Should football be put on the naughty step?

[Deleted]

This was a suggestion put forward this morning by Chris Evans on Radio 2. His argument being that there is so much wrong with the game these days, which was highlighted last night by the racism showed to the England under 21 team is Serbia, and the utter farce that happened in Warsaw last night. Also the diving and cheating that goes on in the game is rapidly turning fans away from what was, 'the beautiful game'. Compare that with the wonderful sportsmanship that was displayed this summer at the Olympics - there is no comparison.

Mr Evans's solution was to treat football like you would an ill disciplined five year. In effect, he said, that next season should be cancelled, then maybe, just maybe, the players managers and fans may have learnt their lesson and start behaving themselves.

Personally, I tend to agree with Chris, of course it will never happen as long as I have a hole in my you know what. Great Shame...

[Deleted]

Can't they just cancel all Dagenham and Redbridge home games, so we pick up their supporters at Rush Green, which then improves our chances of Thurrock Council planners taking us seriously with the new stadium, as we shall have 400+ supporters rather than the 200 or so.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately Steve MONEY is the big influence in football ever since SKY TV brought it directly onto our TV screens. In the older days we had saturday nights Match of the Day and midweek Sportsnight with Coleman, if there was any decent midweek cup football. Sunday afternoon was The Big Match and if you wanted to go watch live football you had to get off your backside. Nowdays its 24hrs wall to wall around the world and BIG business with vast amounts of money being put in by shirt and stadium sponsors. Marketing is the buzz word and you can be a supporter but never actually watch your team live in the flesh. Until FIFA and UEFA decide to impliment some of the racial policies they have in place then incidents such as the one in Serbia will only make the news for the wrong reasons at the moment they only talk about it. Maybe if they banned players for "simulation" or blatent cheating then players will wise up. But until then the big boys will keep taking the cash and make sure there lawyers are well looked after...

[Deleted]

Yes Tony, we all know it's all about money, and in this respect Sky did a great disservice to the average football fan. However, it's a bit of a double edged sword. In this country we are able to watch world class footballers from around the world, undeniably the very best money can buy and for the most part they are a joy to watch. When I think back to the 70's when I regularly went down the Lane to watch Spurs play, the standard of football in comparison to today's standard was abysmal, but I still enjoyed it, probably because I knew no different. So we have seen a vast improvement in playing standards IMO.

Now for the downside. With the advent of players being paid so much money, most premiership players I should imagine are millionaires, some think that they can behave just as they like, if they incur a £100,000 fine, so what? It's the equivalent of you are me being fined £20 or maybe £30. On the other hand, what was an affordable entertainment for the fans is now out of many people's reach, and the vast majority are reduced to watching it from the comfort of their armchair, assuming they can afford to pay Sky for the privilege. At the risk of sounding raciest, a lot of the problems do stem from importing foreign players who played a different kind of football in Europe, where diving is seen as just part of the game, and when a member of the FA singles out a player for diving, and implying that he is a cheat, the player in question makes a few disdainful remarks in his direction and forgets all about it.

The bad things in football, for me at least, outweigh the good things, and really I am past caring what happens now. What did give me a great deal of pleasure until just a few years ago, has just left me cold.

[Deleted]

chris evans is a twat full stop ! he was probably drunk or something becuase he forgets hes so perfect . he talks out of his ring and could do with a rite good #@##=% up the @#@£< if you ask me . mind you , the dagenham ploy sounds quite good actually . ;-)