|
|
Post by channonite on Mar 29, 2011 16:27:09 GMT
On 5Live this am they were talking about the abuse Sunday League refs get now and someone said that one of the main reasons is that football is a working man's game.
Which is rubbish. Rugby League is definitely a working class game and they most certainly do not abuse the referees.
To me it has to be the appalling example set by the prats that play in the so called Premier League.
That said, I have been thinking through the day about "working class" and "football". Maybe it was at one time, but it certainly isn't now.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Rover on Mar 29, 2011 16:35:06 GMT
Following League teams is certainly not a poor man's hobby, that's foreshore.
|
|
|
|
Post by spot51 on Mar 29, 2011 17:03:56 GMT
Professional football grew up in the Clyde Valley and was exported to the newly formed Football League, based primarily in the Lancashire mill towns*.
Improving social conditions meant the collieries and factories shut at noon on a Saturday and football was the ideal means of keeping the workers out of the boozers till tea time. Watching it was very much a working man's thing but the football clubs were owned by the very same people who owned the mills and the mines.
Its the same the whole world over. Its the poor what gets the blame. Its the rich what gets the pleasure. Ain't it all a fecking shame? etc.
* interestingly, look at the Premier League today and the majority of clubs are still in and around those Lancashire mill towns.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 18:00:32 GMT
I'd agree that both RL and footie are predominantly, though nowhere near exclusively, working class games.
But surely the reason for RL (and RU) not being so abusive of referees is that the games themselves need discipline in the playing of them - can you imagine either of those codes played by people with the mindset of footballers. It'd be mayhem and a bloodbath. So intrinsically the players are more self-controlled and that ethos carries over to the spectators (generally).
|
|
|
|
Post by StEtienne on Mar 29, 2011 18:19:53 GMT
Rugby is a social game IMO. Batter each other with rules then have a drink with the opposition afterwards. Although I shy away from some of the rugger bugger games.
|
|
