Anyone else think we should ban football?

[malvino]

Handwringing all over the interwebs and papers today, about how it's not football's fault. It's apparently the fault of a small minority of those who aren't real fans, the fault of the pubs for serving alcohol all day, the fault of the police not to keep them all apart, the fault of the council for having gthe big screen fail, the fault of everyone

Comments

[adelpha]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7403492.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7404185.stm

Yep, works for me. Take their ball away until the fans can learn to behave.

[srk1]

Football fandom is also phenomenally misogynistic and homophobic. Of course, aggressive masculinity is part of the culture of other spectator sports, but whenever I go to a live football game I come out feeling utterly violated by the filth (not too strong a word) which comes out of the mouths of supporters. Yes, they've learned not to be racist (give them a biscuit), but only after a couple of decades of patient finger-wagging from the authorities. In every other respect their attitudes are neanderthal.

Football will only be dragged into the 21st century when we have an out gay footballer who doesn't receive supporter abuse. To date, British football has had one out gay player full stop, and he ended up killing himself.

[being_here]

If it wasn't football it would be something else. Religion for example. Or nationalism. The behaviour remains the same: the excuses differ depending on context and culture.

[malvino]

Maybe, but I don't think football is simply an outlet, I think it is also a root cause. The game itself, especially the modern game with putting green srufaces and balls that can easily be kicked the length of the pitch, leads to fans feeling they had been somehow robbed of something, and injustice leads to people seeking revenge.

I actually have a coherent theory of spectator sports that I need to write up sometime which (although being about all sports) explains why soccer was so popular and conquered the world, and why it doesn't deserve to be popular any more.

[malvino]

My theory also explains why violence hasn't followed soccer to the states, it has to do with the way they commentate there.