The bloody football.

[matgb]

recursived asks here:

[Poll #740251]

Well? OK, I know that some of you bastards actually like football, but, y'know, football. Can we just get it over with? Also, I work in the travel industry. Specifically, for a German tour operator at one of their UK destinations. Our busiest arrival day of the year? The weekend of the finals. Great.

Comments

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Football Shmootball. I say England get kicked out ASAP so I can go back to eating pot noodles and watching Big Brother without being disturbed by louts from the pub.

PS: no, the pun wasn't intended.

[matgb]

Well, yeah, I voted for that. Not with you on the pot noodle thing. Or the big brother thing. Or indeed the 'watching TV' thing, but there y'go.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm a student! The government pays me to watch shit tv, eat junk food and not change my underwear for 3 days! *lol*

[matgb]

Well, yeah, I guess. Bloody students...

*is jealous and wishes could afford to go back and study more*

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

*sympathetic pats on the head*

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

If England wins stuff, we lose our free venue for LARP for several weeks...so not in favour

[matgb]

How does that work?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Our free venue is a pub in a chain. If England wins, the owner has to make the pub available for football stuff. Otherwise, as he prefers it, he closes it to the public and the roleplayers get it.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Can you not just "conveniently happen to walk in" just as a pint glass jumps through the tv screen? ;)

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Um, not really, given that our events have upwards of 25 people, and require entire areas of the pub just for setting alone...

[jackthomas.livejournal.com]

As soon as the constant nattering at work stops I will be happy. If I get one more email wondering why I am not doing fantasy foot ball I will kill someone!

[matgb]

YEah, an advantage of my place is only a few people are interested (this includes the MD, but he's twigged most of us care not). The leisure guys don't get it, but they're not hired for their reasoning skills.

[doccy.livejournal.com]

You lucky devil! It seems I'm the lone "well, it's football, that's nice I'm sure" guy in my office... To the extent that, on days when there's an England game during office hours, they'll set up a projector in the main meeting room so people can watch.

On the plus side... The sentiment seems pretty much to be echoed throughout the company. Which means that, as IT support guy, I'll be sitting in front of a phone which won't ring because no-one will actually be bothering about faults during the game...

[matgb]

Ah, see, advantage of a predominantly female staff. That and me having something to do with a few of the more recent hires. Our communications manager doesn't do football. Far to vulgar, besides, what sort of sport is over before the third pot of tea?

Me, I hate tea, but I like him; his response to "dress down friday" as requested bya few girls was to turn up in full dress suit...

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

The quicker they go the better, because it means that Dad has more people playing golf.

[matgb]

????

That comment makes no sense to me at all. Then, I know next to nothing about your father, so that probably shouldn't surprise me.

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

Dad runs two golf courses. If people are inside watching football, they don't go and play golf, so he has less customers.

Admittedly, it might not be a problem this time round, with the time zone being nearly the same. It really fudged things up having the World Cup in Korea, no one played golf when England were playing.

[js84.livejournal.com]

I don't care too much for England but, for the sake of sweepstake earnings from work, I hope Brazil win it.

This number of people uninterested in the football makes a change. In my first year halls, I'm pretty sure I was the only male there not fanatically into some kind of sport.

[matgb]

Yeah, you're now hanging around with 'net and gaming geeks. Football is for lesser beings, we want intellectual stimulation and a decent debate.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I like watching international football, but hate all the "is this England's year?" and sundry other parochial crap. N.B. It's not England's year, because we're very average. So, I'm hoping we depart v v soon so I can enjoy the remainder of the tournament with relatively unpartisan commentary.

[matgb]

Well, that sort of makes sense. I've never got the appeal of football, so the whole thing simply grates. I don't cae if we "win the football", I care that the basic principles of the country are being eroded.

Ah well.

[jantshira.livejournal.com]

You are a sick, sick man. Football is the only time when ordinary decent ppl actually like being English. It makes the world go around. It makes one summer in 4 memorable. I pity you who do not believe.

[matgb]

You are a sick, sick man.

Glass houses ;-)

Football is the only time when ordinary decent ppl actually like being English.

Why? Why is this? Why is it the only time that anyone cares aobut their damn country. Why is the only way to show you like the place to support a bloody football team? I'd rather see the flags all the time, but instead, they just denote football support. Travelling the rest of the world, flags are everywhere, here, we only ever see them when England is playing something.

That's what I dislike.
It makes the world go around. It makes one summer in 4 memorable. I pity you who do not believe.

Bah, every summer is memorable for me, summer is what I spend the rest of the year working for. You back in Exeter yet?

[recursived.livejournal.com]

You could argue that the rise in popularity of international sporting contests is linked to a decline in martial jingoism. However, since this is a position that is held by Bono (http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/002733.html) then you can dismiss it straight away.

[shakalooloo.livejournal.com]

Football is the only time when ordinary decent ppl actually like being English.

Well, and that recent cricket thing.

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mat, I know who my father is. :-P

Anyways ... I enjoy watching the game and I do find myself looking forward to the upcoming matches. While I am a homer (and enjoying the fact my team is actually rated fifth in the world at the moment) believe it or not I still find myself rooting for England to at least do well.

So, since none of the poll choices actually fits me, I'll settle for closing with "Let's get it on!" (That'll also allow for you folks to get it over with ...)

[matgb]

Ah yea; English colloquialisms; does that sort of thing trigger those awful "not work safe" filters? I type as I talk, and that sort of thing is language my granny uses (and I really ought to ask her at some point who grandad actually was...)

I have no real problem with people supporting it, the problem at the moment is everyone assume you do, and think you're weird if you don't. I, of course, am weird, but don't consider disliking football to be a valid reason to judge it as such...

Also, it'd be nice if we could have a round of national pride not linked to sport, just for once...