This thread allows eveyone to express their passionate views about a game which perhaps, since it's from England, brings with it notions of class and culture; but more so, it strikes at any indescribable passion we might harbour and perhaps not be aware of.
Strictly speaking, it might unravel some deeper mysteries in ourselves or notions we have of our worlds - and that is a quality money can't buy. If wealth and the possession of it was the goal in the 18 th century ( utilitarianism ), then - and esp after the recent failure of greed in the 21 century, kindness and spirituality can be developed.
In fact, I was damned glad when you guys came into the discussion about a world obsession. We were at the point where most of you recognise that there are eye sores of blatant cheating on the field on screen and that the game must improve its standard on fair play. That's all that matters. The rest is clap trap , but it's a kind of verbal jousting the English and French media like to engage in, in fact, people all over the world have notions of class, background, caste etc - this should be discussed so we can laugh about our pretensions . Whatever you associate with is just an illusion. LOL
Personally, I was anti-football initially, just as a reaction against all that hooliganism, as pointed out by SMS and JR8 - remember the Liverpool crash and the death of several fans? But football fever stays high - in Italy, the bus driver was so obsessed, just in football talk, that he'd be still laughing if he hit a tree.
The social behaviour of football fans have improved since the 1980s though the stigma of hooliganism's still around. If football's meant to be taken seriously by the world, it has to have its worth. No one wants to be fooled by the cheating antics of some players who can get away with scoring goals because the referees are incompetent or lax.
Like the democratic system in the UK, old and defunct structures set up hundreds of years ago must be changed. As technology advances, humans must use it to improve their primitive conditions. We don't want football to stay a primitive game - it might just boil down to physical antics in the end.
Footballers and fans have to know what they expect of the goalies, players, coaches and referees. There's a lot caught on cameras ( French dispute with coach and withdrawal from game ) that yell for our attention to raise the standard. What is a win must be scaored only by fair play. Any fouls must cancel that. Why do you think the teams stand by their national anthems?