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Total Members Voted: 5

[Golfhaus]

There is one super-hot thing about association football that I adore, and that is the steadfast refusal of the world's governing bodies to cave in to what I'm sure is a lot of pressure from American television to allow commercial breaks during the action, or even worse, play stoppage in order to squeeze those commercials in. I mean, the Olympics are holding events at some ungodly hour like 6 a.m. so that American television can broadcast them live to the Eastern time zone without tape delay, since in this Internet-laden world, no one's watching tape delay shit anymore.

America seems to perk up its ears slightly about soccer when it's World Cup time, but all the other tournaments gather no interest at all. I loved it in college, because it was a weird sport to the rest of the people around me, like Aussie Rules and rugby and team handball. Now, though, I've fallen victim to the same problems with the game that most of us in Amurricah have with it: Too Long, Not Enough Scoring.

[Arachno-capitalist]

One the most all american of sports, NASCAR runs complete with no commercials, and there is no scoring, and very little action. Commercial advertisements are worked in in creative ways - which is the wave of the future.

[CortJstr]

One the most all american of sports, NASCAR runs complete with no commercials, and there is no scoring, and very little action. Commercial advertisements are worked in in creative ways - which is the wave of the future.

Yeah, but when's the last time a football player burst into flame?

[Golfhaus]

One the most all american of sports, NASCAR runs complete with no commercials, and there is no scoring, and very little action. Commercial advertisements are worked in in creative ways - which is the wave of the future.

Wait, what NASCAR are you watching? Because the NASCAR that I watch is chocked FULL of commercials, usually coming back with the cars going a lot slower than I remember them going when the break started and an announcer calmly saying, "The caution is out for the 7th time today after a wreck involving six cars..." In fact, the #1 complaint of NASCAR viewers is that there are Too Many Damn Commercials, sometimes as often as every six minutes or so. NBC's coverage is particularly reviled for this. Now the Indianapolis 500 gets it right, where they splitscreen the commercials with live action and will pull back as soon as something newsworthy happens. I'd be willing to root for a Hendrick team if NASCAR started doing that.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Maybe Im just thinking of the Indy 500 or something. I remember a bunch of racecar fans talking at dinner about how they were taking out commercials and instead working in split screen ads, more "sponsored" features, things like that.

[Drygioni]

There is one super-hot thing about association football that I adore, and that is the steadfast refusal of the world's governing bodies to cave in to what I'm sure is a lot of pressure from American television to allow commercial breaks during the action, or even worse, play stoppage in order to squeeze those commercials in.

Some stuff which may be interesting:

Firstly, you know those infamous European soccer riots? That is what would happen if stuff like this came in. Football's real fanbase has a deep seated hatred of this kind of thing.

Secondly, the head of UEFA, the European football organisation (and consequently a massively important one), is an ex-player himself. Lots of the people at the top in football really DO love football, and any who are blatantly commercially-minded are hounded and harried like nothing else. Which leads me onto:

Recently the English Football Association proposed a '39th game' (as opposed to the normal 38-game season). This would entail making use of the MASSIVE Premiership global audience; the amount of people who watched Manchester United Vs Arsenal recently was estimated at 1,000,000,000 people. A random pairing of two Premier League clubs would play out an extra fixture in some foreign city, and the bucks would (potentially lucratively) roll in.

People here went mental. Not only is the idea inherently flawed (possibly unfairness of pairings, Wigan vs Derby attracting no-one etc.), but it really bit at the heart of every football fan here. For a start, it is the English Premier League...

Although the game of football in England today is undeniably pumped full of money and hype, there is a real romance about it. For most men in England it is absolutely central to our lives, and I have felt that NOTHING compares to the feeling of a full, swaying, singing crowd at match day, or a underdog win, or a Champions League win in the final from 3-0 down... The more it is explicitly marketed as a commercial thing, the more it dies, and something irreplaceable is lost.

Sorry for rambling. Basically: the level of commercial interest will never compare to what you get in America, just different cultures.

[Drygioni]

Just a quick update to let you know THIS IS THE BEST fuck*ng SPORTING EVENT IN THE WORLD

[littlefallsmets]

...may I ask what brought this on?

Did someone score a goal or something?

[Drygioni]

...may I ask what brought this on?

Did someone score a goal or something?

(The epic inter-sport battle continues)

Hush! Always so quick to speak, LFM! (Good joke though)

Basically, it's been a fuck*ng awesome tournament. I won't bore you with the details but there's been just the right amount of upsets, late, late comebacks and sexy passing football.

Today, like, the Czech Republic were 2-0 up on Turkey. No problem, game won. BUT in the dying minutes Turkey scored three goals, in the meantime contriving to have their own goalkeeper sent off for throwing a 6'8" man to the ground by pushing him in the chest.

Plus, Italy, France and Germany have suffered a hat-trick of humiliating losses, two of which were inflicted by footballing gods Holland. (Or the Netherlands, if you will.) What is particularly awesome is that the Germans lost to Poland, and the Polish tabloids turned it into a whole REVENGE FOR 1939! thing.

Oh, and the Polish Prime Minister threatened to kill a referee for making a big decision against Poland.

Emotions are running a little high throughout Europe at the moment, it's spreading over the Channel.

Hence my ejaculatory post.


EDIT: No headbutts/proper fights yet, but two players on the same team leapt into each other head first, and somehow ended up spinning away from each other like helicopters.

One had to continue with a massive bandage on his head, other was taken to hospital but he's probably alright.

[littlefallsmets]

the Polish Prime Minister threatened to kill a referee for making a big decision against Poland

Oh man, there's just SO much material there... so many jokes to make...

Did he threaten to push him out the screen door of a submar-

No no no, too goddamned easy.

[Victoria Waterfield]

What is particularly awesome is that the Germans lost to Poland, and the Polish tabloids turned it into a whole REVENGE FOR 1939! thing.

What is particularly baffling about this is that, in fact, Poland lost to Germany.

[Drygioni]

What is particularly baffling about this is that, in fact, Poland lost to Germany.

EURGH

Crap, to be fair that was written at 1:40 AM, and I hadn't slept on Saturday.

Yes, sorry.

I originally intended to show the fervent enthusiasm of the whole thing by Poland turning their match against Germany into a 'REVENGE FOR 1939!' thing pre-match. It then all got mixed up in my head, where Poland actually did win. When actually they lost, courtesy of two goals from a German player of Polish origin. Is life.

Damn you Miss Waterfield, this is pretty much the only topic on this forum I know about more than anyone else and you have to go and make me look silly. You can have this can if YOU DON'T DO IT AGAIN.

[Arachno-capitalist]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DICdXTPYgpA&feature=related
You guys sure like to trip over your own feet and cry about it a lot.

[Drygioni]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DICdXTPYgpA&feature=related
You guys sure like to trip over your own feet and cry about it a lot.

It is shameful! Blarrdy continentil wankurs

In all seriousness, it's because of football's foul system. In football, it is fairly easy to hurt or impede another player without the officials noticing, as long as he stays on his feet. It's sad, but often the only way a player can call attention to a foul is to provide some amount of exaggeration. It's sometimes really difficult for three men, one on each side and one in the middle of it all, to notice everything without the 'assistance of players', especially in a hectic game or in the middle of a crowd of players.

Now, this is kind of alright, pretty bad but understandable. It's just that this has become such a thing that it leads to outright diving to win free kicks etc., so rather than exaggerating the fact you've been fouled/nipple twisted/headbutted it's just plain deceit, because players recognise the difficult jobs referees have. It's shit, one of the worst things about football.

Comparing it to rugby is unfair. In rugby, you gain absolutely no advantage by lying on the floor or pretending to be hurt, for obvious reasons. In football, the sad truth is that you can.

THE ONLY PART YOU FIND RELEVANT: I hear that in 'American Rounders' they are introducing some sort of video replay to determine small margins of things that may not be immediately obvious. Well, if they introduced that in football and issued retrospective bans/cautions after a match for anyone caught diving during said match, it would eliminate it immediately.

[jaydub]

A can to Judy for snide references to girly games.