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NorthernGent -> RE: Futbol! (12/19/2006 1:26:29 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Devilslilsister
One of the things that ALWAYS bothers me is when i run into americans that tell me soccer is for girls. If i cant convince them that they are wrong - i try and shrug them off as small town, havent a clue about how the world works, incompetent fools. Sometimes to put things into nicer thoughts like they're just small towned. Or just inexperienced.
I dont keep up with soccer or futbol. I played it most my child hood, my brother played it most his childhood, my cousin still plays, and i know quite a few brits who enjoy the game. I know how the brits feel about their futbol. Massive fights at the games, aye.
BUT i just watched an awesome movie about the brits and their futbol. - ) I knew they got rough - but daaaaaaamn. Obviously its "just" a movie, but i've also friends all over the world and spoke to an old one this morning about it. The movie has the way of it. They're actually "firms" and they do clash. Damn do they clash. Bunch of rowdy men some of the brits are = ) I've always known this, dated a few (and not americanized ones either) and i know what goes on at the clubs too. An x told me about a girl who pissed off some other girls in a club.. girl got dropped with a hammer. Talk about ow.
Anywho - i've decided to end the debate i keep running into. American soccer maybe for girls - but for the rest of the world........
::sigh:: i just wish the movie hadnt ended with the sexy, intelligent, funny, scraper dying of all things. Dunno why they have to ruin good movies to make a point. Anyone see the movie? Green Street hooligans?
Devilslilsister,
I'm going to bore the tits off you here so apologies in advance.
Football in Britain is wrapped up in the social fabric and it's very tribal. It's also considered the working classes' game. Since the start of the game young lads and men would go to the games, drink a wheel-barrowload of beer and brawl (not big and clever but the truth nevertheless). The game has changed a lot here since its commercialisation in the early '90s but believe it or not football was some peoples' lives. When I say lives, I mean loads of people spent all of their money watching their team playing home and away, all the way around the country at the expense of everything else life has to offer. An obsession for many. Now I wouldn't say it was my life but between about 1985 and 1991 I probably missed about only a dozen of my teams matches whether the games were at home or 300 miles away. I would never have dreamed of watching a game on TV, I had to be there. I pretty much did whatever I could to get the games - if the game was 200 miles away and I had no money it was pretty much get on the train and either hide in the toilets there and back or tell the ticket collector to fuck off when he came round asking for the money - not much he could do with a train full of pissed-up lads all telling him the same thing (I was 12-18 in those years so short of cash). Now, I would never have done that in any other situation but there is something about British football that is gripping for young British working class lads and before the commercialisation of the game young working class lads just had to be there watching their team even if it meant begging, borrowing and stealing. It's a tradition handed down from generations - sons support the team their fathers did and football for the British working classes was/is an extension of civic pride - pride in the town/city you come from and the football team is a representation of the town. It sounds small minded, maybe it is, but that's life.
Unfortunately, it's now fucked thanks to Thatcher and Murdoch who smashed everything working class in order to foster soulless individualism that now has an iron grip on Britain. You go to a football game in Britain now and it's full of middle class who don't have a clue about the game. The working class has been priced out of the game in a deliberate policy (you can watch football at a top Italian game for £10, in England you're looking at anywhere between £35-£200). The middle class have moved in because it has been very well marketed by Sky and Murdoch and they've followed like sheep - the same tossers who used to play golf on a Saturday afternoon until the new fashionable face of football was presented. They'll never get it because they don't understand it. Now, I still go to about 20 games a season (of 42) but it's not the same game at all - the soul has gone out of it and it is a mirror image of the changes in British society which today is all about style over substance (obviously I pay my dues these days!).
In terms of football hooliganism, it could be severe and get completely out of hand but most of the time it wasn't as bad as was made out. Slashings/stabbings did happen and on odd occasions people were killed. People going into grounds had all sorts confiscated - darts, knives, bats, hammers, belts, CS Gas, amonia, death stars - you name it, some were for show others were lunatics who would use these things. On the otherhand, I know the US has a history of crowd violence at Ice Hockey games so maybe English football has its comparison elsewhere. What it comes down to is this: young, rough lads in Britain used football as a vehicle/arena to brawl because it was an ideal opportunity for gang fights - what better opportunity is there than thousands of young men at a game from rival towns/cities facing each other? You have to remember that British towns/cities are relatively close to each other when compared with the US and even France and Spain so when an English team plays in a different town/city if they're a big club you'll have anything up to 15,000 people there from the away team (in the 80s the vast majority being men between 14 and 40) with about 35,000 from the home team. As I say, it was a concoction of a real passion for a sport, a lot of young men from different towns in an area together and too much beer. Ultimately, it was gang violence no different to what you have on US streets except the weapon of choice for a young British lad is a knife and maybe a gun in the US.
Hooliganism is dead and buried today because the prison sentences are harsh. Imagine this, in Britain you can get 4 years for throwing a punch at a football match, you can get done for conspiracy to cause violence for just being in the area where violence is taking place and locked up for a few years (honestly). Yet rapists and paedophiles are out after 4 years? It's crazy when you consider the severity of the crimes. That's Britain though, working-class lads throwing punches are deemed to be more dangerous than paedophiles, all part of Thatcher's well-laid and executed plan to demonise the working class with the support of the media.
If you're still awake, well done. I did warn you it was going to be a long haul!
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