Is Football Entertainment?

[Luke Imp]

Spotted this earlier today on Twitter. Agree or disagree?

This is over quite a few tweets, so I've just put it in paragraph form so it's easier to read.

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Tony Evans??Verified account? @TonyEvans92a · 2h2 hours ago
Biggest change in game in my lifetime? Idea that football is entertainment. That losing is somehow OK if it's pretty and winning can be dull. Let's call it Arsenalification. It'll do until a better word comes along.

It shouldn't be the way sport works. It's all a bit figure skating, isn't it? The mindset has produced a generation of players who excel on one area (attacking) but can't do the basics in another (defending). It's created an unbalanced game which is actually less interesting. A lot of people don't appreciate defensive skills then yelp when their team leaks goals. Anyway, memo to the 'entertainment' crew. There are no points for artistic impression. Yet the great @SteveNicol61 said something to me that's stuck in mind. It was about Man U in 80s. 'It was like they had a 10yo's view of game'. 'They wanted all the benefits of success in football without putting in the hard work.' Strikes me there's a lot of that going on. I've seen teams that could play the opposition off the park. The best of them could also brawl their way to success. And as a fan, the routs didn't give me much pleasure. The over-my-dead-body, backs-to-the-wall, get-a-result-or-die-trying games were best. Much more satisfying that games that were dead after 5min and became an exercise in flat-track bullying.

Think people go the match differently now, too. When I started it was about going with your mates and local pride. What happened during games was almost tangential. Win equalled happy, loss miserable. Can't remember anyone complaining that a win was dull. But only place you could see live football was in grounds. There was plenty going on

Now most people watch on TV. They are more focused on the action than we were. Even those who go the game can unpick it from the highlights.

Anyway, in my view sport is different to other pastimes because ultimately it's about result. Spectacle is great but it's window dressing. In my view the biggest threat to the game is notion of entertainment. The sense that some teams, some matches are unworthy if not 'stylish'. That there's only one way to win; that talent should be free to dominate and that doggedness and organisation are an afront to the game.

The essence of team games are that the group are greater than sum of their parts. Pulis gets sneered at. Would you like him to roll over?

Anyway, enough from me. If I want to be entertained, I'll go the pictures, the theatre or a concert. I want something different from sport. A contest. And ideally a trophy at the end of it all.

 

[valefan16]

Don't care how we win as long as we win and where Port Vale are concerned I don't enjoy it at all so wouldn't call it entertainment.

What I mean by not enjoying it is that I find games stressful! 1-0 or 2-0 up and stressed we will let the opponents back in and have something to lose, losing is stressful and a draw you know one mistake can cost you.

So no its not entertaining! Lose 4-3 or win 1-0 I know which outcome will mean my weekend is better!

 

[AdamStag]

Football isn't entertainment, it's a proxy social club. Any entertainment isn't expected and any is a great addition on what's a great day.

Football is what you make of it. Do I travel from Mansfield to Manchester for the entertainment? I'd have stopped eons ago. I go as I know when I get to the railway at 11 the same folk will be there. I know they'll always be a football match on in the green dragon at 12.30. I know ppl who sit around me at the games, would you see most of these people every couple of weeks otherwise? Probably not.

It's a community, and one that I love. The football is obviously massively important, but is entertainment massively important? Nah, it's 4th division football - if you want entertainment stop in the pub.

For however people may laugh and joke about Mansfield for our crap northern town, is having 3 stands, us not getting many fans - I'd not change them for the world. And entertainment or not, I'll still be there at the railway at 11am match days.

As for entertainment, what is there to do on a Saturday otherwise? DIY? The other half (not literally) see the in laws? Fuck that, it's an escape, no entertainment is needed.

 

[Youpies]

Football being described as entertainment is dangerous for the sport. Its unfortunately been creeping into the game more and more as we see foreign, particularly american owners coming in, alongside the increase in revenues.

Entertainment implies its not real, can be controlled fixed and can have story lines. No sport should ever be allowed to be like this.

The beauty of Football is hope. The hope that your team can beat anyone in the league, or the hope you knock Man Utd out of the cup. Entertainment would ruin that.

Its also as Adam makes a good point, particularly in the lower leagues more around the social aspect. Feeling a sense of community in an era where communities have largely dissipated or been reduced, particularly in small towns heavily reliant on specific industries, which is usually the case at our level.

 

[valefan16]

Escapism is a good wording for it, a good description I've seen and agree with is that for 2 hours all your problems and life is locked outside those turnstiles and nothing else matters... All your thinking about is the result and possibly the implications of a win, loss or draw going forward.

 

[Indian Dan]

Most games, including the PL, are mind numbingly boring. Sure, you get the occasional corker, but how many a season? 4 or 5?. My club has gone from trying to play like Barcelona but with mainly average players to a gritty, no nonsense approach.

Got to say, it bores the shit out of me. Saying that, I’ll be there against Chesterfield Saturday week.

My problem with it as a whole is I need to see the club trying to progress on and off the pitch. No good getting promoted back to L1 but still getting fed the same old shite. Crappy facilities, broken promises of a training ground and seemingly no plan other than to get back to L1.

All said and done, though, I’d rather support a lower league club, most of whom have their odd moment in the sun, than, say, WBA or Stoke, whose only ambition is another season finishing lower mid table.

Lower league football hasn’t really changed that much over the years.

 

[Lance Stoe]

It's about getting pissed up and visiting towns you would never visit without football. Occasionally the Football is good.

 

[Chris FGR]

It's about getting pissed up and visiting towns you would never visit without football. Occasionally the Football is good.

This. Without football I'd have never visited random places like Wrexham, Welling, York, Braintree, Tamworth etc to go for a piss up in their local's. Or spent a Saturday lunchtime enjoying strippers in a pub in Wycombe.

Definitely get to travel the country a lot more then you otherwise would. Makes you cleverer I think.

 

[Vanni]

If I want entertainment I go to a gig by some band or other that I like, because I know the band and their setlist all too well and will be entertained. Footy just isn't like that, you go into the ground not knowing exactly what's going to happen in the next 90 mins - your side can put in a great shift and beat a top flying side or have a poor game and get beat by a side that everybody thought were easy meat, pre-match of course.

Then again, you can go to a gig but fail to be entertained because the band's too pissed up/cba/having sound problems etc. Or you might go to a match not expecting much but witness a 5-4 thriller. But the likelihood of the former happening is pretty rare and so is the latter.

Coincidentally, I'm presently reading a book written by an apparently well known 60's/70's ref Norman Burtenshaw, 'Whose side are you on ref?', and in it he laments how football has changed in only a decade between 1963 and 1973. He says that footy in the 70's is much more focused on the defensive aspect than it was when he first started refereeing in the early 60's. He goes on to say that the days of seeing 6/7 goals in a match are long gone. Now he wrote this 50 years ago, and it still sounds familiar. In fact it's getting worse every year IMO.

 

[Chris FGR]

I like how this thread is started by a Lincoln fan.....

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

“Mansfield to Manchester” you say ???

 

[Benji]

People used to watch public execution for entertainment. We have come a long way since then, but if people still want to watch something archaic and disgusting then let them watch League Two football.

 

[1862]

If you don't find a team "brawling" it's way to a result entertaining, I have no fucking idea how you get yourself down to League Two football.

Process might not be entertaining to everyone, fair, but expecting the game to be the same as it was 30 years ago is madness. Every sport evolves, it would be insanely boring if it didn't.

 

[Baratheon]

I wouldn't call the football entertaining but Evan's antics on the touchline are worth watching.

 

[Luke Imp]

Agree with other comments.

The tweets only struck a chord because there was a comment recently on social media, either after the weekend's game or the game before, and they said they'd rather see us lose an entertaining game 1-0 than draw in a dull 0-0, for example.

I watch Lincoln to see us win, not for entertainment. We played Woking last season, won 3-2 and that was probably entertainment to some but it was a horrendous game to sit through from our point of view. Most people couldn't tell you anything about our 2nd goal or Woking's 1st.

Yet when we've played absolutely terribly away at Gateshead and won it with 2 goals in injury time, that's the game people remember. Or 3 days later against Torquay when we did the same.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Winning is entertainment for me however it comes, also agree with those who say the social side of it. It does help. 6.38am train to Shaw Lane this weekend

 

[Casey]

Watching football is not entertainment but it can be entertaining.

As to winning being the be all and end all of watching I have to disagree. I can accept my team losing if they put in a good account of themselves and it is oddly disappointing when when you win a boring game but having said that if my team is losing gallently week in week out something is wrong and needs to change.

Casey

 

[Laker]

I think it depends on what your definition of entertainment is and is guess this varies from person to person. For me, I do find live football and live sport as a whole entertaining (well I do normally but we're boring at the moment).

I'm entertained by ability, effort, teamwork etc. The most entertaining ones are those when it's a struggle, when it is tense, but when you can see the side fighting against that. I haven't generally felt that this season, except maybe when we've been hanging on for dear life for a win. Then in truth that's not been entertaining because our total lack of ability, togetherness etc has led to us being pinned back.

Anyway, I'm rambling. To summarise, I think the word "entertaining" has different meanings for different people.

 

[GTFCfish]

The tweets only struck a chord because there was a comment recently on social media, either after the weekend's game or the game before, and they said they'd rather see us lose an entertaining game 1-0 than draw in a dull 0-0, for example.

Whoever said that is a fucking cretin.

So you miss out on promotion on goal difference but it's ok because that game in October you lost 1-0 getting hit on the break whilst going for the win instead of settling for a 0-0, so it all turned out good in the end.

 

[Chris FGR]

I'd rather lose 4-3 then 1-0.

We've actually been involved in five 4-3's (and a 5-5) in the last year or so. All of them were bloody entertaining, lots of comical defending on show.

 

[Luke Imp]

It'd do my nut in being so soft defensively. Well, it did for many years. We had a period from around 2006-2014 where every manager that came in couldn't sort it out. Simpson seemed to make us slightly better, then it went tits up again when Moyses came in.

Being so shite defensively eventually catches up with you.

 

[Davidimp]

Yet when we've played absolutely terribly away at Gateshead and won it with 2 goals in injury time, that's the game people remember. Or 3 days later against Torquay when we did the same.
Other way around mate

You're such a bandwagon jumper Luke
Happy Birthday btw

 

[longmover]

Don't think you watch league two football to be entertained, I would like to think most lower league fans have pride in their town / city etc and follow their team as a extension of that pride. The 'entertainment' factor is an idea created by the money men so something can be packaged and sold to a wider audience.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

...I would like to think most lower league fans have pride in their town / city etc...

Or village!

 

[Chris FGR]

Or village!

Nailsworth isn't a village.

 

[Luke Imp]

Yet when we've played absolutely terribly away at Gateshead and won it with 2 goals in injury time, that's the game people remember. Or 3 days later against Torquay when we did the same.
Other way around mate

You're such a bandwagon jumper Luke
Happy Birthday btw

Cheers, I had a lovely day at work then appointments with solicitors and accountants in the evening!

 

[Richard Cranium]

There's nothing more entertianig than seeing your mate fingering one of the local Hippo's in the Market after 15 pints of watching dog turd football. Now that is the true magic of the FA Cup.

 

[Vanni]

There's nothing more entertianig than seeing your mate fingering one of the local Hippo's in the Market after 15 pints of watching dog turd football. Now that is the true magic of the FA Cup.

There's no place for animal cruelty in today's society

 

[Habbinalan]

There's no place for animal cruelty in today's society

To be fair, he didn't specify the Hippo's what - Could have meant his/her keeper, beautician or fruit bowl; Might have been suggesting grassing up his/her tormentor; OK, knowing him, he probably was suggesting exploring some part of the Hippo's anatomy.

We should consider coffin skating his season ticket or having Steve Evans perform the above punishment - they deserve each other.

 

[jolua]

Whether or not people like it the reality is football is a buisness.
Entertaining football tends to increase revenue (eg, increased attendances) and therefore cash the club has availavble to spend. So, while football in itself is not entertainment, entertaing foootball is preferable to the club.

Boro fans have had several discussions recently about this as the football is boring to watch and thus home crowds are falling (and we don't have that many people to lose tbh). Football isn't cheap and a lot of people see more pressing/better things to spend their money on.

Personally, I agree with other's on here but a lot of people who go don't.