Football football football football football. It’s the sport we love. It’s the sport we live and breathe. It’s brilliant. Or is it?
When I was younger you had the football season, and if you were lucky you had the FIFA World Cup or European Championships every other summer to give you something to look forward to. If you were lucky, as I was, to get to go to games often then you’d throw yourselves into it. 10 year old me would be superstitious: same jersey, scarf, hat etc. If you weren’t going to games you had Soccer Saturday, with Jeff Stelling and the gang, and then there were the midweek Champions League games if you had a Sky Subscription.
I would have said I lived and breathed football back then, I was obsessed. From the age of about ten it was my life. Only it wasn’t “living and breathing”. It was a huge part of my life, but when the full time whistle went, I would exit the stadium. When the Classified results were read out by the man with the very proper sounding voice concluded with the League Two scores in Scotland then it was time to switch off Jeff and the boys. A couple days would pass and so would the joy or disappointment. You might get some chat from friends at school, but it was more or less done until the next game, and it was brilliant.
Things are… different now. Your game finishes and you’re bombarded with the post-match analysis online. Only it isn’t Graeme Souness belittling Paul Pogba’s latest haircut, or Gary Lineker presenting Match of the Day in his pants. It’s everyone. To copy a popular film title, it’s Everything Everywhere All At Once!
It’s push notifications. It’s betting adverts. It’s prominent players tweeting their apology after a disappointing result. It’s TikTok’s and Instagram stories. It doesn’t stop. It never stops.
Social media and the internet is sapping the love. Back in the day (I may only be 27 but my hip is so sore so often that I feel old enough to say things like “back in the day”), you’d debate with your pals in the pub or the school bus. Now the internet is awash with arguments over the stupidest things. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has an opinion on your opinion. It’s a pissing contest. It’s the fucking wild west.
It’s one thing when it’s a debate post. When the lads at That Peter Crouch Podcast question who is better: Ronaldo or Messi. That’s a debate, that opens up the conversation and there’s always a risk of debate being argument. It’s when just random posts get heated. Open up Facebook, Twitter, etc. Scroll for a second and you’ll find a football post, because that’s life now and a month into the off-season you’re still being pummelled with football content. Click on the post and look at the comments. It’s soul sapping.
One example I stumbled upon was my club, Dundee United, released their new shirt recently. I personally love it, but you go to the comments and it’s a mixed bag. It’s good, it’s great, it’s shite, it’s okay. It’s fine. “It’s the best top since 2019”. “No you moron it’s the best top since 2015”. One person used the comments on Facebook to have a rant about how Facebook shouldn’t decide the most relevant comments – he should be able to judge the most relevant comments.
Now I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have opinions, that’s dystopian and problematic. My thought process is that of course you should have your opinion, but treat it like you would in the pub with your mates. If your buddy said anything then you’d call them out. If you heard someone on the other side of the pub say that they enjoyed the 2014 World Cup you’d probably just let them be, you wouldn’t run up and scream in their face saying “IT WAS 1986 1986 WAS THE BEST WORLD CUP YOU FUCKING STUPID BALDY PRICK”. Because, well, because that’s poor pub etiquette.
What I’m basically saying is that the world is a bit of a shit place right now, so take a second to just stop and think about what you’re saying. Debate is healthy, aggression less so, particularly when you’re on the internet. It may start as a football thing but all too often it delves into personal slurs.
I’m not here to sound preachy. I’ve been caught up in it myself, far too often than I care to say. I wouldn’t seek out Twitter spats but it wouldn’t take much to pull me into the trenches. What I would say is that it isn’t fun, there is never a resolution until one of you puts the phone down, and even then it can fester and ruin an evening.
Social media is great, and in some respects it is nice that you can follow your team year round and be up to date on transfer news. I personally yearn for the days where you get a break, you get a chance to miss the sport, but I also know that in my younger days I’d have loved nothing more than to get this by-the-minute updates on everything. In reality it is non stop. I miss being able to miss football, and I miss being able to just talk about football rather than seeing a full blown war stem from a comment.
It’s just a bit much, isn’t it? Whether you agree or not, please, don’t let me know your thoughts.
Heart of Football 
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