You see, when football is mentioned online, the collective intelligence of any comment section is cut by at least 90%. This stacks with another 90% if it’s women’s football or any token LGBT acknowledgement in football. The joke is Muslim Bad.

Which is a shame. I used to make fun of le sportsball amirite until it clicked that there was immense entertainment value in these matches, which could be super tense and exciting even when an individual match doesn’t have super high stakes. There’s storylines with each of the players and managers, there’s a lot of diverging personalities among them and they all handle the same game in their own way. And unlike scripted shows, when something unexpected happens it is so much more interesting. Like the story is real in a way that scripted entertainment isn’t.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

storylines with each of the players and managers

Maybe that’s what some people are missing! Those who think the pitch is too big, it’s too slow, goals too infrequent, whatever the common gripes are.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago

Football is one of the most scripted sports ever. I mean just look at Polish league for example, le huge sponsor arrives, puts locally large sum of money into some really shit team in 3rd league which barely existed for last 80 years due to persistence of local schoolteachers and suddenly boom, in 2 seasons that club is winning country championship.

The only real sports remaining are those that do not have money in it.

[–] ugo@feddit.it 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You have expressed my feelings excellently. I find football a very entertaining sport (not that I have the money to watch it, or the time / energy / social media connections to keep very up to date with it) but the fanbase can be absolutely braindead.

I mean, I love rivalries and some shithousery, but things escalate too often, too much, and too quickly.

Still, wish I knew of ways that would allow me to keep up to date with stuff without costing me a good chunk of change or a huge amount of time, or having to have a twatter account or whatnot.

[–] zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago

umm, piracy bro. Pirating sports streams or torrents is an ancient practice, check out !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com their megathread, ask their or check out the freemediaheckyeah site (you find it on their subreddit).
for news I use an arabic site called Kooora I don't know what English site is popular, using a British free VPN you can view youtube videos of highlights from their local channels, they make these highlights cuz they hold copyrights.
I'm not urging you to watch football, just that not having money isn't a reason not to do so.