I know, we've got football coming out of our ears. The World Cup is currently on in Russia. Not just on virtually every television channel known to man (stupid, it isn't but it feels like it at the moment.) You turn on the television expecting EastEnders (I don't watch it, but you know what I mean.) and the programme has been shifted to either another day or later or earlier slot. If you don't watch, the alternative isn't exactly enticing. You can watch a second-hand episode of something else instead. Or the BBC has to celebrate the 70's birthday of the N.H.S., but rather over-does it with more or less wall-to-wall programmes. Not bad to celebrate, but it's just over-kill. You just can't avoid it, similar to how you can't avoid football.
The simple fact is, football bores me silly. I cannot see what's so exciting about 22 men running about on a piece of grass, chasing a ball and with the intention of kicking the thing into a net. It's just plain pointless. There's no sense in it at all. Similar, I suppose to cricket. Something I just don't get anything from. Maybe it was because I was never any good at either sport when I was at school (there is another blog post on this subject somewhere on here, so I may be repeating myself somewhat, but who cares?) We were made to spend hours and hours watching these wretched sports when I was at school, as well as having to play them. I was never any good, so I was virtually the last person selected when they were organising teams, so I was made to feel inferior because I wasn't any good and you can see why I have an eversion to team sports of this sort. Having to watch it on television is just as uninteresting. I suppose I can bear to watch Rugby because at least it has a sort of raw energy to it as a game, it's a contact sport and it's faster and angrier. They occasionally get covered in mud and all sorts of grime and dirt. It has a sort of Medieval battle feel about it.
I suppose the World Cup has the element of patriotism about it, 'come on England!' and all that jazz. But is it really? Unfortunately the sight of the national flag of England has connotations of the National Front and ultra-right wing politics about it. Which is unfair, I know, but I'm sure you'll agree where I'm coming from here. Those organisations who have a political agenda, usually with racist views, sadly. They use the national flag for their own use, as a sort of symbol.
There again, football does have the power to bring people together, to create bonds of friendship, which seems to be happening in Russia at the moment, which can't be a bad thing. Politics shouldn't come into sport, particularly when we have to remember what happened in Salisbury a few months back and the fact that Russia was supposed to have been behind that incident, but not actually proven. At one point, in the lead up to the World Cup, it was suggested that we boycott the event, but fortunately it didn't come to that.
The simple fact is, football bores me silly. I cannot see what's so exciting about 22 men running about on a piece of grass, chasing a ball and with the intention of kicking the thing into a net. It's just plain pointless. There's no sense in it at all. Similar, I suppose to cricket. Something I just don't get anything from. Maybe it was because I was never any good at either sport when I was at school (there is another blog post on this subject somewhere on here, so I may be repeating myself somewhat, but who cares?) We were made to spend hours and hours watching these wretched sports when I was at school, as well as having to play them. I was never any good, so I was virtually the last person selected when they were organising teams, so I was made to feel inferior because I wasn't any good and you can see why I have an eversion to team sports of this sort. Having to watch it on television is just as uninteresting. I suppose I can bear to watch Rugby because at least it has a sort of raw energy to it as a game, it's a contact sport and it's faster and angrier. They occasionally get covered in mud and all sorts of grime and dirt. It has a sort of Medieval battle feel about it.
I suppose the World Cup has the element of patriotism about it, 'come on England!' and all that jazz. But is it really? Unfortunately the sight of the national flag of England has connotations of the National Front and ultra-right wing politics about it. Which is unfair, I know, but I'm sure you'll agree where I'm coming from here. Those organisations who have a political agenda, usually with racist views, sadly. They use the national flag for their own use, as a sort of symbol.
There again, football does have the power to bring people together, to create bonds of friendship, which seems to be happening in Russia at the moment, which can't be a bad thing. Politics shouldn't come into sport, particularly when we have to remember what happened in Salisbury a few months back and the fact that Russia was supposed to have been behind that incident, but not actually proven. At one point, in the lead up to the World Cup, it was suggested that we boycott the event, but fortunately it didn't come to that.
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