Olympics seem to be causing antipathy towards football

Do you think attitudes to sport are changed long term, or will we just go back towards the tiresome media obsession with the Premier League next week.



The latter, sadly

Nothing will change

I agree too that nothing will change.  It is appropriate that Tom Daley & co are in one of the later events of the games to herald the start of the proper diving season.

Footy is our bread and butter, our meat and veg.

The Olympics is rare and gets us excited but like a trip to the theatre to see high class actors and singers we are thrilled but soon return to our cinemas and our DVDs.

Still not convinced jumping into a sand pit is sport...

You get so much football through the year with the prem, europe and the euro's that I have had enough and just couldn't be bothered with the olympic tournie. Shouldn't even be in the olympics.

I think people also tend to respect olympic athletes more than prima donna footballers due to financial and physical hardship many of them face while training to be the best. There was a judo bronze medallist who had to ask for donations to buy a car to get to training as her old banger was finished. A long way from Carrington, ferrari's and £200k a week.

However, I do admit that once the Olympics are over, I will be glued to the premiership again. I am not apologising, I like football.

I'd say football's done a better job of causing antipathy towards football.

It will take more than the Olympics to change the fixation with it. People may be seeing new sports for the first time, but the government, sporting bodies, the education system, clubs and teams need to be there in place to capitalise on new enthusiasm from potential participants, officials and spectators alike. Make sure the next time GB play a handball/volleyball/basketball/hockey game admission prices are low, the event is well advertised, representatives from local teams are there, taster sessions are available, the players are accessible. I don't know if London is currently on the beach volleyball circuit, but the last two weeks have shown it could be, get it booked, get it advertised and people will attend. I was confident the execution of the Olympics would be reasonably good, I do have doubts about what comes beyond though.

I just hope that the media get behind these sports and that BBC realise that this country is sport mad not cooking mad on a Saturday afternoon.

We need Grandstand back

i agree, olympic athletes for the HUGE majority seem to be better people than footballers

Why not show a live minority sport on BBC 3 on a Friday night? They use it for Diamond League Athletics, get a GB handball game on there, a basketball game whatever. Got to be an upgrade on the 23rd showing of a Dr Who episode!

working class

middle class

jags & jodhpurs

BBC missing a trick with it's lack of sport coverage. Sky even have Fish-o-Mania covered for when that's in the Rio Olympics

Injera
06 Aug 12 18:25
Footy is our bread and butter, our meat and veg.

The Olympics is rare and gets us excited but like a trip to the theatre to see high class actors and singers we are thrilled but soon return to our cinemas and our DVDs.

Still not convinced jumping into a sand pit is sport


And you reckon Football is??!!

To be honest i have gradually been getting more and more pi$$ed off with Football and the behaviour of its players,its no longer a sport as far as i'm concerned.
Win at all costs,cheating,swearing and total disrespect for officials in every game i watch now.

Yes they can learn from people in the olympics,but i doubt they are bothered.Long as they continue to get overpaid.

Athletes smile more because they've waited 4 years for this adventure. Footy players are involved 9 months of the year in high profile matches.

Of course footballers should have more media training but we shouldn't get carried away with the us v them debate. Olympians are having their 2 weeks of fame.

Give it a few weeks and they'll be off the radar.

I loved the Euros (England notwithstanding), but have to be honest that the next football season with the same old players all wearing different colour shirts to last season, leaves me cold.  If it wasn't for betting, I doubt I'd watch any of it any more.

The massive surge for Olympic tickets and huge interest in minority sports hopefully has shown the governing bodies, and more importantly the media, that there is a massive appetite for non-football sport and that a proportionate amount of coverage needs to be given to it.

Outside major athletics championships, there is virtually no athletics coverage in the papers and similarly nothing about cycling outside the TdF.  If you'd witnessed the hundreds of thousands (even millions) that have watch either live in the stadiums or on the streets, or watched on TV or applied for tickets, then you'd know that they are under-represented in the media.

Danno - don't you think it's a one off though?

I went to the Olympic Park last week for the Hockey and sure it was fun. But it's a novelty and therefore gets us all keen for a short time.

Not for one minute saying footy, cricket and rugby are superior spectator sports but they have a place in our psyche that won't be easily removed.

got rid of sky sports 3 seasons ago and no regrets at all.
yes i watch the occasional game if im in a pub with a tele,and i watch the big intl tournaments,but the premier league,not bothered at all really,too much money has ruined it for me.

It isn't just too much money but the despicable attitude of the players. Compare that to some of the athletes here. Blake was thrilled for his teammate last night, Louis Smith was full of praise for the Hungarian who beat him, and in the vault today every gymnast hugged the winner after an outstanding jump. You would never see that in football.

I despise footballers especially the inarticulate primates with diamond ear studs many of whom have the intelligence of a flea.

Many (not all) football supporters seem to be a sub human species....it is incredible that in the 21st Century you can be beaten up for supporting a rival team.

some of them cant even get fit for major tournaments , even though paid 200k /week. shows contempt they have for their country and more fool the manager for picking them.

Totally agree.

with posy,although mm makes a fair point as well.

might get my head knocked off in this thread, but i'm quite looking forward for the return of the footy season

this national euphoria stuff is very nice, but it won't last, and it would be just as good if england won a footy tournament or hosted a world cup

Let's get real everyone.  Olympics athletes have their faults as well.  What about the drugs cheats?  But for the arrival of Usain Bolt, athletics was a sport that was dying with all the drug controversies.  Then there was the badminton players trying to lose.

Yes, footballers get paid to much and have an easy life but that's not their fault.  They're constantly under the spotlight so of course we're going to hear more negative stories about them.  I have actually really enjoyed the Olympic football tournament.  Not as much pressure on the players as in major tournaments which has produced high scoring entertaining games.  You also get a glimpse of future stars.

its their fault how they behave though.

'Rioting' by Blackburn fans during pre-season leads to Nijmegen friendly being cancelled

roll on the footie season

How do 'they' behave?  Every sport has its heroes and villains, its good points and bad points.  We're just more aware of the bad stuff in football because of the insane amount of coverage.

It's some of that coverage that annoys me. Why do the press - TV, radio, internet, newspapers, everything - have to talk about constant **** like contract negotiations, a little niggle, whether Rooney had fish n chips, etc, etc - rather than write about some actual action and achievement. These Olympics are the pinnacle of sportsmen's careers but they do stuff other times of the year, not that you'd know it.

yes,but the win at all costs attitude that Footballers at the top level have now has resulted in more and more cheating,and more and more disrespect shown at the officials.
Since the premiership started this has got steadily worse,and will continue to do so all the time so much money is thrown at the game.

Sorry,just cannot condone their behaviour.
If others can,thats up to them.

the press coverage of football merely represents the fact that there are millions of brain-dead tribal footie fans in the UK and i dont expect that to change anytime soon

i'm afraid you are right Sir Denis.

Unfortunately he is indeed.

To me, there seems to be a direct correlation between the increase in coverage of football and the perceived increase in their poor behaviour.

Fergie and Rooney, Fat Sam and Pulis, Mourinho and Ronaldo, Durham and Gough... What a depressing outlook.

If we won the Euro's or World Cup nobody would be arsed about these juiced up Olympians. Athletics is decent...the other sports we are winning medals in a just niche posh-boy sports.

Mrs Thatcher was spot on when she described football as a slum sport for slum people...non plus ca change

I'd mostly watch Serie A & La Liga now, yes there is just as much cheating and disrespect to officals in those leagues as the premiership, but i like the way you can watch the game and dont have to see it splashed all over the papers the next day, arguments in the pub over a simple incident, and andy gray put a 'context' on the game.

its the difference in attitudes too.

Rowers who came second who had made huge sacrifices for the last 4 years came second and were crying and apologising for not winning.

rooney had to go to vegas for a holiday prior to euros where he pissed it up and smoked. turned up unfit.

most footballers barely gave a sh*t when they lost and were pictured shortly after pi**ing it up without a care in the world days later........

I suspect a few Olympians will be pissed up afterwards. Just that the media don't hound them for no reason.

For 25 years I would attend nearly all EVERTON home games plus 10 to 15 aways every year.
On top of this if any game was on telly,that was my entertainment sorted.
Now, I still love EVERTON more than words can describe,but I only go half a dozen a season.Cant remember the last time I watched another game on the telly.
Gradually come about in the last 10 years.
The reasons in no order are prices.overkill,cheating,the change in fanbase from working class.
I would imagine that last reason would be the biggest danger to footy. I would imagine plenty of people who are in it for the fashionable sport thingy will move on to pastures new.

football was my alpha sport, my first love, but I just cant get interested in the Prem. Its the prices, the money, the behaviour of the players...I still have my Crewe season ticket, and I still watch La Liga & some Serie A and Bundesliga, but the Prem is ridiculously overhyped.

I don't think any olympians would be in vegas having a beer a few weeks before the olympics though.

I suspect a few Olympians will be pissed up afterwards. Just that the media don't hound them for no reason.

True. Ben Ainslie was apparently staggering around Weymouth last night.

Ben Ainslie actually won something.

The Olympics give you something a bit different for a change. The Premiership is essentially the same product peddled hard year after year and going nowhere. The tiresome media obsession with the Premier League will roll again as the media and football need each other. They have to recruit young people to part with their money to pay the wages of the over rated players and their attendant circus.

Gymnastics v Football

One is full of people trying to stay on their feet, the other is full of people trying to fall over.  I know which I prefer.

No way opf proving it but I suspect that it would be under 10 % of the olympians drinking over the last few weeks yet between the end of season  and euros starting i reckon around 90% of the British footballers would have been out drinking at some point.

justr totally different attitudes. the footballers make so much cash they're not too bothered if they win or lose. the olympians, winning a medal or coming 4th makes a huge difference to sponsorship, funding, earnings etc.

Football v Soccer

One is full of people trying to stay on their feet, the other is full of people trying to fall over.  I know which I prefer.