I’m giving up football for a year. All football. Going to the match. Watching it on telly. No more Match of the Day, Football Focus, Soccer AM, Dutch League highlights on some obscure channel. All of it. No more talking about it in pubs. No more tweeting or facebooking my thoughts on the game to provoke hatred directed towards me because I like a team that plays in a different coloured shirt to the team that someone else likes, and has a mobile phone or lap top in reach ready to spew bile-raged threats that surely they’ d never utter in real life.
So no more football for me for a year. All of it. Watching it, talking about it, playing it – the last one won’t be too hard.
Let’s see where it takes me. It might make a more rounded human being. It might kill me. I’ll find out.
Fittingly my last football fixture was at Old Trafford last night to see Paul Scholes bow out of the game with the dignity and understated aplomb that has defined his marvellous career. A fine night in the company of the great Ken Loach and his amazing fellow genius Sixteen Films band of magic makers. As a guest of Eric Cantona and I nodded hello to Pele – not a bad way to sign off hey? Name dropping and showing off as I turn my back on the ‘beautiful game’ for a year.
Oh and Scholesy scored a belter didn’t he? Perfect
I’ll let you know more when I have got rid of this hangover.
Justin x
Are you bloody mad.. I’ll give it a week.
Good luck fella. I tried it once myself, and after getting lots of praise from my girlfriend and her family, I managed to last a staggering two weeks before having to succumb to watching football again!!!! It is a drug and I am totally hooked. It was like I was junkie trying to go through “cold-turkey”. They were the longest weeks of my life and very dark times.On one occassion I remember sneaking downstairs to watch sky sports news and on hearing my girlfriend coming I then hastily flicked it over to Babestation as I deemed that more suitable for her to catching me watching. From then on I knew that I had a “problem”.
Just listening to Fighting Talk from Saturday (podcasts are really great, arent they?)…your sabatical really didnt last long mate. Quite right too as football is simply magnificent.
Cheers mate, but to be fair the sabbatical hasn’t been damaged. I only did historical football items, or stuff that had made it into the news!