Euro 2020/2021

[alfred russel]

It is dumb.

They are highly paid professionals sent out to do a difficult job with a lot of pressure. They failed. All indications are that they gave their best effort and there is no reason to make there lives miserable, and certainly no place for any sort of racial abuse. At the same time expressions of love and support are full of cringe.

I mean if the CEO of a company like Apple leads the organization to put out a series of shit iPhones or whatever and the company's value plummets, layoffs ensue, etc., there is no cause to cuss him out if you see him on the street. But grown adults sending him letters of love and solidarity would be really weird.

[DGuller]

I mean if the CEO of a company like Apple leads the organization to put out a series of shit iPhones or whatever and the company's value plummets, layoffs ensue, etc., there is no cause to cuss him out if you see him on the street. But grown adults sending him letters of love and solidarity would be really weird.

That was a mean thing to say about Barrister. 

[Sheilbh]

They are highly paid professionals sent out to do a difficult job with a lot of pressure. They failed. All indications are that they gave their best effort and there is no reason to make there lives miserable, and certainly no place for any sort of racial abuse. At the same time expressions of love and support are full of cringe.

Maybe I am inclined to agree - I think the messages are good and necessary in the context of the racial abuse and also the history of players who "fail" in that way being scapegoated (Southgate, Beckham). And all perhaps say something about us as a nation or sports-following men at that time - so the Beckham effigy was him in a sarong as if his metrosexuality somehow played a role in sporting failure.

But I also wonder if the British valorisation/love of a heroic failure is possibly generally a bad thing in sport. I feel like they're probably now more popular/loved by the nation than they would be if they'd succeeded. I also slightly suspect that our love of eccentric men tinkering in sheds and producing useless machines is probably overall a negative thing because - in the same way as we downplay actually winning - we kind of love that rather than actually useful production.

I mean if the CEO of a company like Apple leads the organization to put out a series of shit iPhones or whatever and the company's value plummets, layoffs ensue, etc., there is no cause to cuss him out if you see him on the street. But grown adults sending him letters of love and solidarity would be really weird.

People don't care about (most) companies in the same way as they care about their football team.