Be Excellent To Each Other

Not in the slightest. I totally agree that there's an uncomfortable overlap between football fans and toxic male culture -- much more so than other sports, even (the famous quip about how you can police a rugby match with a little old lady and her poodle springs to mind.)

But that's why I specifically said "performative dislike." There's valid reasons to have mixed feelings about football fan culture; but I don't think there's valid reasons to make a big song and dance about it on Beex minutes after England are knocked out of the World Cup. At worst, we're talking about a small but noisy minority of fans who cause trouble. I'm not comfortable suggesting the majority of the people who had an emotional stake in the game last night fall into that category -- how could it? Half the country watched it! Furthermore, I'm very comfortable saying that absolutely no-one here is in that category. And hence posting this:

in this thread, minutes after the game ended, is just bloody rude.

Furthermore, there's a countercurrent of intellectual elitism that can creep in here that I don't much care for, which is why I drew the analogy to people who don't own a TV and sneer at those who do. Ignorance or dislike of popular culture doesn't make you smarter, but that is an assumption some make. And boasting of your ignorance or dislike isn't laudable. This is a bugbear of mine so I get a bit jumpy around it. I don't care for football or watch Love Island but that doesn't make me any better than Grim..., who does both those things. (I am better than Grim..., but for differnt reasons, like how I have never set fire to six square feet of pigskin and called it "barbecue.")

Totally agree, I was definitely over-egging your reaction while in my cups last night and springboarding into my own rant from there. Drunk me made generally good points I think but they could've just stood alone and didn't need to be 'aimed' at you so apologies for that guy.



I agree with this also. Although, I think there's a very slight case to be made that if someone only watches reality TV and such nonsense to the complete exclusion of anything else then they're probably an idiot. Certainly, I suspect the Venn diagram of the two groups would have a massive cross over.

Pffft you've nothing to apologise for, it was a fine post!

If France win I get an extra half day off.

It was so hot!

Bouf!

I will never forget you trying to put out a grease fire by rubbing pig fat on it.

And then scraping at it with tongs.

Which, given that they were your tongs, you were remarkably chill about

"You break it, you bought it."

Back to football, next tournament they should pick Jack Grealish, and then England will win it.

Also, the next tournament (Euro 2020) has the semi-finals and final at Wembley, so home advantage if we get there!

(Obviously now we have restored hope in the team, it’ll be a disappointing group stage exit again)

So who cried last night and who just immediately sank an entire bottle of whiskey when the final whistle blew and gave a bloody beating to a homeless man on the way home until your tears mixed with the blood on your hands before mounting the mailable corpse and wailing “Why Gareth, WHY” into the vacant eye sockets?

I finished off my small bottle of french lager, oh and the first batch of my homemade guacamole and tortilla chips (nice!), then completed Yakuza 0.

Like every blue blooded true English gentleman did.

I drank far too much Bulgarian rosé wine.

I went a Lucky Chops gig afterwards, which was an excellent antidote.

I downloaded some more Iso's for my Saturn.

I drank some Budweiser and watched an old episode of GBBO on Netflix.

I had a casein shake and went to bed. I wasn't really watching the match though as I was dicking about on instagram, so I'm not sure it counts.

Oh... Was I supposed to be watching the football?

Citizenship revoked.

It wasn't mandatory. As long as you had your facepaint on. You did have your facepaint on... right?

*Monocle falls out* My god! Someone's being rude! On the Internet! Carshalton! Fetch my blunderbuss!

/Carshalton turns up with a bus that can't drive straight and a confused look on his face

Was a frustrating game after a great start from England. Another goal in the first and the game might have been over. But Croatia showed their experience and dug in and took control of the match. After Walker was booked he looked scared to go into to any challenges and gave Croatia more space. In the end they deserved it and hope that tiredness from 3 games going to 120 minutes in the space of just over a week doesn't mean that the final will be boring and the French just roll them over.

People around the world have been hating England since forever. So much that when Croatia scored i heard cheers coming from the street and from other houses as if Portugal had scored.

But one thing that's been overlooked is how likeable and how much fair play this English team has. My work colleague remarked at lunchtime, that the referee could have easily disallowed the first Croatia goal for dangerous play, and if it was almost any other team they would have circled the referee asking for VAR. The english players did nothing of the sort, and should be applauded for that. Also, Uruguay was burning time every since the first Cavani goal at the 7th! minute against us. England had 70 minuted to flop around and didn't. Also, Southgate has an impeccable style.

England will never be likeable probably because of their fans, but this team was one of the most honourable and humble of the cup.

That's an odd stance given that almost every country has its contingent of objectionable fans - England are far from alone in that respect.

But somehow most sports don't seem to suffer in the same way.

Decent final. I reckon England would've been humiliated by this French team. Better for all to bow out early.

Just to finish our little league, congrats trooper

Woo! What do I win? Apart from the crushing realisation that England will never win the world cup in my lifetime.