I heard it said on Radio 4: everyone’s surprised that we left Europe before the England football team. Well, we only had to wait the weekend for Roy Hodgson’s team to follow suit. Brexit 2, people were calling it. Except that Wales are still in the Euros, so it isn’t really fair to lump them in. I’m a quarter Welsh, so I’ve still got something to cheer for this week. For an awful lot of people though, it’s all a bit depressing.
Dave Verified account @Join_Dave Once again the Over-65’s being blamed for England leaving Europe. #ENGICE
Although as someone on Twitter pointed out: to be fair to Hodgson, he did hang around to oversee the exit. Unlike Cameron, who has played his game of chess and is buggering off – probably to earn a stash of cash travelling the world, telling people how to lead a country successfully (don’t mention your dick and the pig’s head, Dave).
Telegraph Football Verified account @TeleFootball
Mr Hodgson? I’d like you in my Cabinet with your experience overseeing exits from Europe
If you didn’t waste 90 minutes of your Monday evening watching the match, then you’re a lucky bugger, because it made for more depressing viewing than East Enders. I’d rather watch Love Island…or even Teletubbies, because at least they can pass a ball. It was bloody awful. Gary Lineker’s studio mob couldn’t hide their disgust in the post match analysis. Alan Shearer said that they were complete and utter shite ‘out fought, out thought, pretty hopeless’.
Sign a petition for a rematch! People are shouting. That was just a protest vote – they never thought they would actually lose! The humorous analogies between Brexit 1 and Brexit 2 are endless. The biggest piss off with the football, however, is that the players are paid so much money for their profession and yet yesterday, it did not match their ability. ‘They are weighed down by their wallets’, partner grumbled, half way though the second half. Sadly, I think this is true.
Daughter 2 is signed to Millwall for her 5th season with them. In her first season playing Academy football, when she was 11, she was signed to Chelsea. The girls at the club and their parents were treated like 2nd class citizens. We weren’t allowed to sit in the canteen, nor use the toilets. We were expected to stand outside for the duration of the 2 hour training sessions twice a week, or sit in the car, in the shadow of the state of the art building. Except that one of the mums got the train. When it was bitterly cold and snowing outside, she was still told she couldn’t use the canteen, where the parents of the boys at the Academy enjoyed free coffee and tea in the warm. I was shocked at the way the boys were treated compared with the girls.
Boys are put under incredible pressure at the Academies and they are also given benefits at a young age. No wonder there is a prevalence of suicide, attempted suicide and depression amongst professional footballers. By the time they are signed to a club, they are earning more money than they could have ever dreamt of. The culture of ‘the haves’ has been set in stone a long time before this.
Meanwhile, the ‘have nots’, the girls and the female players get none of the same treatment. Football is ingrained in our national psyche as a male dominated sport and the women don’t stand a chance.
However well the woman’s England football team play, they are always compared unfavorably to the men, by men. Rod Liddle wrote a disparaging piece in the Times a few weeks back, where he sneered at woman’s’ football, saying that any boy’s club level team could beat a female national side.
Well, you know what: I am sneering right back at you, Rod and all those men who try to compare the men’s and women’s game. It’s a game of two halves: the haves and the have nots and despite being worth millions between them, those who have the money, unfortunately lacked the skill.
I was lucky enough to forget the game was on! From what I have heard we played terribly and deserved to be beaten. I think it’s shocking that anyone has to wait outside regardless of the gender of your child!
Thanks for linking up to #BloggerClubUK 🙂
Debbie
It is totally shocking and what shocked me even more was the fact that the girls’ parents all sat back (or rather ‘stood’ as there was nowhere to sit) and took it. Thank you for your comments.