The National Game back soon.........

berliner

nuff said

tim_wand

Gotta admit I m a football nut. Every game I can get to home and away and have been playing for over 30 years now.

When we won the Olympics my only thought was, great we've stuffed the French. Then as the economy sank and the bill went up to £8 billion, I began to become a massive cynic.

Boris coming off that bus in Beijing and DB doing keepie uppies did nothing to change my view.

I thought typical PC liberal correct Britain, its not going to be about Elite sport, Citius, Altius , Fortius and Winning, its going to be about how diverse and multicultural we are.

Well since the opening ceremony I ve been Hooked, yes its celebrated our Diversity and Multiculturism, but by god for a small country we've kicked some arse too and its been great.

Any way my Point, the only disapointing bit has been the Footy, and Watching David Beckham try and stick his face in everywhere it will do "Brand Beckham a load of good"/ I hope to christ they dont let his Missus sing at the end.

Yes the National Game is back next week, But after a season of Terry, Suarez and Man City Millions it really does need to take a long hard look at itself before it can hold itself up to what has been an outstanding sporting event.

Hopefully these games will have provided role models and sports which arent the ones the Premier league has been creating for the last 15 years.

I love footy I love the game. but lets hope it does itself justice this season in all areas, not just the cliffhanger final day.

berliner

Bravo tim wand you say it better than me

daviesee

Well said Tim!

wiffachip

aye, but who do you support ?

Toon Army, 40 years home and away.

morstar

TBH, it depresses me but that's more to do with saturation coverage than anything else. To be in the middle of a spectacular olympics and still see back pages blathering on about a possible footie transfer; really?

I actually enjoy watching limited amounts of footy but the saturation coverage pushing all other sports so far down the coverage spectrum really does irritate.

I enjoy so many sports which is why I love the olympics and yet so many footie fans can see nothing beyond football. I just don't get it.

heavymental

I'm a footy fan, I play twice a week and enjoy watching MOTD and the tournaments but I'm not fanatical over any one team. I'm also acutely aware of the shortcomings of the Premiership and the English game in general. I find it funny to note that after every World Cup or Euro Champs the England players look so poor that I start to feel a bit cheated when the Premiership show rolls into town again. I think this year is a bit of a double whammy for that feeling of being cheated. Euro 2012 and Spain inparticular showed us how the game should be played (again) and England were again outclassed. Then the Olympics came along and every one of the Team GB medallists, well actually... all members of Team GB that I've see interviewed have been articulate, passionate, inspiring 'good eggs'.

It all gives me that 'here we go again' feeling when we get told the Premiership is the best league in the world and what a treat it is that it's about to start again. Euro 2012 for the football, and the Olympics for the people just makes you wish the FA would start to shake up the English game; introduce some wage caps and do something to improve the technical ability of our players from grassroots level rather than presenting it as a shining beacon of sporting endeavour. I doubt there's much you can do about the fact that footballers are mostly dullards though.

random man

I agree totally with Tim Wand - I've been a football fan since 1967 but I really question what it has to offer these days. Premier League games are overpriced and don't offer anything like value for money entertainment-wise.
Only non-league football can provide that IMO, and the players play for the love of it rather than the money a lot of the time.

Hopefully a lot of people in this country will come to a similar conclusion after watching the Olympics and realise there is a lot more to sport than watching a load of overpaid prima donnas in the Premiership.

Wirral_paul

Well i've always been a football fan but after the past two weeks or so, it really is like a case of the true, genuine sportsmen and women ending their games, and the overpaid, immature, primma-donna kids starting their season.

Compare some of the interviews given by the Olympians vs those of the football-ists and no competition - i could watch the enthusiasm of the olympians all day!!

xixang

morstar wrote:

TBH, it depresses me but that's more to do with saturation coverage than anything else. To be in the middle of a spectacular olympics and still see back pages blathering on about a possible footie transfer; really?

I actually enjoy watching limited amounts of footy but the saturation coverage pushing all other sports so far down the coverage spectrum really does irritate.

I enjoy so many sports which is why I love the olympics and yet so many footie fans can see nothing beyond football. I just don't get it.

+1. Give real sport a chance, not some stupid game (its not real sport) of a load of overpaid ponces running around for 90-odd minutes. Cannot stand the way it dominates the sports coverage, or even general tv for that matter. if the domestic stuff wasn't enough they've even started to show foreign league stuff. Cannot be doing with ANY domestic fookball, although i do quite enjoy international comps (no friendlies please). 9 months or so of naff tv coming up!

Cleat Eastwood

Brendan Rogers - that is all

tiredofwhiners

Turned on Tv to ITV today by accident. First thing I saw was a professional foul, followed by a diving player writhing on the field.

Turned over in disgust at normality resuming. Clearly the players haven't been reading the papers with the even lower opinion the public have of them these days.

Cleat Eastwood

Strangely enough at the moment for me, football is looking like a piece of pish with over-rated prima-donnas, compared to many Olympic sports....and yes I do include handball in that.

k-dog

Wirral_Paul wrote:

Well i've always been a football fan but after the past two weeks or so, it really is like a case of the true, genuine sportsmen and women ending their games, and the overpaid, immature, primma-donna kids starting their season.

Compare some of the interviews given by the Olympians vs those of the football-ists and no competition - i could watch the enthusiasm of the olympians all day!!

Frank Skinner said something like that when he was on the Olympics show last week - and the interviews are so much better than the average football player - he described it like he was almost ashamed of supporting these overgrown boys.

These people are real role models - decent hard working people it seems.

I think it's a shame too that TV and papers are so obsessed with football (and around here it's second-rate football at that) and irrelevant things going on when there is so much good stuff happening that people should know about - it would be great if on a Saturday you could watch rowing or cycling or gymnastics or any number of other great events - and football would only have it's fair share.

That would do a lot for sport in this country - rather than showing it every 4 years.

The government has a lot to do and the media could make a big difference too. It needs to be normal for people to enjoy these activities and for families to be able to go them. I wouldn't dream of taking my kids to football. That's not something I want them to see.

Gizmodo

22 blokes kicking a bag of wind. Rubbish sport full over over-paid bullys that think they are Gods gift.

National sport! We're rubbish at it - how many players in the premiership are actually British?

You can keep your football thanks.

rodgers73

Without wanting to defend Premiership footballers, lets not attribute complete sainthood to Olympic athletes just because the Games have gone well -

Cheating badminton players being booed by the crowd v diving/professional fouls in the Charity Shield anyone??

Olympics ticket lottery farce v expensive season tickets

Rubbish interviews and massive egos v that woman who didn't get picked for the women cycling team moaning on a lot and Usain Bolt declaring himself a living legend?

Hmmm...

daviesee

k-dog wrote:

I think it's a shame too that TV and papers are so obsessed with football (and around here it's second-rate football at that) and irrelevant things going on when there is so much good stuff happening that people should know about - it would be great if on a Saturday you could watch rowing or cycling or gymnastics or any number of other great events - and football would only have it's fair share.

Bring back World Of Sport. Those of "a certain age" will know of it.

Then again, maybe not. Wrestling as a mainstay?

I agree with the sentiments though.

OffTheBackAdam

Oh shyte!
Bunch of namby-pamby, over paid, under achieving primadonnas to dominate the screens and papers for another 9 bloody months!

capt_slog

The Olympics finishes and football starts.

Literally, the end of sport and back to business.

finchy

Now the Olympics are over, how many of us will get to see all of these top class athletes performing to their full potential every week? It's one thing getting into track and field for a couple of weeks once every 4 years, but I wonder what the viewing figures would be if they put athletics on TV on a more regular basis than the BBC currently do.

People are talking up the wonderful personalities of all the non-footballing saints who make up other sports, but why is it OK for Bradley Wiggins to swear constantly throughout interviews, but if a footballer did the same thing he'd be a foul-mouthed yob? And why is diving and feigning injury in football so much worse than the forms of cheating that go on in other sports? Too many sportsmen and women will cheat to gain an advantage in their chose game - maybe one day we will find out that a load of our medal winners were doped up to the eyeballs - and I really can't see why so many people elevate one sport to be the epitome of all that is bad in our society (well actually I can, it's because it's the most popular, obviously).

That said, I'm not particularly looking forward to the new season. It's too early.

dw300

Fouling is part of the game now, accept it and stop bitching. It's like basketball, you go on and take a foul if it stops a play in its tracks. You win set pieces, and reduce the ability of the other team to commit to tackles, or reduce their numbers. Until the rules are changed, it will happen. It would be unprofessional not to play right to the limits of the rules to help your team win. So blame FIFA, or the refs that don't apply the law properly, not the players, the officials are in control of how the game is played. FIFA want drama though, so it won't change. They are of the opinion that controversy promotes awareness of the game, and i think this thread proves that.

Also .. for the, no value for money people .. Man City would walk the World Cup, several other Premier League teams would make the final or win. That's how good our league is. And the strength of mid and low table teams is far better than any other league in the World.

Anonymous

dw300 wrote:

Fouling is part of the game now, accept it and stop bitching. It's like basketball, you go on and take a foul if it stops a play in its tracks. You win set pieces, and reduce the ability of the other team to commit to tackles, or reduce their numbers. Until the rules are changed, it will happen. It would be unprofessional not to play right to the limits of the rules to help your team win. So blame FIFA, or the refs that don't apply the law properly, not the players, the officials are in control of how the game is played. FIFA want drama though, so it won't change. They are of the opinion that controversy promotes awareness of the game, and i think this thread proves that.

Also .. for the, no value for money people .. Man City would walk the World Cup, several other Premier League teams would make the final or win. That's how good our league is. And the strength of mid and low table teams is far better than any other league in the World.

But Football is still full of nobbers.

k-dog

And that's nothing like basketball. There's a big difference between tricking someone into touching you or being in position for them to run into you (depends if we're talking offensive or defensive fouls here) and going down like you've been shot when someone runs by you.

Sure, there are guys who are better at selling fouls and there's a degree of acting in that - but modern footballers go way over the top.

Wirral_paul

rodgers73 wrote:

Cheating badminton players being booed by the crowd v diving/professional fouls in the Charity Shield anyone??

The badminton players were more a case of a flawed system forced upon them than cheating - especially when you're competing for your country and trying to avoid your team mates before the final (as the chinese pair were). Round robin leagues are not a good idea when the final round of games isn't on at the same time - so you cant try playing for 2nd in your league to get an easier draw.

Change the system for the next olympics please - straight knockout system with more players entered to keep the number of games high.

finchy

dw300 wrote:

Also .. for the, no value for money people .. Man City would walk the World Cup, several other Premier League teams would make the final or win. That's how good our league is. And the strength of mid and low table teams is far better than any other league in the World.

So? Having the best players doesn't actually make the league more exciting. In 3 of the 4 biggest leagues in the world (England, Italy and Spain), we have ended up with 2 or maybe 3 teams having, in most games, a substitutes bench which is worth more than the opposition's starting XI. Sooner or later we're going to end up like Spain, where the only unpredictable aspect is the order in which Barcelona and Real Madrid finish.

airbag

dw300 wrote:

Fouling is part of the game now, accept it and stop bitching... FIFA... are of the opinion that controversy promotes awareness of the game, and i think this thread proves that.

Agree, unfortunately for me it's a huge turn off. I don't want to see a team win because they've got the best luck on close goal-line/off-side/etc calls, or because they're the best at cheating officials - I want to see the best football players, and the modern game doesn't do that anywhere near as well as should. I'd rather see a limited number of official challenges like tennis, and any disrespect towards the officials other than those challenges earns a red at the very least. Football in its current form is poisoned to me in the same way Festina-era cycling was. But as you say, if FIFA thinks it pulls in 5 punters for every 1 it turns away, it's a good decision to keep it.

Though to be fair, I do also have the sort of mindset that rejects popular things out of pointless teenage rebellion: 'oh, you think I'd really like this? And so does everyone else? Well SCREW YOU! I'm not going to do something just because society tells me too!' *sulks in room for a bit*

bompington

Wirral_Paul wrote:

The badminton players were more a case of a flawed system forced upon them than cheating - especially when you're competing for your country and trying to avoid your team mates before the final (as the chinese pair were)

I've got a great idea - let's limit the competition to one pair per country. That'll stop everyone complaining.

roypsb

I used to absolutely live an breathe football - Brentford home and many aways, and always watch any football om the TV. World Cups and Euro Champsionships were the Holy Grail.

In recent years, my love of it has gradually declined to the point now where I am far more interested in cycling, both riding and watching (any race that's on Euorsport). I thinkt is a combination of the following:

1. The rise in popularity since the EPL has introduced a whole new breed of "fans" who know nothing beyond the EPL. They are ignorant ba5tards.
2. The amount of money at the top is immoral - yep, we all know that.
3. I think the majority of players these days (not just EPL) are a complete bunch of to55ers. I honestly would not give them the time of day.

Keep an eye on things still but well and truly fallen out of love with it. Anyone else feel like this?

y33stu

[quote="RoyPSB"Keep an eye on things still but well and truly fallen out of love with it. Anyone else feel like this?[/quote]

Yep. Always been a big football fan, but really cant be bothered with the new season. The Olympics have shown us all what it means to be a "professional sportsperson". And Footballers IMO are the least professional sports people around. 2 things showed me in the Olympics how this is the case.

1. The footage of Chris Hoy doing lactic acid tests in training, over and over, until he needs to be carried off the bike, and he's then sick. What footballer ever puts that much effort into any part of their 3 hour a day training?

2. The interview by our two Rowers (name escapes me) who WON A SILVER medal, and being interviewed looked wrecked, and said sorry for letting everyone down, in a heart braking speech. What prem league footballer will ever feel those emotions, when they lose and still pick up £200k a week.

Over paid, under performing, pathetic. Sure there are a few who aren't. But not many.

finchy

y33stu wrote:

1. The footage of Chris Hoy doing lactic acid tests in training, over and over, until he needs to be carried off the bike, and he's then sick. What footballer ever puts that much effort into any part of their 3 hour a day training?

Dunno, from what I've heard the pre-season fitness training can be fierce. I've done a few of the exercises from FourFourTwo's pro training sections and I nearly puked afterwards.

Try this one for starters:

Sprint to 18 yard line.
Jog back to 6 yard line.
Sprint to halfway line.
Jog back to 18 yards.
Sprint to opposite 18 yard line.
Jog back to halfway.
Sprint to 6 yard line.
Jog back to 18 yards.
Sprint to goal line.

Repeat as many times as you can.
Collapse in a heap, exhausted.

rodgers73

First gold medal of the games rescinded due to doping -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19242736

Any changes of mind on the "purity" of Olympians v footballers?