DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Thaddeans
HTML https://thaddeans.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Coffee shop
*****************************************************
#Post#: 17196--------------------------------------------------
Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: guest18 Date: July 1, 2024, 4:48 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I have no interest in any sort of sport at all. My late father
was a keen fan of football, formula 1 racing, cricket and
tennis. However when the teams he supported won, he was very
pleased but didn't behave in the way so many fans of sport do
today,thank goodness!
#Post#: 17197--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: Stephen Horsfall Date: July 1, 2024, 5:41 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I agree. Look at this idiot making a fool of himself after
England's win.
#Post#: 17281--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: Beverly Date: July 6, 2024, 1:58 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Just watched the Eng v Sui EURO2024 game. Congrats England!
😄
#Post#: 17285--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: Gregory Date: July 7, 2024, 2:42 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Like Blueroses, I have no interest in sport myself. Fortunately,
I was spared from engaging in sports and PT at my old school,
where sports were an important element, because of health
problems. Moreover, I don't feel any patriotic pride if the
England team wins in international competitions as it's really
nothing to do with the country itself, just a game played by
highly overpaid men (and now women) who are basically the modern
equivalent of the gladiators in the Roman arenas or jousting
knights in the Middle Ages. It could even be seen as a kind of
ersatz substitute for war where nobody gets killed.
As for the disgraceful behaviour of many football fans, with the
supporters of some teams worse than others, it is certainly a
blight on the game. When I was growing up in the 1950's and
early 1960's there was no such phenomenon with well-behaved
crowds at matches. Also, the players were not pampered, overpaid
superstars. I remember reading that Stanley Matthews, perhaps
the most famous footballer of the post-war years, just received
a normal salary like any other qualified professional and with a
modest lifestyle.
#Post#: 17289--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: gwinnie Date: July 7, 2024, 4:03 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I played hockey through childhood and loved it. The rules are
similar to football so I do enjoy watching football, and get
invested in the outcome of big games.
Yes, it is a spectacle with parallels to the Roman times! If
it’s one’s ‘thing’, it’s great fun.
When the crowd are on form, it’s a great family atmosphere in a
stadium, with banter and singing and cheering, and shared
emotions in response to the thrills and spills on the pitch.
Football is also a good icebreaker when meeting new people. (I
personally rely more on the weather, pets and tales of public
transport!)
However, football is a very male-dominated sport, and it does
attract the ‘macho’ elements. I don’t like being in crowds so
going to a stadium has always been a very occasional thing. I’m
more often found in a pub with TV screen for the big games.
There is some interesting research on crowd behaviour after the
tragedy at Hillsborough. It seems to be that the whole becomes
greater than the sum of the parts. I will have to find the
references but i recall reading that a crowd acts more like a
body of water than a group of individuals, with eddies and
currents forming. People literally get swept along! I also seem
to recall this is not just with respect to movement through an
enclosed space, but also behaviour, especially where alcohol is
involved. NB that does not mean that if someone with a peaceful
disposition was swept off that they would start hurling bottle
caps at police, but a young and impressionable person could be
at risk.
As to footballers salaries, this is just the way the free market
operates. If football lost favour with the masses, and people
went to cheer on another field of human endeavour, that would
change overnight! In my opinion, mental health nurses, prison
officers, and youth workers working to extract young people from
violent gangs etc should have their very important and often
dangerous work rewarded on these scales.
ETA - A further thought on Greg’s suggestion that the big
sporting spectacles may be a substitute for war. This is such an
interesting point. I wonder if they do indeed help to maintain
world peace (to an extent…)!!!
#Post#: 17290--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: guest18 Date: July 7, 2024, 4:22 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I had to take part in sport when I was child. I was actually
quite good at it, although it never interested me.
#Post#: 17291--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: gwinnie Date: July 7, 2024, 4:27 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Moving is good for body and mind, but that doesn’t mean it has
to be limited to team sports! My GP surgery offers yoga and a
walking group! However, I do agree with team sports for school
age children because they promote pro-social skills, especially
important for those at risk of being pulled into gangs and
violence.
#Post#: 17292--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: Gregory Date: July 7, 2024, 5:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Replying to Gwinnie's post-before-last:
"Yes, it is a spectacle with parallels to the Roman times! If
it’s one’s ‘thing’, it’s great fun."
Well, as I said, it's not my thing and my idea of collective fun
is limited in numbers. I may be Gregory by name but I'm not
gregarious by nature!
When the crowd are on form, it’s a great family atmosphere in a
stadium,
Well, I'm not really a 'family person' as an only child with a
solitary upbringing and enjoying my own company (I was often
beside myself!) As Tolstoy says at the beginning of 'Anna
Karenina', "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is
unhappy in its own way". I was spared either.
There is some interesting research on crowd behaviour after the
tragedy at Hillsborough. It seems to be that the whole becomes
greater than the sum of the parts.
The standard work on the subject is 'Crowds and Power' by Elias
Canetti (1960). Although it's not included in his book, the
fickleness of crowds is exemplified in the New Testament
accounts of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. At first, the
assembled crowds give him a vociferous welcome, showering him
with palm leaves and a week later they're crying out, "Crucify
him! Crucify him!" To my mind, crowds are the enemies of
individualism and independent thought.
A further thought on Greg’s suggestion that the big sporting
spectacles may be a substitute for war. This is such an
interesting point. I wonder if they do indeed help to maintain
world peace (to an extent…)
Not really a substitute per se. Wars have continued alongside
sporting events and the 1936 Olympic Games were held in Berlin
under Hitler on the eve of the Second World War, hardly
maintaining world peace. And I doubt whether Russia and Ukraine
could be persuaded to settle their differences on a football
pitch rather than the battlefield. Sports and games (even chess)
are a kind of conflict with the fangs drawn but with no effect
on the political or international situation. In fact, I recall
that two South American countries - El Salvador and Honduras -
went to war following a football match some years ago.
#Post#: 17375--------------------------------------------------
Re: Why do many sports fans behave like complete idiots?
By: guest18 Date: July 13, 2024, 5:39 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=gwinnie link=topic=219.msg17291#msg17291
date=1720344467]
Moving is good for body and mind, but that doesn’t mean it has
to be limited to team sports! My GP surgery offers yoga and a
walking group! However, I do agree with team sports for school
age children because they promote pro-social skills, especially
important for those at risk of being pulled into gangs and
violence.
[/quote]
One doesn't have to take part in sport to move around a lot. I
have my morning walk usually before 7am, then for the rest of
the day I am up and down the stairs many times a day, and I have
a stepper in my bedroom too.
*****************************************************