Why do people hate Soccer/Futbol? (Topic 4 years old)

I'm always fond of pointing out that US Football has a bunch of large beefy dudes in tight pants constantly squatting and bending over. Doesn't that seem weird so many manly men get excitement over that? :)

Just like video games, one shouldn't freak out or fret over what the other guy thinks. If you like your game then it doesn't matter what the other guy thinks because you are having fun.

Could you imagine the amount of cheap goals we would see if it wasn't there though! It would be hell, but then again, maybe that would win the Americans over..

I mean, why do people hate hockey? People just hate things.

Culturally, the U.S. has never really been big on Football / Soccer, so it's not very appreciated in the U.S.

Personally, I think it's a bit boring to watch. Which is weird considering that I've been really enjoying this F1 season. Guess I just don't really enjoy men kicking around a ball back and forth?

There are entirely too many things in this thread that I want to reply but I can't bring myself to even start.

I will just say that even generalizing Californians or Texans or New Yorkers doesn't work, so thinking that you can generalize a country the size of America is laughable at best.

I don't know anything about life in Europe or the rest of the world or why many people there like soccer or cricket or whatever else, but I don't pretend to know why either. Talking out of your ass only makes you look like an idiot.

Probably the same reason some people get upset when you call soccer soccer instead of football or people have arguments over who's tougher Rugby players or American football players. Sports just seem to bring out a lot of national pride for some reason.

I think it's a myth. But if we are talking about ratings, then we still are talking about something that isn't tracked well through out a global viewership. And we are just mostly hearing about it through American Football audience point of view, much like how they never talk about inflation of box offices on movie, instead we hear about how 3D ticket sales help make today's movies into blockbusters.

But I think it's a myth.

Because it's really boring. I never understood why it's the most popular sport in the world. Also, I'm European, so before you start raging against me keep that in mind. Honestly, the only team sports that are exciting are basketball and hockey. Basketball because the pace is really high, a lot of scoring and highlights in a single game. Hockey, because even though the scoring is not that high, at least you will see plenty of insanely hard hits that the players won't be penalized for and you might see an actual fight or two.

Used to absolutely hate it, even though I never watched a single match. I decided out of the blue to watch atleast one match of the World Cup, the first game in fact Brazil v. Spain I fell in love! Some reason I would tense up when goals were made or nearly made. Draws don't bother me at all, the Brazil v. Mexico match was probably one of the most intest I've seen.

It's been odd enjoying something I've hated for so long, I only ever really care about College Football, never got into basketball as it has bored the shit out of me.

Getting so interested has caused me to purchase Fifa 13, been playing none stop.

Extremely boring sport where even the minor fun of watching the players get injured is quickly taken away by the fact that THEY FUCKING CRY ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING just to hopefully get a red card on the opposing team.

I'm from Sweden. Soccer is pretty big here. But professional soccer is fucking stupid with all that fake boohoo.. just.. so.. fake.. ewwww.

'Cause they're idiots with no taste for real sports.

@loafsmooch: A popular imagine among hurling fans (hurling is one of two Irish national sports). Hurling is a sport in which two teams of 15 men run around with big clubs pucking a tiny rock solid ball up and down a pitch. Only within recent years did the GAA make it a rule that you have to wear a helmet in hurling games.

Also Hurling and Gaelic Football are played by "amateurs". The guys who play these games at the top level have regular jobs during the week, usually jobs which will accommodate their sport like being a cop, fireman, teacher etc. But they're not paid £25,000 a game to lie on the ground crying cause someone ran by them.

I enjoy football a lot (Bournemouth fan) and also really like the American version (Texans fan) ...although I think it ought to be re-named 'Warball'. Calling it Football has never made sense to me.

@zelyre: the ten minute breaks are why most sports don't hold my attention, I love the fact there are maybe one to no commercials on during these matches. It makes the games fly by for me.

@jesus_phish: Now we're talking!

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

I don't really like football myself. Just not my thing. I like American football even less though. It's just a less exciting version of rugby.

Come to think of it, I don't like most team based sports. The only exception I can think of is basketball. High pace and very technical. I mostly like to watch fighting and turning.

@nictel: by the logic of that picture, soccer should be called toe-mellon

I dont hate football, i just find it as boring as hell, there is nothing at all exciting about it and even though we have several sports channels dedicated to it the BBC like to push it on normal tv too meaning everything else runs late or dosent run at all. What i do hate is the fans, not all fan, just most of the guys that live where i do, using Football as an excuse to kill each other, get drunk out their minds and wreck buses...

@sweep: The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in!

Because, just like most other sports, it is incredibly boring to watch 90% of the time, 8% of the time something stupid or mildly entertaining happens, and only during the last 2% does something actually exciting happen.

But that is just my opinion of course, with the amount of money being thrown at a few people because they can kick a ball better than some other people - somebody must like the sport.

I don't really have anything further to add, so I just want to leave it at this.

Futbol is great, its the only sport where you can take a 30 minute nap while watching and be assured your not going to miss anything.

This is why I don't watch soccer (as well as basketball , although someone told me it isn't as big of an occurrence in basketball as it used to be).

I really made an honest effort to watch soccer when I was in college, because my roommate was really into it, but all the fake injuries just frustrated me so much. I get mad when I see people lying in real life, why do I want to watch entertainment when lying about being hurt plays such a big role? Every time I would see someone comically throw themselves backwards and then look towards the ref with their arms raised in the air, I'd die a little inside.

I find it incredibly dull.

Fuck all sports! (Totally not a generalizing asshole, I swear.)

A lot of Americans only see soccer every two years (four if they don't care about the Women's Cup) and then this is what they see.

If you complain, you are told that faking is part of the game and that replays would hurt its "integrity" of some such tripe. Even baseball is getting with the times and using them in some amount now. The feelings that referees have way too much power with yellow and red cards that can be game winning by themselves (a system like hockey where once you score your lost player is returned would be better) and their discretion about how much added time stopping time is at the end instead of just stopping the clock are common complaints. For a game that is supposed to be always moving compared to American football there is a lot of stopped or slow play when players boot the ball out of play, crowd around to yell at the ref, pass the ball back and forth, or act hurt to get penalties for the other guys.

The World Cups are fun as hell and I love watching them but soccer in general is boring in the US and if you haven't been brought up loving a team or know a bunch of people already into it it's really not interesting to get into. It has a reputation where the players are all cheaters and the rules support them for it and a lot of people can't respect that aspect of the game. Additionally there's a lot of attitude amongst soccer fans that since it's the most internationally popular game it's the best and people that don't like it are uncultured philistines. I don't begrudge anyone for liking any specific sport (fun is fun!) but if you are honestly interested in why people (mainly Americans) don't like soccer that's a lot of it.

- "Most" games consist of a single goal scored in 90mins.

-The Flopping shit is out of control I watched one of USA game saw two legit injuries and 7 fake ones, to see a grown man grab his leg and look like he is going to cry only to be up and running a second later is laughable.

-Most goal attempts just sail up and over the goal the large majority are just straight up misses, making goalie interaction with the ball pretty low.

AND the fans:

"Real" Soccer fans are way to into it, just like "Real" NFL fans and "Real" Basketball fans and "Real" Nascar fans, so many "Real" Assholes.

I've been reading some of these and while I'm not big on the sport, can you just start calling it football? It's not soccer or futbol or whatever. I get that the US likes to cut itself off from the rest of the world, but this is the internet. The rest of the world is here. It's called football.

Faking trips and falls have always been part of football, but watching the World Cup it seems like it's getting worse. At least make it look believable, some players perform a power ranger knock back when only slightly touched and some of them fall when nobody is even near them and stay on the ground like a little kid until the ref says something. It stops the momentum of the game completely. There's like a dozen's of camera's, why aren't they used on the spot to point out faults.

The ref that did Netherlands/Chile was pretty good, he after a while realized that everyone was faking their trips and made some really good calls.

I've been semi interested in football all of my life, but recently I've noticed all of the bullshit. The higher ups that run FIFA have decided that the flow of the game is worth maintaining at the cost of the decisions made by the officials being wrong 1/3 of the time. I think that's dumb.

I think Football is really special though. It's been played professionally for something like 150 years and is so simple to play, every nation in the world has a chance of being decent. Every kid in the world with a ball can play. It's why in England it's the most culturally inclusive national team of any major sport. I just wish they would sort the game out because it could be so much greater than it is.

Its called whatever it is called from wherever you are from.

I don't.

I just don't especially care about either.

Not my problem you can't handle the truth.

I don't agree with this particularly, but it's delivered so brilliantly by the genius Cleese that it deserves its place in this thread. Also, I doubt John Cleese himself is particularly bothered about the subject.

@zevvion said:

Sometimes it's best to choose the path of least resistance. Some idiot from America would probably get on here saying that in America it's called Soccer and start a really silly argument. (I'm American by the way). In fairness also a lot of hardcore NFL fans I know agree that it makes no sense why American football is called football while soccer, which is actually played primarily with your foot, is called soccer. I know the actual reason why but it's a dumb story that know one cares about.

I don't hate Soccer, I'm indifferent to all organized sports (Including eSports for similar reasons). I do wish it was called Football in Canada and America, though. I will say that I am especially indifferent to North American Football because it makes no sense to me and the action is very stop and go.

Hockey is probably the game I'm most invested in just because it's by far the most popular thing going where I live. I would like the Canucks to win a Stanley Cup just for the sake of civic pride. Or at least get to game 7 in Vancouver without inciting a riot. I just don't want to watch a game.

(Also, this spell check not knowing Canuck is a word makes me sad.)

It's also called football in the US. There just is another game there also called football, which is why some people refer to actual football as soccer over there because it is less common there. Doesn't change the definition of football. If I were from the US, I could still call it football. Confusion for everyone. Maybe just get with the times and call stuff what it actually is called rather than dividing it on who should call it what.

I enjoy watching the US play in the World Cup because of nationalism, but I don't care about the sport in general. (Saying I hate it would be an overstatement). People point at the breaks in American sports as negatives (well, let's be honest, it's true of cricket as well) but I don't see it that way. My primary problem with the world cup is that constant attention is required, because a chance could develop at any time, but generally it does not. My attention is not well-rewarded. Compare this to American Football, where you are only asked to pay attention intermittently and there are several indicators you can use to impute the probability of exciting plays happening.

Given the captive audience, I imagine that this makes soccer a better game to watch in person, but in the comfort of my own home with all the distractions available to me, I don't require constant action (even though that's kind of a poor description of soccer as well, given out of bounds, fake injuries (and real ones), corner and free kicks).

So much whining about flopping... even though basketball players do it too?

No it wouldn't work. I can't stress to you how popular American football is here. If I say football everyone will assume I'm talking about the NFL and if I try to correct them they will not let it slide.

For every rule/law there is someone who would exploit it.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/06/the-origin-of-the-word-soccer/

We are being true to the roots of the sport, not using the modern term from your gutter-tongue. :p

I always wanted to be more into soccer, but I always felt isolated as an American. There's MLS, but it isn't talked about much on sports channels and I live in a southern city where there are zero teams in the entire region. There's no 24-hour all-soccer channel in America that I know of, and I would have to pay for the Premier League channel. Even still, living in the UK or Europe where all the action is is more appealing than being by yourself in another country halfway across the world. The World Cup is kind of the only time when the US actually cares, and it makes me want to care more during that period too.

Every sport can be boring once you dissect them for what they really are. American football is supposedly "action packed," but the ball is in play less than 20% of the time, and that's not even counting when the clock is stopped. Players spend a lot more time standing around, figuring out what they're going to do than actually doing it. Even when the ball is in play, there's a lot more incomplete passes and 2-yard rushes than "holy shit"-type plays.

I personally do not think American football is boring, but every sport has its own bullshit that some people do not mind while others can't stand.

#baseballcares

Giant Bomb is an American website created by Americans, it's soccer on this forum!

Anyways what I think a lot of Non-Americans don't realize is that soccer is BY FAR the most popular sport in America for kids. Kids grow-up playing soccer more than any other sport...so it must say something that most people decided to play other sports when they grow up. It's not like they're not given a chance to play it. I'm sure lots of people are affected by society but I've always felt like I enjoyed sports based on their own merit.

Soccer can be exciting, but the biggest issue for me is that the field is so large and the players look like ants on the pitch.Also, I love statistics and soccer just isn't the sport to go to if you want to look at numbers. As a sport soccer is just a little too simple for me...outside of the offensive and defensive strategies implemented throughout the game the basic ruleset is pretty bare-bones.

It really baffles me when Americans say its a low scoring game. So if football was like NFL and a goal was worth 6 instead of 1 it would be more exciting? As someone who watches football and american football in equal measure, the same amount of action or excitement happens in 90mins of football as it does in 3 hours of NFL.

Yup, and when something is in the spotlight you'll hear about the hate more so then when it isn't and thus pay attention to the hate, but then it'll go out of season and the hate will fad and such is life until it rears its head again.

To me what makes football so popular around the world are two things:

It is an incredibly simple game. - You don't need loads of kit and you can play on any surface, even sand.

Skill is at its heart. - You don't need to be a freak to be good. Not really tall, strong, large or fast. The best player the world has ever produced, Maradona, is a stocky short-arse with no great pace. Two of the best players today Neymar and Messi are both tiny and would blow over in a strong wind.

Whether you enjoy watching the game or not, this makes it extremely democratic and is the reason it has spread all round the world.

I think chess gets it worse of all. Every single fucking sports gets compared to it, but no one gives a shit about it.