QuoteA Scottish clothing company has been warned by police over t-shirts expressing the hope that Anyone but England wins this summers World Cup.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/24022010/58/world-cup-2010-company-warned-football-t-shirt.html

Seems ideal, England gets put out in the first round and we can ignore footie on TV for another 4 years

Awesome. Ill be picking one of those up.

Edit : lol, I hadnt even considered the whole pseudo "racist" argument to them considering it was a Scottish shop selling them.

I just like the idea because I cant stand the way football fever sweeps the nation and its rammed down our throats morning noon and f**king night.

Quote from: Chris HAwesome. Ill be picking one of those up.

Edit : lol, I hadnt even considered the whole pseudo "racist" argument to them considering it was a Scottish shop selling them.

I just like the idea because I cant stand the way football fever sweeps the nation and its rammed down our throats morning noon and f**king night.

muc cheaper than buying an algeria, slovenia & USA football tops.

Football is gods only gift to the whole world








not counting me of course  

Quote from: Chris HAwesome. Ill be picking one of those up.

Edit : lol, I hadnt even considered the whole pseudo "racist" argument to them considering it was a Scottish shop selling them.

I just like the idea because I cant stand the way football fever sweeps the nation and its rammed down our throats morning noon and f**king night.

Its rammed down our throats because, like it or not, 99% of the nation love it.
I sure you wouldnt be complaining if goth night was on TV or something.

Quote from: Sam

Quote from: Chris HAwesome. Ill be picking one of those up.

Edit : lol, I hadnt even considered the whole pseudo "racist" argument to them considering it was a Scottish shop selling them.

I just like the idea because I cant stand the way football fever sweeps the nation and its rammed down our throats morning noon and f**king night.

Its rammed down our throats because, like it or not, 99% of the nation love it.
I sure you wouldnt be complaining if goth night was on TV or something.

Thankfully its not 99% of the nation, otherwise that would make me a member of the 1% that actually has a functioning brain.

Just because you dont like football doesnt mean you have to be jealous that you wont be enjoying the euphoria of the world cup.

Quote from: SamIts rammed down our throats because, like it or not, 99% of the nation love it.
I sure you wouldnt be complaining if goth night was on TV or something.

On Average less people watch The World Cup than watch the British F1 GP.  More People participate in Fishing than play football even including Sunday League level.  Thankfully I have a couple of pubs round me that actively dont put football on during the world cup, and they are normally pretty busy for it.  One of them actually took out the TV sets last time!

Quote from: SamJust because you dont like football doesnt mean you have to be jealous that you wont be enjoying the euphoria of the world cup.

If people want to enjoy the world cup then thats fine by me. I personally find watching a group of over paid drama queens kick a ball up and down a pitch for 90 minutes absurd, but if you get something out of it then more power to you. However I abhor turning the news on to hear about some daft insignificant fact being reported (surely if youre a fan then you already know, and if youre not a fan then you dont need to know?) Most newspapers have it splashed all over the front page and run a series of mind numbing articles about the so called "beautiful game". No matter where you go someone will want to discuss it with you, and will look at you as though youre sub-human when you utter "I have no interest in football". And nothing is more infuriating than having normal TV scheduling all re-arranged just so they can put a "game" on to amuse the knuckle draggers.

Another thing that really gets under my skin is the completely false patriotism that pervades almost every aspect of society. The George Cross flags come out, bunting starts to adorn the most bizarre places, everyone dons their England shirts, yet what are they actually celebrating? Nothing to do with the achievements of their country (you really cant count being good at kicking a pigs bladder into a net as an "achievement") yet everyone feels the need to run around shouting "yay for England" at every opportunity. Its an absolute farce, to be completely honest.

The best part of the world cup is that everyone rallies around the flag. Brings out a sense of pride so sorely lacking in Britain.

And the reason its "all over the news" is that, like I said, virtually everyone else is interested. Personally I couldnt give a crap about cricket but I dont cry that its on BBC news.

The people who complain about it - go turn off the TV. No one is forcing you to watch it.

And lets not even begin with the "overpaid drama queens" bit. Theyre paid no more no less than people in other entertainment industries.

So no its not an absolute farce. Youre just annoyed you dont like it and cant join in.

Oh and to call us "knuckle draggers", well its just a little bit pathetic to resort to name calling isnt it.

Quote from: Beaker

Quote from: SamIts rammed down our throats because, like it or not, 99% of the nation love it.
I sure you wouldnt be complaining if goth night was on TV or something.

On Average less people watch The World Cup than watch the British F1 GP.  More People participate in Fishing than play football even including Sunday League level.!

Of course its not the most popular sport to play. Why? Because you need to be fit for one! 60 year old man cant be running around a pitch all day, and of course you need at least 6/8 people to have a game. Anyone can nip off down the park to do a bit of fishing. However thats all irrelevant to how popular a spectator sport is so not sure what your point is.

Now, as usual for people on here, you failed to back up your statistics. My research shows that the viewing figures for BF1 is
4 July 2008   British Grand Prix   4,530,000 [1]
(I doubt its doubled since then).

BBCs own figures give me this:
average audience to BBC 4.6m, ITV 3.0m [2]
(Thats average 2002 world cup which was crap, so prob higher since then, but even if not it still roughly double)

And even if your original quote was true, (and Ive now proved that you just make things up) then its an unfair comparison. Bulgaria vs Greece has no British involvement. Be interested to see what the average viewing figures are for a England game...here we go

BBC ONE - match average 12.4m, peak 13.1m [2]
(This was Brazil vs England but they were all roughly the same, Sweden game was higher)

Couldnt be more wrong really. I await your apology.


[1] http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/10/06/uk-f1-tv-figures-up-by-half-a-million/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/07_july/01/worldcup_figures.shtml

no real interest in the rest of the thread, (Im a member of the "no real interest in footie, so Ill put a DVD on" crowd) but just had to say kudos for the correct referencing Sam!

i dont like the media around football these days.. if players want to shag around, thats upto them, but they shouldnt throw in buzz
words like internationals, world cup, etc. - but its done just to help people understand why their soaps wont be on as much in the summer.

Football is the new opera. No longer a working mans game at the top level, they have been priced out of it.

Quote from: SamThe best part of the world cup is that everyone rallies around the flag. Brings out a sense of pride so sorely lacking in Britain.

And the reason its "all over the news" is that, like I said, virtually everyone else is interested. Personally I couldnt give a crap about cricket but I dont cry that its on BBC news.

The people who complain about it - go turn off the TV. No one is forcing you to watch it.

And lets not even begin with the "overpaid drama queens" bit. Theyre paid no more no less than people in other entertainment industries.

So no its not an absolute farce. Youre just annoyed you dont like it and cant join in.

Oh and to call us "knuckle draggers", well its just a little bit pathetic to resort to name calling isnt it.

It is an opium for the people (and an effective one judging by Sams stats) to divert their minds from things that matter
like  government f**k ups, war, poverty, climate changes etc.

Quote from: SamThe best part of the world cup is that everyone rallies around the flag. Brings out a sense of pride so sorely lacking in Britain.

To be fair, while the world cup might - and even Ill watch a few games of it - what football actually brings out for the majority of the time is a lot of hooligans that want a good excuse to cave someones head in. And just because other sports are well paid too doesnt diminish the fact that footballers are still overpaid drama queens.

Also, the figures you quote are really skewed in all fairness, F1 is on most weekends because theres active British drivers/teams and its a regular occurance, whereas a World Cup match with England playing is bound to draw more attention as its a much more infrequent world spectacle. IMO, figures for Man Utd vs Arsenal and it will be more comparable.