On Banter

Aston Villa fans on Saturday away at Wycombe were actually able to get through to the players what they thought about their performance so far this season. Villa fans were also able to catch the players getting on to the team bus after the match  (the players have their own private entrance/exit at Premier League stadiums). The Villa fans were extremely angry and got very abusive.

I thought it was fantastic, and hilarious. 

 I'm sure Villa fans are sick to the back teeth of being goaded at work by fans of other clubs and they had every right to take that out on their overpaid, underperforming players. Angry shouting and swearing is an integral part of the English game. Some stupid so-called journalists call this 'passion' - it's nothing of the sort. The American travel writer Bill Bryson has called Britain 'the angry isle' and I think he has a point. The average Englishman does like to go to the football on a Saturday afternoon to curse and bawl and generally take out the week's frustrations, everyday humiliations and the quiet despair eating away at their soul on the players and the referee before going to the pub afterwards to get obliterated and forget everything completely. 

However, some fans are far too thin-skinned for my liking. Some Villa fans complained that Joleon Lescott swore at them on Saturday, but I think players should be allowed to swear at fans who abuse them. I also think that referees should be allowed to join in with the banter. Adam Lallana putting in a complaint about a referee who told him 'you've changed since you played for England' was petty and pathetic. I also think referees should be allowed to swear at players, players swear enough at them.

More troubling than mere swearing though is the amount of racist, homophobic and misogynistic language which is still heard. Eva Carneiro, Sian Massey and other women in football have reported being subjected to misogynistic abuse on a regular basis and it is instructive that there are no openly gay Premiership football players (they are terrified of the abuse they would receive). And although a lot of the racist chanting at grounds has now been cut out, anti-Semetic abuse in particular is still quite common. Worse than that, although it is not directly connected to racist abuse inside grounds it is very sad that there are no British Asian players at all in the entire football league - English football clearly does still have a race problem.

The lines between 'banter' and 'hate-speech' are obviously blurred, but perhaps we need to redefine what is and what is not acceptable. While the energy and the excitement of fans and the atmosphere at matches (up to and including personal abuse) is one of the things that makes English football so great, the accompanying bigotry is totally unacceptable and needs to change.

What's special about the FA Cup?

At first glance there is no reason why the FA Cup should be considered so special by so many. Most big clubs rest players for early rounds and consider Champions League qualification to be more important than winning the Cup. (Tottenham and Leicester made seven and eight changes respectively for their match on Sunday). Furthermore, a lot of the games are played on pitches which look more suitable for female naked mud-wrestling than for football and in weather conditions that make north-west Kazakhstan in February look like Malibu in May.

Many people cite the tradition of 'cup-shocks' as being a vital part of the FA Cup, but surprise results happen frequently in other less-regarded cup completions around the world. For example, in 2008 Real Union knocked Real Madrid out of the King's Cup and in 2009 EA Guingamp, then of French League Two actually won the French Cup. So the FA Cup is nothing special in that regard.

It might be the rich history the competition has, but who actually knows much about that? I certainly wouldn't be able to tell you when Yeovil beat Sunderland or when the Matthews Final was and I doubt most other fans could either. Perhaps the idea that the Cup has a history is what's appealing rather than the reality of the nitty-gritty details.

Lastly, some people suggest that the FA Cup has 'romance'. But those people are just 'tards. Romance is red roses, candles and an Italian restaurant before a quick snack in the bush isn't it? But what's romantic about red noses, floodlights and a mobile burger-van before a quick whizz behind a bush? Nothing!

So, why are people so enthusiastic about the FA Cup? The only reason I can think of is the enthusiasm people have for it, despite everything. Despite the cold and crapness of England in January, despite the fact that the big clubs don't take it seriously and despite the fact that it is on the surface so mundane and unremarkable. How quintessentially English.