery.

The seventies was a long time ago. I was at a football match pre covid. No wild animals.

Sorry for some reason I thought you said in the seventies

I am sure that football has a place in the development of young people as does any sport but I agree with Ashcombe and Olddudders there is far too much emphasis on it in this country.

I resent that every tv network has turned its schedule upside down we can’t even have the news on time! The first item on the news is the result of the last match - is it really more important than Covid, Brexit, climate change?

I for one am heartily sick of it.

The behaviour of fans in London yesterday didn’t look very different from what I witnessed years ago. Have you seen the mess they left in Leicester Square?

Yes, I feel totally unashamedly snobbish about it.

I think the game itself is good for many reasons, health, team building etc. However the culture surrounding it is a problem. I agree with vegansrock.

I don't like football much.

Lots of people do. And I mean lots. So if there is a big international festival of football, I guess we will all just have to find something else to watch on TV for a while.

Such snobbery.

It's not the game itself, of course it's not. It's the culture that surrounds it and the worst of the fans wherever they come from who follow there team to wherever. I worked up in London when fans from elsewhere descended, they're often drunk, they take over streets, they strip off, climb in fountains, shout out obscenities, you can't escape them travelling about on the tube. It's horrible!

there their

Add snooker too Esspee.
Dh and i was flicking through the tv channels a couple of weeks ago,and a snooker game was on with a packed audience of hundreds with NO social distancing, sat next to each other.
They did have masks on,bit i found it unbelieveable,especialy as it was in an indoor arena.
Common sense has gone out of the window for certain sporting events.