O/T:- Millwall FC ban the knee!

[applepie]

Well why do you think they were booing, Elite? To say they were just Millwall yobs is easy, and perhaps they were, but there could be the reason that they had seen it all before on the telly and were there for the game and not to watch 22 grown men getting their knees muddy.

Slightly, and only slightly, off the main fred, have you noticed how some of the black players are now raising the clenched fist whilst kneeling? Black power symbolism? Do we sympathize?

I’m very wary of assuming what people mean by any gesture. I remember when Hughes did the Hughesie and some people claimed he was enacting steering a car 🙄.

[Elite_Pie]

Well why do you think they were booing, Elite?

I think they were booing because they are racists.

[jackal2]

Football is used for political propaganda all the time. Games do moments of silence for remembrance day, for example. If you want to get rid of politics in football then get rid of all of it.

Very true.

Get rid of all of it and just play football, which after all is what people have paid their money to see. There are plenty of other places where folk can voluntarily express their social and political views, take part in remembrance or religious ceremonies, express their conscience or do whatever else they please.

Football administrators seem to be obsessed with this idea of a “football community” within which everyone subscribes (or should subscribe) to the same views, beliefs and causes, and that these must be officially endorsed or encouraged and signalled within the sporting event, albeit more for corporate commercial reasons than moral reasons if the truth be told.

The reality is that the mythical “football community” does not have a homogenous view on anything. It’s a massive, worldwide group of individual fans and players coming from a vast array of different backgrounds, each with their own experiences and reasons for seeing the world the way they do.

If you corral such a diverse range of people into a football stadium (charging many of them for the privilege) and then promote the expression of one particular view or participation in one particular act, you shouldn’t be surprised if sooner or later a certain group of individuals express a different view, regardless of whether that happens to be a minority view or even an abhorrent view to others.

Your point about remembrance is a good one. I remember the fuss that occurred when footballer James McClean opted not to wear a poppy on his shirt – a choice he was perfectly entitled to make. If you seek to force or embarrass someone into to wearing a poppy, how does that accord with the freedom of speech and expression that those you are remembering were supposedly fighting for?!

I wear my poppy with pride but I do so voluntarily, when and where I want, in the lead up to 11th November. If I want to be part of the Remembrance activity at that time of year, I can visit the local events arranged for that purpose or join in the single national two minutes’ silence. I do not need to do it at a football match. The only thing I’ve consented to do in paying to enter a football match is watch fecking football, and it is an imposition that the football authorities assume I wish to do anything else or that they can accurately represent my views on anything else!

[cher1]

Yeah, and don't forget all the extra pot washing, hoovering and ironing you could have done!

I normally agree with Laxton, but if he honestly thinks that those Millwall fans who booed were simply "fed up with a gesture that's lost it's impact", we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Hoovering? I'm not allowed a new fangled gadget like that. Strictly Ewbank here old chap.

[lunaspie]

I always thought that Millwall fans were some of the most racist in football. However, it turns out, despite a host of evidence to the contrary, that it has all been a very long protest about politics in football.

I just need to work out what the bananas on the pitch were for - any ideas? EU bendy bananas? A misguided protest against the Lib Dems?

I seem to remember they always threw a bunch on the pitch up in Scotland whenever East Fyffe played.

[maddogslater]

Very true.

Get rid of all of it and just play football, which after all is what people have paid their money to see. There are plenty of other places where folk can voluntarily express their social and political views, take part in remembrance or religious ceremonies, express their conscience or do whatever else they please.

Football administrators seem to be obsessed with this idea of a “football community” within which everyone subscribes (or should subscribe) to the same views, beliefs and causes, and that these must be officially endorsed or encouraged and signalled within the sporting event, albeit more for corporate commercial reasons than moral reasons if the truth be told.

The reality is that the mythical “football community” does not have a homogenous view on anything. It’s a massive, worldwide group of individual fans and players coming from a vast array of different backgrounds, each with their own experiences and reasons for seeing the world the way they do.

If you corral such a diverse range of people into a football stadium (charging many of them for the privilege) and then promote the expression of one particular view or participation in one particular act, you shouldn’t be surprised if sooner or later a certain group of individuals express a different view, regardless of whether that happens to be a minority view or even an abhorrent view to others.

Your point about remembrance is a good one. I remember the fuss that occurred when footballer James McClean opted not to wear a poppy on his shirt – a choice he was perfectly entitled to make. If you seek to force or embarrass someone into to wearing a poppy, how does that accord with the freedom of speech and expression that those you are remembering were supposedly fighting for?!

I wear my poppy with pride but I do so voluntarily, when and where I want, in the lead up to 11th November. If I want to be part of the Remembrance activity at that time of year, I can visit the local events arranged for that purpose or join in the single national two minutes’ silence. I do not need to do it at a football match. The only thing I’ve consented to do in paying to enter a football match is watch fecking football, and it is an imposition that the football authorities assume I wish to do anything else or that they can accurately represent my views on anything else!

Well put jackal, OT post of the year.

[Ayeayeskipper]

Great to see the Notts players take the knee tonight in support of organizing that defaced the Cenotaph.

[Elite_Pie]

Great to see the Notts players take the knee tonight in support of organizing that defaced the Centetoph.

I know this is your first post, but we tend to type in English on here.

The cynical side of me would have posted "hope you and your family are well shipmate".

[Ayeayeskipper]

I know this is your first post, but we tend to type in English on here.

The cynical side of me would have posted "hope you and your family are well shipmate".

I have one of those grammar check thinmy gigs thinhgs. Soz

[Ayeayeskipper]

I suppose we should let people smash up memorials to our dead.