BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)

Subject: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Rog Peek
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 04:35 AM

This type of behaviour is why I am no longer interesting in watching football matches.
**!??!***?
This is about the most blatant example I have seen, and what's more, because the referee did not pick it up, the player will, I understand, go unpunished. Crazy!

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Musket
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 06:13 AM

You obviously aren't really interesting in football to begin with. Or you have never watched a match before this one.

Still, it was worth it just to hear Steve Bruce's reaction....

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 06:34 AM

Football ? a game for rough girls. { Wilde ]


Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 07:00 AM

Hi

Diving has been in football for many years now......Granny Lee.

It appears to be on the increase again. There were at least three examples in the game that you picked the clip from.

Players are getting more "expert" at faking being brought down. They deliberately try to click their trailing leg against the tackler.

Several players are known for it in the Premier League but referees appear to have problems in detecting it.

Cahill is one who is one is is known to dive. On Saturday that one was obvious to everyone other than the referee and his linesman. He was not even given a yellow card for it !! Of course as he already had one, the ref knew if he booked him he would have to send him off. The ref for some reason ignored it. Lucky Cahill !!

Something else bothers me about football. That is the continual pulling of shirts and shorts. Almost every player does it. The problem for me is that the referees are just not consistent in dealing with it.

I was at Old Trafford yesterday and there were many examples that were ignored.

One that was ridiculously obvious was Balotelli who came on as a sub with all eyes on him. His very first tackle was from behind nearly ripping off an opponent's shirt and wrestling him to the ground.

Man United won after yet another outstanding display by De Gea.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,punkfolrocker
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 07:29 AM

The reason I stopped watching football not too long after reaching puberty
was girls, and rock music, and more girls...

I also gave up fishing, walking the family dog, and gluing together Airfix kits
for entirely the same reason....

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 08:32 AM

Football, a game with its own language:

Arsenal won three-two on aggregate. I thought they played on grass. If you're talking mathematically, it's in aggregate.

"Balotelli came on as s sub..." Wot, fancy dress, firing torpedos? Balotelli substituded for ...

"Diving has been going on for many years now.." I'd be worried about limpet mines if I was Balotelli...

"Cahill was not even given a yellow card for it..." The Referee shows him one, because some players don't understand language I presume, before writing his name on the back of it and putting it back in his pocket, so he wasn't given it. Cahill was given a final warning...

Talk about a game within a game...

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 09:33 AM

Hi PFR

<" The reason I stopped watching football not too long after reaching puberty
was girls, and rock music, and more girls...

I also gave up fishing, walking the family dog, and gluing together Airfix kits
for entirely the same reason.... ">

I must be Superman. I watched football and still manage do all that....well not quite all....never got round to airfix.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Stu
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 10:38 AM

All the more reason for a fifth official with TV replays etc. If some of the players feel the need to cheat then the refs and liners need more help. It's ludicrous to keep blaming the refs; they simply cannot see everything at once. It's only because the cameras catch everything and commentators have time to chat that we see these events anyway.

Up the Villa!

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 02:39 PM

But they can't help seeing at least some of the constant shirt pulling, hug-wrestling, arm gripping, &c, that so constantly go on. This is all new since I used, many long years ago back in the 1940s-50s, regularly to play for my school and college teams and watch live games. We would just never have thought of grabbing an opponent by clothing or arm; and it certainly wasn't part of the professional game either. Why are not referees instructed as a matter of course to penalise such abuses, and invariably to issue a card? These, just as much as diving, are spoiling the game.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 03:58 PM

Another big change: we used to wear good solid honest-to-god boots fit to kick that heavy laced-up leather ball with. The idea that the balls and the boots would suddenly burst forth in a riot of pretty pastel shades never occurred. All these sweet little fashion-boottees in their lovely colours prancing across the greensward like a sort of pedi-ballet -- blimey!

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 04:01 PM

Well I watch footie a lot on the telly already, but If I thought it was a game for rough girls I'd watch it three times as much.. Mmmm. There's a lot wrong with footie, too much money, fleecing loyal supporters, too much cheating, too much theatricality, too many petrodollar clubs. But the standard of skill at the top level is awesome. I reckon even Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews and Pele would agree. I think they'd fit in today, but they would have to up their game and up their fitness. Awesome.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 05:20 PM

Agreed, Steve. Just a pity this awesome skill goes hand-in-hand with so many new abuses. What's the matter with today's referees. Afraid of the players, or what?!

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 06:16 PM

There's too much at stake. That's true. But keep it in context. In the good old days when footie players got fifty quid a week, and then had to open sports shops to keep the wolf from the door, we still had Antonio Rattin.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 08:35 PM

well that was before we started getting involved with a load of shifty foreigners, with their continental little football boots, bollock tight shorts and assorted mucky tricks.

no wonder there always winning. garlic chewing gits the lot of them!

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 08:58 PM

I'd cheerfully acknowledge every criticism of the modern game, but one thing really shines out: footie is brilliantly multiracial these days. When I were a lad oop north, there were no black players.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 12:33 AM

Oh, I don't know, Al. Back then [look at some of the old "Goal of the Year" clips] the shorts were much tighter & huggier & altogether more minimal.

But nobody grabbed their waistbands...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Musket
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 03:04 AM

Practicing excuses for last Sunday, Co Messiah?

Just asking like.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 03:29 AM

A reason why I have no inclination to ever start watching football again...???

Televised 'free to view' international rugby...!!!

The next best 'thrilling sport' to middle weight boxing back in the 1990s
when it was still free to view at home,
or even better, on tiny TV sets mounted high up in the corner
of crowded rough noisy threatening, potentially dangerous East London pubs
..

oh.. btw..
I don't actually watch the rugby, I watch my mrs watching it..

she goes completely screeching mental on the sofa when her nation is playing
and on the verge of losing, or occasionally winning.....

I'm far too reserved & 'English' to ever muster or express that level of passion...😑

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 05:13 AM

The Musketisms* get more & more gnomically incomprehensible. Not even clear who they are addressed to. Life too short even to start to try & puzzle out what they are supposed to mean.

≈M≈

*{or "Musketries"?}

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Musket
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 05:22 AM

You'll know when I'm addressing you. I usually wait for your medication to kick in.

Nurse! He's out of bed again!

👴👴👴

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: G-Force
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 05:39 AM

What's the matter with today's referees. Afraid of the players, or what?!
Or bamboozled by the crowd. If it had been a small club, away from home, he would have been sent off no messing. But Chelsea, at home, ...

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 08:06 AM

I see that this morning the revered Steve McClaren has come out in the press stating that the FA should crack down heavily on those who are guilty of diving. Carefully ignoring, of course, that his own team contains two of the most notorious divers in the Championship. Not that I am in any way biased against Derby County you understand.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 11:27 AM

When you get this level of play-acting going on, one wonders what else gets played - like staged mid-match events to fleece the bookies? Never saw a poor bookmaker, though. But given the way FIFA play on a level pitch, it's not surprising, though.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Rog Peek
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 12:31 PM

I agree with Stu, TV ref with the benefit of replays would help, after all referees can't be expected to see everything, especially when there is a culture of cheating. In addition, it should be possible for players to be punished for offences missed by the referee which are dangerous and/or clearly bring the game of football into disrepute.

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST,Mike L2
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 02:36 PM

Hi G Force

<" If it had been a small club, away from home, he would have been sent off no messing. But Chelsea, at home,">.

Too true !! And for ever has it been so. To referees big is beautiful.
I have been a supporter of Man United for many years. When we were "small" and struggling we could never get anything from refs with the likes of Arsenal and other top clubs.

When we started to be a great side and winning may trophies it was different. We got lots of help from refs who for what-ever reason ?? were very generous to say the least. At one stage refs seemed to find it difficult to give crucial decisions against us. Sometimes it was embarrassing.

But I found it the same in Rugby Union. When I played in the lower levels we seldom got decisions against higher teams from referees. When I played in the top levels we always knew we would be looked after by the refs.In those days the Referees Society comprised mainly of members of the major clubs and were responsible for the promotions of referees. So the individual refs tried not to upset the senior sides.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 03:14 PM

' it should be possible for players to be punished for offences missed by the referee'

yes indeed a few whacks with gymshoe over naked buttocks, after every match would add a whole new dimension to the game.

for that really serious offence....a red hot poker up the bum!

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 03:31 AM

IT should be played in HOLYWOOD to much acting go down crying then get up as tho nothing is wrong

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football
From: Musket
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 03:42 AM

Mmm. Can't wait to see how TV refs work in school, Sunday and youth leagues....

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Rog Peek
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 04:27 AM

"Can't wait to see how TV refs work in school, Sunday and youth leagues..."

Youngsters in school copy what they see in premiership football. If measures were taken to clean up the game at professional level, then hopefully, this would trickle down to the school and youth teams. The alternative is to just shrug the shoulders and accept it as a natural part of the game......sad.

Of course, those who run the game seem averse to the use of modern technology such as TV replays (sarcasm), after all they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into accepting that goal line technology might be worth a try.

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 04:41 AM

I have seen impressive displays of such 'acting' among children aged about 10 or so on a patch of grass near where I live. They seem to regard it as a normal part of the game.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: banjoman
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:02 AM

I got up two hours early on Sunday so that I could hate those Manure fans a bit longer.
I will stop watching football when Man U are in the conference and Liverpool are again the number one club in the world. I know some will say it will never happen, but dreams sometimes come true.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:07 AM

Players can be and are punished for offences missed by officials. Players can't be punished retrospectively for incidents that appear in the referee's match report, however. The laws of the land ensure that players are not immune from punishment for gratuitous violent behaviour.

I like the goal line technology but a TV ref with big screen replays of in-play incidents wouldn't work. That would completely wreck the flow of the game. We already have more than enough tactical hold-ups, what with managers making substitutions in the dying seconds of the game. That should be banned except in cases of injury. I think clubs should be heavily penalised if their players crowd the referee or stand in front of him following a decision.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:15 AM

Players can be and are punished for offences missed by officials. Players can't be punished for incidents that appear in the referee's match report, however. The laws of the land ensure that players are not immune from punishment for gratuitous violent behaviour.

I like the goal line technology but a TV ref with big screen replays of in-play incidents wouldn't work. That would completely wreck the flow of the game. We already have more than enough tactical hold-ups, what with managers making substitutions in the dying seconds of the game. That should be banned except in cases of injury. I think clubs should be heavily penalised if their players crowd the referee or stand in front of him following a decision.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 07:41 AM

Hi Banjoman

Man United's Classs of 92 Team could well be in the Conference very soon.

Could be that they will play Liverpuddle there !!! lol

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 10:57 AM

"Youngsters in school copy what they see in premiership football. If measures were taken to clean up the game at professional level, then hopefully, this would trickle down to the school and youth teams. The alternative is to just shrug the shoulders and accept it as a natural part of the game......sad."

When I was a kid back when England last won the world cup,
we watched proper shin gouging and bone breaking fouls on the telly.

That's the kind of exciting behaviour we copied in the playground in those days..

In primary school, I was big for my age, my role in defence was to take out opposing strikers as brutally as necessary;
no matter how many times I broke my glasses in doing so....

Mind you, glasses sellotaped together weren't such a cool badge of honour
when I was 11 and started noticing girls...

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Musket
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 11:05 AM

Third umpire has ruined test cricket in much the same way 20/20 has deskilled players in the first place. I'd hate to see football go down a similar path.

Mind you, before having a go at young players who are told that winning is more than important, (if Man Utd slip too far down, they can, thanks to a contract with a sponsor in the States, be bankrupted, and there is being corporate and being corporate..) then at least look at the real problem with football.

FIFA.

Are there enough prisons to go round once their gravy train finally derails? It's one thing to say kids learn to dive, but with FIFA, they can learn corruption, sexism, racism, homophobia and how to get excited by brown paper envelopes.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 01:18 PM

we could see united or any team in the conference. as a celtic supporter i have greatly enjoyed watching the hilarious and amazing story of glasgow rangers' demise. it just gets better every day. and their downfall has been entirely the fault of corrupt and inept financial managment of the club. and like in wider society, it is the supporters and staff who are paying the price. still, there are plenty of other teams in scotland for the rangers fans to support instead, they may even get to enjoy watching a better standard of football than they have endured in recent decades

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 02:00 PM

i think when they got rid of the gratuitous sex, and naked female linesman and referee - the game lost a lot of its attraction for me....the whole thing became like a Walls steak and kidney pie, but with real meat.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 02:23 PM

"I think clubs should be heavily penalised if their players crowd the referee or stand in front of him following a decision."
.,,.
Entirely agree, Steve. I should like to see a rule introduced that only the captain is allowed to speak directly to the referee. Shouldn't be too difficult to introduce or to enforce; and I think it would improve the game immeasurably.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 02:44 PM

Hi Michael

Yes crowding the referee has increased lately.

I thought that allowing only the captain to approach the ref was now a rule.

When I was playing rugby no player was allowed to speak to the referee never mind approach him. The whole team had to retire at least 10 yards and if they didn't the referee would keep walking forward towards the guilty side's line until they did. I played in many games where at least 40 yards were made, and in a couple where the referee went over the try line and awarded a try.

We had one guy in our team who kept shouting at the ref and being penalised. In the end the captain of our team sent his own player off.

Can't see this happening in football though.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Musket
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 03:04 PM

Of course, if football is just entertainment, which it is, then in the same way sone people watch motor racing for the crashes, many people get an adrenelin Rush at seeing commotion on the field, red cards and boys pretending their childhood hero Vinny Jones had the right attitude.

Graham Souness got into trouble for saying basically that as a commentator once.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 03:24 PM

I don't think the demotion of Rangers has been a good thing though. Even Celtic Park has seen a plummeting in attendances.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:20 PM

I know rangers decline has hit Celtic too, and the predictable success is boring. But there was a lot wrong about the old firm. I have been going back to firhill to see partick thistle, the team i followed as a teenager. If you want the good things still in football many can be found at smaller clubs and it's much cheaper. Hopefully things will level out in Scotland and there will be proper competition again and not just in Glasgow

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:38 PM

I'll never forget Billy Connolly saying that he'd thought the full name of his boyhood club was "Partick Nil".

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 06:51 PM

That is true that watching the smaller clubs is cheaper but the problem is that teams like Partick Thistle still seem to have lower attendances than even last year. The idea that the people who are choosing not to go to Ibrox or Celtic Park are instead boosting the attendances at the smaller clubs instead doesn't seem to hold up! I think in general they are maybe more likely to go to Ikea instead.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Musket
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 03:27 AM

Well now that St Mirren have sacked Tommy Craig, (one of the best players Sheff Wed ever had) Scottish football seems to be going the way of its goalkeepers.

Mind you, nice to see Stevie May get international call ups.

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 06:36 AM

Hi

We go for week-ends sometimes to Portpatrick in Scotland.

When we were there last year we happened to coincide with Stranraer playing Rangers. We went to watch. The ground seemed completely full, mainly with Rangers fans.

This year we went to watch Stranraer playing Airdrieonians and I reckon our group of 8 people was near half of the total attendance...

The absence of Rangers certainly affected this match. Wev didn't have to queue for pies at half time - they brought them round to us.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 07:29 AM

it's not just about the money or the attendance figures - and having rangers in town is not always a good thing (anyone from manchester here?)

https://www.facebook.com/partickthistlefc/photos/pb.208968199167913.-2207520000.1418595339./780095768721817/?type=3&theater

i know it is a niche wee byway here so i want go on about it. there are many joys in football once you get away from the big money and cheating. these photos put it a lot more eloquently than i could

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 11:57 AM

Still sponsored by MacB Water I see (we make that)

Subject: RE: BS: The reason I stopped watching football (UK)
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 08:18 PM

I'm from Manchester and my mum was born and bred in Salford. But I'm no use to you as I left in 1969 never to return (except to see me mum an' dad about every six weeks which I still do). If you heard my accent you'd think I'd never been away.