30 replies to this topic

[Severus]

http://bbc.co.uk/new...europe-20583970

FFS

[Saint Billinge]

All in the name of sport! Tragic.

[WearyRhino]

I'll say it again - soccer is endemically sick from top to bottom.

[gingerjon]

A youth match?

For ######'s sake.

[Johnoco]

I'll say it again - soccer is endemically sick from top to bottom.

If the same number of people played RL worldwide as do soccer, then this could well be a RL linesman in the frame. Its a knobhead thing, not exclusively a soccer thing. Soccer is most popular - by some distance- hence has more idiots.

[WearyRhino]

If the same number of people played RL worldwide as do soccer, then this could well be a RL linesman in the frame. Its a knobhead thing, not exclusively a soccer thing. Soccer is most popular - by some distance- hence has more idiots.

Of course there is nothing intrinsic in the game per se. But it's nothing to do with numbers either - I don't recall any angling riots. Soccer has got to the point where cheating has been normalised such that it is now intrinsic to the sport at all levels.

[Ex-Kirkholt]

cheating has been normalised such that it is now intrinsic to the sport at all levels.

Too true - according to esteemed ex-players etc, even if you could stay on your feet in a challenge, you are "entitled" to go down and get a free kick

[gingerjon]

Soccer has got to the point where cheating has been normalised such that it is now intrinsic to the sport at all levels.

Rugby league is a great game but it isn't played by angels.

[Futtocks]

Rugby league is a great game but it isn't played by angels.

Indeed. In the past year or so, there have been plenty of news stories from Australia about violence at youth RL matches.

[WearyRhino]

Too true - according to esteemed ex-players etc, even if you could stay on your feet in a challenge, you are "entitled" to go down and get a free kick

Seeing players celebrating and being congratulated on " getting a penalty" is a prime example. My eldest and hits friends, despite my protestations, practice falling over.

[WearyRhino]

Rugby league is a great game but it isn't played by angels.

Absolutely, but I would contend that a genuine ethos out fair play is still key to the sport and the culture that surrounds it, in this country at least.

[JohnM]

no. That's rugby union you are thinking of.

[Johnoco]

Absolutely, but I would contend that a genuine ethos out fair play is still key to the sport and the culture that surrounds it, in this country at least.

Yes and I agree but RL is not free from idiots. I can think of 2 people who are incredibly racist yet are RL fans. Certainly they are not representative of the average RL fan but we can't do too much backslapping yet.

[Futtocks]

Yes and I agree but RL is not free from idiots. I can think of 2 people who are incredibly racist yet are RL fans. Certainly they are not representative of the average RL fan but we can't do too much backslapping yet.

It is also a question of numbers - with so many more fans than any other sport, Football is statistically more likely to have so many more unpleasant people among them.

Edited by Futtocks, 04 December 2012 - 12:40 PM.

[gazza77]

Terrible incident really, but I don't think it's the sport that is the issue in question, more the attitude of the youths in question. One of my friends refs football at lower levels, and always says he thinks that U15s-U18s are the worst age groups due to the hormone levels, and the need to look "hard" in front of their friends. Several times, he's been threatened and verbally abused; as a big lad I suspect that one or two may have had second thoughts about trying any more than that. He even told me that he'd been abused at Belle Vue (he's a Wakey fan for his sins) by a lad who he'd previously sent off in a game and took a lengthy ban for abusing the ref, so these things do sometimes carry on long after the initial event.

[ckn]

I remember reffing a union game many years ago, sharing the changing room with the football referee. We were chatting away when the home team football captain came in, looked at the ref and said "oh for f***'s sake, not you again you c**t. I hope you're not going to be the complete w**ker you were last time you were here". He then turned around and stormed out slamming the door. The football ref shrugged and said that that was sadly common, although rarely as blunt.

If that happened in either code of rugby, the game would start with that one player not coming on the field if it even started at all.

I've seen similar, but not as bad, in more than a few other occasions with shared changing rooms. I wouldn't be a football official for even professional footballer salaries, never mind the token amount they get at lower levels.

[Johnoco]

The ref should have either barred the guy from playing or refused to ref the game.

[gingerjon]

The ref should have either barred the guy from playing or refused to ref the game.

The one significant difference I see between soccer and other sports is that abuse of the ref is part of the game in soccer where it is not in the others.

Cheating happens in all sports.

[WearyRhino]

Cheating happens in all sports.

Of course it does. However, it is not endemic in other sports like it is in soccer.

[Futtocks]

There was one story I remember, possibly apocryphal but I'd like to think not. At amateur level, a referee actually red-carded one of the players for mouthing off at him in the pub after the match.