Football
Posted By Judith on 5th August 2017
I’m old enough to remember the 1966 World Cup when England won for the only time in their history. It’s been pretty much downhill for the national team ever since, but despite this I still enjoy watching football (on TV) but where England are concerned it is usually more in hope than expectation.
For me to properly enjoy a game I need to ‘cheer’ for one side or the other and as I don’t support any particular team I have to find ingenious ways of deciding who I want to win.
This can be as simple as ‘northern’ teams over ‘southern’ teams; ‘English’ teams over ‘Scottish’ teams; ‘British’ teams over ‘foreign’ teams, in the FA Cup I always support the ‘underdog’ and if all else fails, who’s wearing the nicest coloured strip!
But just because I like football, it doesn’t mean I like footballers.
I think the majority are overpaid prima donnas, too full of their own importance who don’t live in the real world, surrounded as they are by sleazy sports agents, trophy wives and often over zealous hair stylists.
As if to illustrate my point, have you seen what Naymar will be earning at his new club? £40.7 million a year on a 5 year contract. Then there’s the transfer fee, just a cool £200 million, that’s £400 million in total over the 5 years.
That is an obscene amount of money. Just think how many cats and donkeys you could care for, (other animal welfare charities are available) how many hungry children you could feed, how much medical research you could do.
Now I know I’m not privy to the inner financial and economic niceties of running an international football club, but £400 million for 1 man? Come on.
Now I’ve got that off my chest. The ‘beautiful game’ is not so beautiful on the pitch either. Diving, simulation, trying to get your opponent sent off, in other words CHEATING is theatrical, blatant and rife in the mens game. You can read here what Peter thinks about it in a piece he wrote on his website some time ago. The observant amongst you might notice the slight difference in our styles!
So it has been a breath of fresh air over the last couple of weeks to watch the England Womens Football Team play in the European Championships.
Sadly they were beaten in the semi-finals, but they have been a joy to watch.
I should also give a mention to the England Womens Cricket Team who have recently won the Cricket World Cup, beating India by 9 runs in the final.
The England Womens Rugby Union Team already hold the Rugby World Cup and will be defending their title later this month. Good luck to them.
Girl Power! I wish I was 40 years younger.
