Taking the moral high ground against footballers.

I find it amusing regarding the hyperbole surrounding the athletes and their behaviour and how it contrasts with the footballers behaviour. I mean don't get me wrong I have loved the Olympics and the spirit shown by Jess and Mo and the like but to then castigate footballers saying that they are poor role models in comparison is IMHO ridiculous.

Football is the greatest and most popular sport in the world by some distance and the reason for this is the passion. Sometimes that passion comes across wrong but nevertheless that is what gets the fans through the turnstiles and watching on the box. This passion brings the excitement that is our great game.

There is a reason why the Olympics is the pinnacle for pretty much every sport apart from football and that is that they are not as popular singularly due to lacking passion. Handball and basketball to name two team sports that are not anywhere near as popular worldwide as football. Plus in these sports when played properly (Basketball in America) the behaviour is sometimes quite bad due to the passion. Your leading athletics event where Bolt is racing Blake gets couple of hundred thousand viewers in the Uk and very rarely sells out. Some of the sports present at the Olympics don't get that. If they had the constant focus on them I am sure they would be found to be a bit 'naughty' sometimes like footballers are.

People spout that rugby is a much tougher sport and doesn't have the behaviour problems that football has and that is true. However, in rugby they can hold in the fury as they know that during the next phase they are probably going to get the chance to smash someone letting out that fury. Also the players don't go down so easily but their bodies are used to the hits that they get. Footballers can be pretty weak on the whole but if a player gets a leg injury that is his whole game so he will go down and stay down.

I read fans having a pop at the players taking the moral high ground at the behaviour on the pitch. Many times Rooney gets a slating for swearing at the ref etc. But, isn't that just what we in the crowd do? The atmosphere that gets the fans going must also have an effect on the players and subsequently the behaviour becomes animal like just like it does in the crowd. Until we sort the behaviour out in the crowd then it will never improve on the pitch and if it did what then? It would probably be so boring we wouldn't want to watch.

So in conclusion I say leave our great game alone. It has its faults but what spectre of society doesn't. Who is able to take the moral high ground? Police? No chance. Priests? Nope. MP's? You are having a laugh. Those in glass houses and all that. Who is a good role model for our children.

well for me it seemed most of IT was from within football ...stand up one MR IAN HOLLAWAY....

What he say? To be fair who listens to him he's a nutter.

I find it amusing regarding the hyperbole surrounding the athletes and their behaviour and how it contrasts with the footballers behaviour. I mean don't get me wrong I have loved the Olympics and the spirit shown by Jess and Mo and the like but to then castigate footballers saying that they are poor role models in comparison is IMHO ridiculous.

Football is the greatest and most popular sport in the world by some distance and the reason for this is the passion. Sometimes that passion comes across wrong but nevertheless that is what gets the fans through the turnstiles and watching on the box. This passion brings the excitement that is our great game.

There is a reason why the Olympics is the pinnacle for pretty much every sport apart from football and that is that they are not as popular singularly due to lacking passion. Handball and basketball to name two team sports that are not anywhere near as popular worldwide as football. Plus in these sports when played properly (Basketball in America) the behaviour is sometimes quite bad due to the passion. Your leading athletics event where Bolt is racing Blake gets couple of hundred thousand viewers in the Uk and very rarely sells out. Some of the sports present at the Olympics don't get that. If they had the constant focus on them I am sure they would be found to be a bit 'naughty' sometimes like footballers are.

People spout that rugby is a much tougher sport and doesn't have the behaviour problems that football has and that is true. However, in rugby they can hold in the fury as they know that during the next phase they are probably going to get the chance to smash someone letting out that fury. Also the players don't go down so easily but their bodies are used to the hits that they get. Footballers can be pretty weak on the whole but if a player gets a leg injury that is his whole game so he will go down and stay down.

I read fans having a pop at the players taking the moral high ground at the behaviour on the pitch. Many times Rooney gets a slating for swearing at the ref etc. But, isn't that just what we in the crowd do? The atmosphere that gets the fans going must also have an effect on the players and subsequently the behaviour becomes animal like just like it does in the crowd. Until we sort the behaviour out in the crowd then it will never improve on the pitch and if it did what then? It would probably be so boring we wouldn't want to watch.

So in conclusion I say leave our great game alone. It has its faults but what spectre of society doesn't. Who is able to take the moral high ground? Police? No chance. Priests? Nope. MP's? You are having a laugh. Those in glass houses and all that. Who is a good role model for our children.

I agree with a lot of the above, but the one thing I would like to see changed is the players behaviour towards the referee. Yes we fans are the worst for it, but we have paid our money and are entitled to an opinion.

The players on the other hand should act professionally and accept the decisions.

thats fuc.ing hard as most of there decisions are wrong ....is it me or are they getting worse

Tony intrigued why you think that just cos we pay money entitles us to abuse referees or other players. By that logic if I have paid to watch a film can I talk throughout it? Pay to enter a club can I abuse the staff?

I would say Oylmpians being role models is far better than the Z list celebs being role models (Katona/jordan et al)