Why do people "hate" football (soccer)?

[tomwalsh]

Time to stop all the BS. I think its great soccer gets bigger and we get ALL sports in melbourne/australia! AFL is big enough now to look after itself because it is the best sport in the world. We are so lucky to have it. No doubt the world LOVES AFL as a sport BUT its TOO hard a sport to implement because of space needed, number of players needed and lets face it horryfying to parents and unless there was major tradition no kid would play it. hence why rugby union is still played overseas yet what craziness that is!!

AFL in winter and Soccer in summer is great. Also gettin the NBL up would be great I think basketball is a great sport!

 

[NMFCMUFC]

lol, I know you!

- V2006

gestapo is everywhere

 

[NMFCMUFC]

But in the world cup, lots of players don't want to play for thier country. Like England, they play so much soccer, why do they do so badly?

England don't even know why they don't win it.

And name me one player who rejected a call up to the World Cup...

 

[HawkMongrel]

gestapo is everywhere

rofl

 

[Still Crowing]

Its already been mentioned, but it really gets my goat when people write off soccer.football as a foreign sport and thus isn't worthy of Australian support. I mean, honestly, who invented Rugby, Rugby League and Cricket - all of which some try to tell us is "in our blood"?

Finally, what could be MORE Australian than taking a sport the Poms invented and then working very hard until we're so much better than them at it that they hate to even play us in that sport? This is why we should put more effort towards the FFA and the A-League Cricket have dropped the ball(literally) and now the damned Poms are beating us in that. They haven't had the guts to play us at football since that special night in East London in 2003, Before Timmy and Harry retire from the Socceroos, we ought to play them again and pants them again for the LOLs

 

[mojito]

They haven't had the guts to play us at football since that special night in East London in 1993, Before Timmy and Harry retire from the Socceroos, we ought to play them again and pants them again for the LOLs

What about at Upton Park in 2003?

 

[vesra]

Having studied anthropology , which focuses on primitave people, I will say that Australian people are currently in a "us against them" mindset. Them being the foreign nations, and Australia being in a far corner of the world which is isolated from the rest.

If you encounter those tribal people from the Amazon jungle, its like that. They see a helicopter and become scared and wanna kill it.

This ties in with everything else they encounter. Then you put an aussie in a pug in some Euro country and they stand out like a fat slob talking loudly etc. Its better to just leave isolated and enjoy themselves. In a zoo you have to make a good environment for the animals so they feel comfortable

 

[HawkMongrel]

Having studied anthropology , which focuses on primitave people, I will say that Australian people are currently in a "us against them" mindset. Them being the foreign nations, and Australia being in a far corner of the world which is isolated from the rest.

If you encounter those tribal people from the Amazon jungle, its like that. They see a helicopter and become scared and wanna kill it.

This ties in with everything else they encounter. Then you put an aussie in a pug in some Euro country and they stand out like a fat slob talking loudly etc. Its better to just leave isolated and enjoy themselves. In a zoo you have to make a good environment for the animals so they feel comfortable

roffflllll, while I completely disagree with the overall generalisation it did make me laugh.

 

[Still Crowing]

What about at Upton Park in 2003?

Yes, that was what I meant, I can't believe I typed 1993 instead of 2003 no reason why I did it, just a brain explosion?

 

[HawkMongrel]

Yes, that was what I meant, I can't believe I typed 1993 instead of 2003 no reason why I did it, just a brain explosion?

 

[Still Crowing]

nWell after seeing that picture, I'm glad I used the term 'Brain explosion' instead of 'Brain Fart' *oops*
On the plus side, it did remind me to dig out the old DVD and have a watch of the game...can you believe a young lad by the name of Rooney got his international debut in the 2nd half that night after Sven ignored Beckham's plea to be allowed to make ammends and subbed off the entire England first XI?

 

[HawkMongrel]

nWell after seeing that picture, I'm glad I used the term 'Brain explosion' instead of 'Brain Fart' *oops*
On the plus side, it did remind me to dig out the old DVD and have a watch of the game...can you believe a young lad by the name of Rooney got his international debut in the 2nd half that night after Sven ignored Beckham's plea to be allowed to make ammends and subbed off the entire England first XI?

I've got that DVD too haha.

Also interesting that Francis Jeffers scored the goal for England back then, he was playing in the A-League last season.

 

[TheGreatBambino]

Italians, greeks, croatians think they run the game in melbourne (especially in my area), us aussies are outsiders in our own country!!!

 

[HawkMongrel]

Italians, greeks, croatians think they run the game in melbourne (especially in my area), us aussies are outsiders in our own country!!!

I do understand that point, there's a sense of entitlement to the sport. Those communities helped a lot in the early days when the sport was shunned to grow it.

But even owners of large companies step aside and let the board run things when they know their time is up.

I know many Greeks (though I'm not one myself) who still feel that SMFC "deserve" a place in the A-League and refuse to support it without them. Of course teams like that don't cater for your average Aussie supporter (by that I mean both your Anglo Aussies and New Aussies/> 2nd generation Aussies, etc).

While I loved watching SM play back in the day, I knew myself that the NSL's time was up. I'd already decided 5 years before the league was canned that all teams needed to be like Perth Glory.

Funnily enough my dream came true.

 

[peternorth]

Italians, greeks, croatians think they run the game in melbourne (especially in my area), us aussies are outsiders in our own country!!!

don't you think they are also aussies?

if they support/barrack for their parents/parents parents etc birthplace they get lambasted.

but at the same time they're called wogs, foreigners....

sometimes people cant win

 

[XFactor1979]

From a spectator perspective on why people hate soccer

The Refs stop the game and get finnicky over where to place the ball for a free kick, even if its not for a shot on goal

The game should be allowed to flow!

 

[Still Crowing]

From a spectator perspective on why people hate soccer

The Refs stop the game and get finnicky over where to place the ball for a free kick, even if its not for a shot on goal

The game should be allowed to flow!

See that to me is like a bloke saying: I don't like girls at all because I once saw a fat one. picking one flaw in the game and deciding you don't like it for that one reason comes across as pretty petty. I once heard a NSW-man say he couldn't stand the way the crowd yelled 'booo'(ball?) everytime there was a tackle in AFL...I thought he was crazy, but the parallels between that and what you wrote are obvious to me.

I personally think Rugby League is the biggest waste of space in the country, but I don't feel the urge to write in to RL articles in the paper trolling its fans. Soccer seems to get that from all angles. if you don't like it, that's cool. but the question in this thread is why does it attract the unreasonable(to me)level of hatred it does? why can't those that don't like it(and there are many who don't like it or understand it) just leave it be. If it succeeds, then it does. If it fails, then the country as a whole is worse off, as there is less choice, but why go out of ones way to project hatred towards something. Is it to get a rise out of passionate Soccer fans? Is it insecurity over the global reach of the game?

 

[TheGreatBambino]

[YOUTUBE]Mo4oUnpcmws[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Roos4eva]

^ Yeah, Rivaldo's a ****wit in that clip, but I never let that sort of s**t turn me off the game.

 

[Munga]

[YOUTUBE]Mo4oUnpcmws[/YOUTUBE]

The most popular game in the world, you're bound to get some f'wits. Just look how many wanka's we have in AFL, and there's only about 700 players!

 

[Zidane98]

Unfortunately in Australia there's too much focusing on negative incidents by the pro AFL media, eg you didn't see it reported on the news when Di Canio sportingly caught the ball and gave it back to Everton when their keeper was down injured yet any minor incident is blown out of proportion as "hooligans rioting etc etc".

When you look at how many footballers play the sport, the amount that are constantly diving / feigning injury is actually rather small. They are just focussed on too much unfortunately.

 

[XFactor1979]

Unfortunately in Melbourne there's too much focusing on negative incidents by the pro AFL media,

EFA

It doesnt help when you have incidents like this in places like Romania or whatever->

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/footbal...aller-punched-in-the-face-20111102-1mudv.html

 

[Hellgood]

I'll add my opinion as an outsider.

I've never been a huge soccer fan, being brought up in WA where Australian Football is pretty much the only thing, like the rest of the country I watched the lead up to and the 2006 World Cup, never really taken much of an interest in the A-League. I don't hate the sport, it's just not really for me. The thing I don't like is morons like Craig Foster spouting his venomous crap in his newspaper columns and on TV and the government not only bending over to Frank Lowy to throw 45 mill down the drain, but inventing a sport played by aboriginals and saying it has a connection with soccer.

As someone who occasionally watches Offsiders on ABC, I think a guy like Ange Postecoglou (not sure if spelt correctly) would be a brilliant ambassador for the sport. He's well respected in the sport, clearly a damn good coach, theres not even the slightest hint of the bitterness of Foster and he knows his stuff about the AFL and NRL as well. Replace Foster with someone like him and I think you will see attitudes towards your game change relatively quickly.

Don't say stuff like "it's the world game, we should be like everyone else" or that Australia lacks culture because it doesn't follow a particular sport. Don't go into direct competition with the AFL and NRL, have an attitude like "why not have a look at our game too", work with the AFL and NRL, to boost crowds you could have "double tickets" for fans who go to say an AFL game at the MCG during the day, then they can rock up to the new stadium in Melbourne at night.

Australia's a big place and can easily find a niche for all sports. I know I'm not really the person the OP is talking about, theres are flogs everywhere on those article comment things no matter what the subject, but I think a less aggressive "take them on, and take them over" approach would see a lot more goodwill towards your sport in this country.

 

[XFactor1979]

the thing is Soccer is a sport which acts like a common language in many ways, its simple to understand, the objective, if youre not the goalkeeper, use any part of your body other than your hands and get it in the back of the net, it counts as one

It doesnt matter if youre on a minefield like Iraq, Somalia or Tajikistan. Everyone knows what this sport is

Meanwhile->

 

[Papa G]

I'll add my opinion as an outsider.

I've never been a huge soccer fan, being brought up in WA where Australian Football is pretty much the only thing, like the rest of the country I watched the lead up to and the 2006 World Cup, never really taken much of an interest in the A-League. I don't hate the sport, it's just not really for me. The thing I don't like is morons like Craig Foster spouting his venomous crap in his newspaper columns and on TV and the government not only bending over to Frank Lowy to throw 45 mill down the drain, but inventing a sport played by aboriginals and saying it has a connection with soccer.

As someone who occasionally watches Offsiders on ABC, I think a guy like Ange Postecoglou (not sure if spelt correctly) would be a brilliant ambassador for the sport. He's well respected in the sport, clearly a damn good coach, theres not even the slightest hint of the bitterness of Foster and he knows his stuff about the AFL and NRL as well. Replace Foster with someone like him and I think you will see attitudes towards your game change relatively quickly.

Don't say stuff like "it's the world game, we should be like everyone else" or that Australia lacks culture because it doesn't follow a particular sport. Don't go into direct competition with the AFL and NRL, have an attitude like "why not have a look at our game too", work with the AFL and NRL, to boost crowds you could have "double tickets" for fans who go to say an AFL game at the MCG during the day, then they can rock up to the new stadium in Melbourne at night.

Australia's a big place and can easily find a niche for all sports. I know I'm not really the person the OP is talking about, theres are flogs everywhere on those article comment things no matter what the subject, but I think a less aggressive "take them on, and take them over" approach would see a lot more goodwill towards your sport in this country.

Not sure if it's in the AFL or NRL's interest to "work" with Soccer, but I agree with your Craig Foster point whole heartedly. The guy is a massive, massive tool. Don't mind soccer myself, lived in the UK for a couple of years and went to many games (mainly QPR, but a few Premier League and Champions League games), but never played it and am not passionate about it. The A league, from what I have seen is not of the best quality and holds little interest to me. But I definately don't hate it (Craig Foster excluded).