viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
… are on social media platforms now, rather than going out and actually talking to people. Jonathan Lieuw has written some good stuff in his time but there’s a real sense of smugness and self-indulgence in many of his pieces now that I really can’t abide.
Today’s piece contains this -
“You want decisions that are both objectively correct, and for your team not to be on the receiving end of them. You want gold-standard perfection because anything less is an assault on the integrity of the game, but you want it delivered instantaneously, because undue delays are an insult to the paying supporter.
You think referees are paid too much, and that we should get better ones. You think officials should be more transparent and open to scrutiny, and yet every time you see or think about an official, a hot and uncontrollable rage belches from deep within your soul. You think VAR has killed the emotion of football, and yet for some reason you seem to feel more strongly about it than most other things in your life.
You are – in short – a masochist, a child or a football fan, three terms that basically mean the same thing.”
He goes on to make some wider points about the football authorities that I broadly agree with, but this is an article written for and based on what people are saying online. This is the danger of a journalist or ‘opinionist’ writing things in their own front room and using social media as a barometer for how the majority of people may feel about something instead of doing actual legwork and finding out.
The majority of football supporters don’t show the anger and hostility he appears to be responding to in this piece. In my experience the majority of supporters discuss the game for an hour or two and move on to the the next one.
One thing this piece doesn’t address is the role people like him and the wider media play in whipping up the hysteria and continually stoking the fire. I would love to see a four-week ban on talking about decisions and officials. But what on earth would these people write about then?
Scrap football
Today’s piece contains this -
“You want decisions that are both objectively correct, and for your team not to be on the receiving end of them. You want gold-standard perfection because anything less is an assault on the integrity of the game, but you want it delivered instantaneously, because undue delays are an insult to the paying supporter.
You think referees are paid too much, and that we should get better ones. You think officials should be more transparent and open to scrutiny, and yet every time you see or think about an official, a hot and uncontrollable rage belches from deep within your soul. You think VAR has killed the emotion of football, and yet for some reason you seem to feel more strongly about it than most other things in your life.
You are – in short – a masochist, a child or a football fan, three terms that basically mean the same thing.”
He goes on to make some wider points about the football authorities that I broadly agree with, but this is an article written for and based on what people are saying online. This is the danger of a journalist or ‘opinionist’ writing things in their own front room and using social media as a barometer for how the majority of people may feel about something instead of doing actual legwork and finding out.
The majority of football supporters don’t show the anger and hostility he appears to be responding to in this piece. In my experience the majority of supporters discuss the game for an hour or two and move on to the the next one.
One thing this piece doesn’t address is the role people like him and the wider media play in whipping up the hysteria and continually stoking the fire. I would love to see a four-week ban on talking about decisions and officials. But what on earth would these people write about then?
Scrap football
