The Howe and the Why – Football Terrorists?

My Thoughts on Current Footballing Related Events…

The flimsy and outright ludicrous links a Melbourne based journalist made this past week between football hooliganism and terrorism is highly offensive and utterly ridiculous. Firstly, the scenes seen at Etihad Stadium and in the surrounding Melbourne CBD area last week were of course not commonly seen on Australian shores but us in the football community know that these pre match shenanigans including loud chanting and of course the dreaded flares are not uncommon in world football, specifically in Europe.

The present European Championships being held in France have been marred by trouble between the Russian and English fans in the sea side town of Marseille. Ugly scenes ensued between these two nations fans and have led to a punishment being levelled against Russia. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no defending these actions but football hooligans are not terrorists, they are troublemakers out to make a name for themselves by disturbing the peace.

Here l have gone to the liberty of simply typing into Google ”Terrorism definition” and this is what it came up with:

”The unofficial or unauthorised use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.”

And here is what Google gave me when l typed in ”hooliganism definition”:

”Disruptive or unlawful behaviour such as rioting, bullying, and vandalism.”

Now l don’t know about you, but they seem like totally different things to me. So this absolutely ridiculous link that has been made between these two separate issues is downright offensive to victims and victims families of terrorism and is just outright dumb. It goes to show that maybe you should do a little bit of research before going about criticising something that you don’t have the first clue about.

Now me, i’m just an Australian football fan who thinks he knows a bit. I certainly feel a lot more qualified than the people who write these stupid articles.

Australian personalities and police reaction to these events show a reluctance to be involved in studying what football support is like in many European countries, especially Greece. Let’s be honest here, Greeks are mad about football. It’s a religion, the same cannot be said for Australia. But us Australians who love the world game are continuously and purposely ridiculed by the mainstream media due to their protection of other sports that are bigger in this country. Australian Rules Football personalities are a main culprit of the scaremongering of football on our continent, while Rugby League and Rugby Union have a more ingrained sense of belonging within Australia.

So, to the grand daddy issue of them all, racism. Football in Australia has had underlying racism contained in it for the entirety of its history. I mean, ”wogball” was what it was called back in the old days. The Greece-Australia friendly of last week produced a good game with an amazing goal but no, just because some idiots lit a few flares it was all that the mainstream media could talk about.

That’s what they want, to focus on the negative to drive away the positives. Protection of the rugby codes and AFL is paramount. This non-acceptance of football is again down to a lack of understanding the game and its values to many people. Australia has a diverse multicultural society and many of these are from Europe and have strong football ties. It’s time to stop the hate, football is a part of Australia and it is not going anywhere. Lots do not want to accept that.

Even now in 2016, some Australian sporting fans who love their rugby and their Aussie Rules refuse to accept that football is part of Australian culture. It is guys ladies and gentlemen, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Here is a fact for you that l didn’t even need to look up because l already knew:

Football is the most played sport by children in this country and the numbers continue to grow, especially among the female population. This can be seen by football’s inclusive nature and the recent success of the Matildas which has seen women’s football grow from strength to strength and while football is on the surge, some do not like it, they HATE it. This hatred comes from not understanding what the game is about. I mean, remember another AFL journalist writing an article saying ”the goals should be bigger”. Come on, that’s just ignorant.

Of course, it would be amiss of me to not discuss our friend Rebecca Wilson. An open advocate against football BROKE THE LAW in exposing banned football fans from attending A-League games. Some were very much innocent and some were minors. That’s just poor. Then we all get lumped in with that small minority and labelled ”suburban terrorists” How ridiculous. Ignorance at an all time high right there.

Now, back to the good stuff, the atmosphere a football game produces. No other sport can compare, not even come close. Football fans all over the world are absolutely crazy and love their football fix and will go to many lengths to see their team succeed. The round ball game produces a passion that nothing else can match. A common criticism of football is the lack of scoring. Ignorance is bliss…
The sight of a ball hitting the back of the net and a player running off in celebration is the most satisfaction you can get out of sport, of course, this is all just my opinion, feel free to argue this with me, l think you’d struggle to find alternatives.

We also need to start and try to ignore these pieces. These unknown journalists write these pieces to get the reaction and to get their article spread around for the views. It is nothing more than shameless clickbait. They know that they will get that reaction from hardcore football fans that want to protect their sport and speak up for it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but how about we try next time to not even bother looking at what some journo has written about football, we ignore it and go on with our lives. Then, these articles may start to ease and not be written. Here l may seem like a hypocrite since i’ve just typed all this up talking about the article, but again, my opinion. And it might not mean anything, but here l am still typing.

So in conclusion, my challenge to non-football fans and to people who don’t understand what they’re seeing, come to a game, experience it, and start to come to grips with how the sport rises above every other in the world. Please, stop putting the 99% in with the 1%, we love football for its passion and drama, not for its troublemakers.

We Are Football

Google+