• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

Turning your back on football?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Don't think I'd ever turn my back on football altogether but my love of the sport has massively diminished over the last 5 years or so. Ironically it was the revelations of what Margaret Byrne knew about the Adam Johnson case that started my disillusionment with football as a whole, absolutely no morals or decency whatsoever at the top level.
 

I stopped going to see Sunderland when they appointed Di Canio and distanced myself from the club til they sacked him. I just couldn’t condone my club by managed by someone openly holding fascist views (cue snowflake etc insults - I don’t care - my principles and I stick by them).

I generally haven’t been bothered by football outside of Sunderland games / the league they are in for years bar a passing interest in following the results of clubs my close mates support and of a few clubs abroad that I’ve seen play over the years plus South Shields (because I was born there).
 
This might sound bizarre but I'd love to. I wish I could find another sport I could love as much. Football is virtually a lost cause for all but a handful of clubs in each country. Unless a sovereign state takes you over, even the average single digit billionaire is going to struggle to make an impact. The wages, agents, play acting. It's just a shitshow these days and it just moves farther away from the average man on the street every year.
 
I feel as you get older you have other commitments, other interests (drink and girls :lol:) and other priorities anyway. Also if you read anything about the history of sport you know that since their inception people having been walking away from them on the basis they're getting "too commercial"

However, since Sunderland got relegated/really shit I've basically stopped watching any games other then ours, or other leagues. I don't even play FIFA or football manager anymore. Couldn't tell you who's top of the PL or who is the top scorer for example.

Used to mad for it all, but then again I was 15 years old or something.
 
All the diving for starters. More play acting than most WWF matches. Commentators who go along with it and not call it as it is. Sometimes it is so obvious. Top clubs going on as if they have a right to be in the CL.
The euro league showed them for what they are. The hype is another thing. People going overboard about decent players.
There only two or three world class players in the EPL. The rest range from shit to good.
Too many things to list. It is a simple game played, watched and talked about by everyone.
The media treat them as gods.
 
I'm a bit of an odd one when it comes to watching football. As far as live games go (be it at the game or on TV) I love watching football as much as ever. The top flight is arguably as good as it's ever been in terms of quality, and we're winning games and fairly entertaining at the moment. But for me I'm most intrigued with the tactics of each team/coach and how they fare against each other, especially those right at the top of the game. Some people find that boring, I find it fascinating.

On the flip side, I have no real interest in watching highlights because it doesn't show me anything, I can't get into watching a game if I've missed the first few minutes, and I don't really care who's winning or losing to be honest.
 
Last edited:
apart from our matches, it’s only ever a Sunday when I will watch any football. Actually enjoy watching some Pl games as a neutral more than I ever have done. maybe it’s because we’re so far off for it to have any impact on us.

never really watch midweek football and haven’t got a clue about overseas aside from the headline stuff. Also totally oblivious when mates are talking about players, teams at our level - I haven’t got a clue!
 
LJP1786 said:
I definitely don’t watch as much football as I did. I would have watched as much as I could have once upon a time. Marriage, kids and work commitments change that I guess but I only tend to watch a few games even when I have time.

I couldn’t turn my back on Sunderland though, I almost see it as two separate things.
Click to expand...
Absolutely this. Have felt this way for a while. Love and live sunderland but pretty much ambivalent about football in general
 
I got rid of Sky during the summer and it’s definitely helped me enjoy football more. I appreciate when a game is on terrestrial TV now and I don’t have to suffer all the bullshit that sky sports spout all day.
 
JL1985 said:
I got rid of Sky during the summer and it’s definitely helped me enjoy football more. I appreciate when a game is on terrestrial TV now and I don’t have to suffer all the bullshit that sky sports spout all day.
Click to expand...
I only got Sky because since moving down here I couldn't get terrestrial TV even though the house has an Arial. However Bilsdale fettled that.
 
Football now is not the game I grew up with. In the 60's and 70's I went to every home game and as many away games as work would allow. The excitement of The Cup draws, and the atmosphere on the terraces has been lost. Media money and players wages have killed the game. I still have my sc card, for Sunderland and always will, but the premiership, and international games have just become a farce, and a platform for arrogance, posture and political agenda. I don't watch any other matches but Sunderland, and have only a passing interest in other results. I doubt at the moment I could name many PL managers if asked.
 
I used to love watching Gillette Soccer Saturday to see the goals going in, never been a fan of Final Score, would watch any big premier league game that was on the TV over the weekend, British teams in the champs league and European cup competitions during the week too, nowadays just watch SAFC and parts of premier league games on TV or catch the highlights on youtube premier league channel, even the England game last night tried watching it twice and just got bored after 10 minutes each time. When the Euro's were on was probably the first time in years I had watched quite a lot of football because a lot of the games were quality. They finished and just back to watching SAFC mainly, football just isn't what it was years ago
 
I know a few mags who have fucked off Newcastle to get involved in Northern league clubs. People who went home and away too. One of them told me he used to go to away games when it was all gadgies with taches who would chin you for spilling their pint and now it's all daft young uns hoying their beer about. I think that might just be another way of saying he's got old.

I like to think I'd walk away if we were bought by a terrorist state led by an actual murderer, but in reality I go for the beer and the crack, an excuse to go out round Sunderland and to see lads I only ever see there and I'm not sure I'd give all that up to make a political point that wouldn't change anything and no one would notice.

I flirted with the idea of boycotting the club when Stew and Charlie were taking the piss out of us, but why should I suffer when they are the arseholes? I reached a happy medium of going to the match but sneaking in on my niece's SC, and buying the kids feyenoord strips from dhgate instead of Sunderland strips :oops::lol:.
 
I watch Sunderland and that is it! I’ve no interest in the Prem league anymore, or even the championship. I watched the England game last night and didn’t know half the players. I think the glory days of football has long gone, I’m not impressed by the money, wages or players. It used to be a working class game but now it’s showbiz. But much like most of society these days I find myself slowly disengaging as nothing has any substance anymore and it’s all about populist fleeting nonsense, that is designed to provoke a like, or a comment! And then it’s on to the next thing
 
Back in the day it was everything. I was a bit of a miserable kid but just for that day on the Fulwell it was enormous. I was part of this massive community. My happiest days were when me and my mate would get the bus, just sit on the Fulwell steps and watch the warm ups.

And the away trips were magnificent, smashed bus windows and all. For a 16 yr old it was immense.

I was so obsessed with footy I'd even go to St James with my school best mate who was a mag. Into uni days and I'd be in the pub with my uni mate just watching Sunday matches making 2 pints last all day.

Kind of lost touch with both of them and sums up how football is dying in me. Am just so pleased I experienced it. When programmes and the footy echo were prized things.
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
It's always been different for me because my dad is a mag tbh. Never had the thing of going to matches with my dad on a weekend. The only time we support the same side is when England play so it's been something I look forward to from being young.

Generally though I like the fact that the Saudis or whatever can't buy success in international football, so in that way it's more "pure". If you want to improve you can try spending big money on a foreign manager, or calling up anyone with a grandparent from your country. Other than that all you can do is invest a lot in grass roots, get better facilities, invest in coaching. That's stuff that benefits everyone in the country when there's good facilities that people can use regardless of ability. Helps get people healthy etc. I love that side of it. England can't just say "fuck it, we'll buy Mbappe"
Click to expand...
i wholehearted agree, international football is the pure form of the game the best 11 vs 11 on the field of play, and whoever comes out best wins the trophy.
 
FN-2187 said:
Do you know anyone who has just said, sod this and walked away from football.

They are sick of the way the game has gone, the money, the pretty much no chance of winning anything for your team. So much so that they just say fuck it. They don't talk about it, post about it, just live their lives as if football doesn't exist.

I haven't. I do know a couple of people who don't have any interest in football and have always been that way.
Click to expand...
I only go to watch Sunderland, I haven’t been watching or interested in any PL or Championship football. My sons are starting to play, so tbh I’m getting much more interested in watching them.
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
If anything the worse club football gets, the more I like internationals. But I'd never stop supporting Sunderland or England, and tbh I doubt I'd ever completely stop watching other football either
Click to expand...
Clearly people feel different, but at the end of the day all the off the pitch stuff never really affects my view of football. Like I have no emotional investment in football being a particular way. I just a) like watching the game as a sport; and b) have a partisan bond, likely unbreakable, to Sunderland and England.

The bond weakens when the teams are obviously hopeless - hardest season for me was the Champo one, recently. Getting pumped in that division felt tougher than the record low points ones in the Prem, definitely.

Ditto, England under Hodgson, to the point where I just laughed when the lost to Iceland. That was a crap few years of football.

But now? Loving it. Not arsed by the finances, it's just a game and I can afford the TV and tickets when I want.

The main thing that affects how much I watch is becoming a parent - just more to do in rest of life now.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top