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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 10:53:18 GMT
With sports you generally need to get into them at a young age. I think football's appeal is fairly obvious though. It's a great team sport that allows individual creativity and flair to flourish in the most sublime way. Its capacity for shock and awe is unsurpassed; Fergie's "Football, bloody hell" quote is one of the best footy quotes ever because it captures so succinctly the sheer wtf quality that football has more than any other game. Its history is greater than any other sport and that's not subjective. It is the worlds game and it is weaved into the fabric of so many countries socio-political history that to understand the game is also to understand a country too. The variety in footballing cultures and approaches is staggering. Its aesthetic appeal is obvious as well. At it best it is beautiful, rhythmic, organic, it can really flow in a sublime, balletic way. You'd have to be a total mong not to at least be slightly wowed by, say, Van Basten's goal against the Soviets in 1988, you know? I mean, even as a non-fan you can appreciate its beauty and technical skill. And yet it's not all beauty and technique, there is room for many other approaches and tactically it is always in a state of flux so the game is always changing.
Sport at school can have a big impact on how people relate to it and that can last a lifetime. It's the Casper effect. Lonely afternoons in the cold on some muddy pitch chasing a ball around and feeling inadequate. Oh, MEN. I get that. If you're not that way inclined then football might seem horrible and because it is so ubiquitous it's easy to rebel against that.
In this country the working class aspect has been eroded somewhat and this is partly why I am less interested in the game. I have other reasons why my love is nowhere near what it was growing up - I started to drift away in the late 90s - but it's still the greatest game on earth. Of course it is and, truthfully, part of me is always a bit sceptical towards men who don't appreciate it, as silly as that sounds. It's one of these old prejudices that just hands around. If I was being pretentious I might try and craft a football as life metaphor which I'm sure to detractors would sound like risible nonsense but there you go.
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Admin
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Post by Admin on Feb 10, 2019 11:18:29 GMT
I don't think there is anything that causes such a reaction as someone belting the ball into the back of the net from 30 yards out. Goals themselves are an absolute thing of beauty- no other sport comes close to the range of ways in which one can be scored. I think football's appeal is fairly obvious though. It's a great team sport that allows individual creativity and flair to flourish in the most sublime way. You pass the ball and kick the ball! And 99% of the time that's what's going on! And when a goal is scored it's just someone hammering the fucking thing into the back of the net! You're not reaching out to the non-fans here lads, this is all esoteric blah. Pull out the ballet analogies if you want, it's not going to make this any worse I get the appeal of something like boxing. You see what's going on. You see a fist hit a face, you hear the grunt and you see the blood - it's simple, it elicits a visceral reaction. It's in close-up. You're drawn in. As a TV spectator sport, football is simultaneously confusing and boring. To see and hear grown men clutching their heads, rolling about and shouting while watching a match on the telly - it's dafter than housewives crying over Tom Jones. And to me it's even more incomprehensible. I've never seen a match played live and I imagine emotions run high. Age-old rivalries, whatever. Real atmospherics. I kind of get that. But to me that's kind of a familial thing, it's passed down through the generations. If you don't go from an early age then it all eludes you. Ah, it's all sort of 'boxed-off' - there's a pretty large gap between fans and non-fans. Bit like prog.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 11:38:30 GMT
Bored, John?
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Post by tory on Feb 10, 2019 12:06:32 GMT
My brother was fairly nonplussed by football as a kid. He's older than me and was not sporty at all.
Yet he's transfixed by football now. Certainly there is a sheen and polish to the game that there wasn't in the seventies, but in a world where politics seems to be turning sour, sport and football offer powerful narratives that can be savoured. The story of Leicester, who endured a racist sex scandal and went onto win the Premier League a season after nearly being relegated offers the sort of story that seems, even in the highly corporate level of sport, virtually impossible to recreate without some sort of artifice.
To be honest I always feel a bit sorry for those who don't like it because you are missing something amazing. We look for meaning in our lives more and more, and however much you denigrate it, that sense of belonging and community is something that football can deliver.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 12:41:54 GMT
Imagine never having experienced the excitement of a world cup?
Football, like all sport, but football in particular due to its popularity does offer that kind of communal experience that is rare these days.
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Post by oh oooh on Feb 10, 2019 12:43:28 GMT
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Post by oh oooh on Feb 10, 2019 12:44:34 GMT
Imagine never having experienced the excitement of a world cup? Football, like all sport, but football in particular due to its popularity does offer that kind of communal experience that is rare these days. the sauna?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 12:44:53 GMT
Imagine never having experienced the excitement of a world cup? That's a bit silly. It has no appeal so it's no loss.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 12:45:04 GMT
No because your dismissals are trite and troll like
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 12:48:27 GMT
Imagine never having experienced the excitement of a world cup? That's a bit silly. It has no appeal so it's no loss. I feel the same about the olympics although to a lesser extent. It's being part of something greater than yourself, the human community and all that for a month. It's nice. Of course if you don't give a shit then whatever, but it provides something you don't necessarily get elsewhere in life. That's all.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 13:07:51 GMT
In life you meet people who "don't listen to music" occasionally. It happens and it's a bit odd because you think how can you not bother with music, like, ever? But they don't give a shit but you do feel that they are missing out a bit.
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Post by oh oooh on Feb 10, 2019 13:14:51 GMT
No because your dismissals are trite and troll like I thought they were well thought-out and articulate. Get well soon!
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loveless
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Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
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Post by loveless on Feb 10, 2019 13:21:04 GMT
No because your dismissals are trite and troll like I thought they were well thought-out and articulate. Resonant, even.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Feb 10, 2019 13:26:41 GMT
No because your dismissals are trite and troll like I thought they were well thought-out and articulate. Get well soon! You'll be saying it's just 22 thick men kicking a leather ball about next. What's that all about, eh?! To go back to one of your earlier statements, there is as much a visceral reaction to a ball being kicked in the back of a net then there is to a punch in a boxing match. Especially when it's your team or your country. It's huge. It's even amplified because it can come out of seemingly nothing. A defender might hit a ball from 40s yards and, whack, it's a goal. It's a real thrill. It's magic.
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Post by oh oooh on Feb 10, 2019 13:30:54 GMT
I understand that. But it's all so SMALL. and FAR AWAY
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