I don't understand the thrill of the game

[venta]

Today I've had Xfm on, streaming from my computer. It's sufficiently cool today that we don't need the aircon on, so I can hear music properly. Most of the DJs have talked about the football, everyone who's called in has been asked about/mentioned it. Some of the adverts are football orientated. There's even been adverts for a club which is "the only place to be after the match".

Over on elle_'s journal, it's clear that companies all over the place are using the match as an excuse for a jolly. Someone else mentioned that their company is shutting up shop early this afternoon.

Now, I'm not a football fan, not even at times like this. I come from a family of sport-despisers. When a passing French bloke tried to take the piss on Sunday night, it was completely lost on me because, though I knew there was a match on, I hadn't known it was against France, and at that point I didn't know England had lost.

I know there are plenty of people out there who're not bothered about footy. So, without wanting lots of frothing comments along the lines of how the match tonight is getting in the way/sodding up your plans/annoying you: what percentage of the population cares ?

The prevalence of the little car-flags, the quietness of the streets when there's a game, everything else suggests "near 100". But a surprisingly high percentage of my friends are rabidly anti-. Is this just me knowing an unrepresentative sample ? Is it that the football apathists are just much quieter about their apathy than the supporters are about their support ? That people are worried they'll be deemed sad, uncool, unpatriotic or pummelled if they admit they don't give a stuff ?

I'm genuinely curious.

Comments

[triskellian]

I was vaguely aware, from the prevalence of those idiotic car flags, that there was some sort of football going on at the moment. I had no idea there was a game (match?) today until my boss came in and made some joke about robbing a bank this afternoon at 5, which he then had to explain to me.

I think it's the general football-apathy among non-football fans that means you don't notice 'em much (although of course their numbers could also be lower than those of the fans). Why bother talking about something you don't care about, even if only to say you don't care? Although I have said to several people today that the sooner 'we' are out of the competition, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Although I have said to several people today that the sooner 'we' are out of the competition, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

How is this opinion even faintly consistent with your claim that you don't care one way or the other?

[triskellian]

It's not wildly inconsistent, since 'I don't care' doesn't (in this context, to me) mean 'I have no strong feelings', rather that I don't have strong positive feelings. As it happens, I don't have strong negative feelings either, so the only way the existence of the football bothers me is that I get bored of people (colleagues, for the most part) talking about it, and there were a worryingly large number of police cars on the roads last night (and, actually, those flags do annoy me with their fluttering).

I also don't actually subscribe to the view that the sooner they lose the better - it was part of general office heckling. Fewer dull conversations, less chance of random violence breaking out, and fewer of those annoying flags would all be a good thing, but since they don't directly affect me that much, <shrug> enjoy your football. I'll be over here doing something else ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

those flags do annoy me with their fluttering

And according to something I read this morning, they create enough drag that they affect your car's fuel consumption to the extent that flag-flyers have wasted 4.5 million gallons of fuel, or something.

Bang goes my plan to buy some, bastardise them, and fly Jolly Rogers from William :)