Football could learn from Youngs' punishment What a fabulous punishment for Tom Youngs, captain of Leicester, who was banned for two weeks for confronting referee Ian Tempest during a match with Bristol. One week of the penalty is suspended on the condition Youngs undertakes a refereeing course and officiates two junior grass roots games. Would football ever try that? It seems far too sensible
It wasn't a tiny minority, it was the majority and it's classless ****e. It's also at every game now, booing the oppo players coming out, booing the oppo's national anthem, then booing the taking of the knee (though at least the latter is now being completely drowned out by the support). It's pathetic.
I also noticed booing when the opposition were in possession of the ball, that's not been the British way till now. Noticed it before in European games.
People are booing the knee because its bollocks. Politics have no place in football, and even players are refusing to kneel, it didn't look like Sterling knelt last night either unless i'm mistaken. Booing the opposition has always gone on, although i wouldn't and haven't booed another national anthem.
I've been following England for decades, we've never been as bad as this before, though Ten German Bombers has always been reeled out by the hard of thinking.
So the majority where booing not the minority. Has this accelerated since Brexit or it began well before then? Booing opposition players coming out upsets you why ****’em that National team has caused us lots of heartache it’s not tiddlywinks or tennis they are the enemy for 90 minutes.
As a matter of interest OLM, as it was a test event with 50% capacity, I assumed they'd try to have empty seats between bubbles. From the tv, There didn't seem a lot of evidence of that. Also some sections were much emptier than others. Was that by design or was it impossible to police? Without the space between bubbles, seems a bit pointless having a reduced capacity.
For the Croatia and Scotland games they were rigidly enforcing the gaps between the seats, even couples were made to sit with an empty seat between them. Last night, the tickets also had a seat left empty between each one, but everyone was ignoring it and sitting together and there were too many of them (and many were very pissed), so the stewards gave up. For the semi-final and final, there can't be a gap between each seat, as they're allowing two-thirds of the tickets to be sold, so most people will be sat next to each other, at least with the group they're in.
“Politics have no place in football” This excuse gets trotted out but it’s applied inconsistently. England fans have been chanting ‘Ten German Bombers’ and ‘Two World Wars and One World Cup’ long before players started kneeling. The hypocrisy is easy to understand though. Certain England fans think it’s alright to bring up the worst conflict in human history as a jab at the Germans but can’t stand the thought of players kneeling for a couple of seconds to protest racism. I ****ing wonder why.
One other very noticeable thing about last night's game, that was different to normal, was that the crowd was almost entirely blokes. Obviously, it's mainly blokes at all the games, but I've never been to an international game with so few women in the crowd.
Just breaking news now are some stats on how many Scottish fans have tested positive. those at the game and those who travelled down without tickets.
I've googled this and basically... Because 'edgy' football chants have been part of the game for decades. Intended to rile, provoke, infuriate, offend,belittle. insult the opposing team. Long since accepted as an integral part of the experince by legacy fans. Taking a knee is a divisive American political intrusion by non football people.into our game and it has no place in our grounds.
Was just on the news now so didn't take it all in, but the 2000 odd ticket holders had to have a negative test not older than 48 hours or vaccinated (?) to be let. However if they had been socialising with the uncontrolled 20000 that went to London for a party anything could happen.
Fantastic occasion. Loved it. Only the second England match I've been to, and last one was in Germany 15 years ago. Germany were the pantomime villain last night and booing their anthem and play was pure panto (and they even wore black). I heard ‘Ten German Bombers’ outside but no ‘Two World Wars and One World Cup’. Some started to boo taking the knee and where we were the overwhelming response was to applaud the players and drown out the booing. There was little separation of fans and no stewarding to speak of. The bars were a free for all with no separation or masks, so we will see what the outcome of that is. I heard there were 60k fans outside pre match, and while those with tickets were either LF tested or double vaxxed, anyone could mill around Wembley Way. I thought the fans made it as hostile an atmosphere as possible for the German team and they got behind England from the off, with any doubts about the line up suspended. Harry was huge. We were at the wrong end to see who scored either goal, but that didn't matter. My ears were ringing last night like I'd been at a heavy metal gig.