England Football Player Blames Video Games For Team Failure
from the what,-no-other-countries-have-playstations? dept
We see all sorts of problems being blamed on technology, but here's a new one. An English football/soccer player is now blaming video games for England's inability to reach the finals of the Euro 2008 football championships. It's not entirely clear what is so objectionable about the video game consoles, as his comments aren't exactly clear in terms of reasoning: "We would have the best team if we could go into every household and throw away every PlayStation, Xbox and video game." Apparently, other countries are better because people have nothing better to do: "Other countries seem to bring on world-class players, countries like Argentina and Brazil where often it's football or nothing. In contrast we live in a country where we have choices and perhaps the will to do it, the need to escape your own situation, is not so clear." If I'm parsing that correctly, it sounds like he's actually saying it's pretty much all progress that's to blame. If the country were in squalor and the only way to survive was to play the sport, then the national team would be better. He may be right... but, of course, it means that (beyond happy fans), you'd have a pretty miserable country.
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Filed Under: blame, robert green, soccer, sports, uk, video games
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Who says...
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The Pigskin is better
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Re: The Pigskin is better
He doesn't seem to be talking about the current generation of professionals, as much as the next crop to be coming through; look at the quotes, not the headline.
The young are far more likely to be sitting on their ass eating cake and playing on their PS3 than they are to be playing sports. Obviously that's the choice of the individual but that's another issue.
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We don't? I thought it was just that those across the ocean are a bit dense to understand the whole "sarcasm" concept, but if you say so.
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Re:
We don't? I thought it was just that those across the ocean are a bit dense to understand the whole "sarcasm" concept, but if you say so."
Proof of point
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He's not saying that we should go and stop people playing consoles, just that if we were to do so, kids would probably end up playing a lot more sports, and would get better. It's pretty much a rarity in England to see children playing sports in parks, etc.
It obviously doesn't account for before the current technological era; England still sucked before we had consoles, but I don't think it's as absurd as you're making out.
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you know...
Radio have tons of listeners if everyone stopped using TVs.
and candles would be big business if everyone would just stop using electricity.
Of course I bet he would change his tune once FIFA 2008, PES 2008, World cup endorsements go away, all the TV ads dry up, and athletes go back to making 5% of what they make now.
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Re: you know...
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Gasp!
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Choices
1. Keep it's youth interested
2. Or as in the case of the US, be much more than the "other" football. (yeah, yeah I know, soccer is getting ready to explode!!, has been for twenty years. Just ask Pele and Beckham who were going to put it on the map here)
3. Or maybe people just need to realize that the more choices there are, the less people will be participating in each...
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Re: Choices
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Not a new argument...
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This seems more media-hype then real insight
Although the headline blazes it out, what the player was actually talking about is how the lack of good young English talent coming through is becoming a real problem for the sport. Only 1/3 of footballers in the top devisions are English.
He pointed out the differences with countries like Brazil, where football is seen as a way out of the poverty trap and so produces players with a real drive to succeed. In the west we have far more forms of escapism, which clearly is going to have a wider sociological effect.
But these may be difficult concepts to grasp for a country that shys away from international competition so much, and would much rather take an exsisting sport, change the rules a little bit then declare them selfs world champions. :P
Also factual errors in your piece;
1. It wasn't the finals, but the qualifiers (as in, to get into the competition in the first place.
2. It isn't 'soccer', but football.
3. Football sucks.
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Re: This seems more media-hype then real insight
And well, I've known plenty of people who's only real fun activity do to was football, and then people starting getting Famicoms (NES) by the mid 90's (yes, we were that far behind then) and things started to change.
Videogames are a growing market here, but as far as next-gen consoles go, it's mostly a privilege for the rich or very well off.
There are still many many kids who have nothing better to do than play football, so I figure Argentina will continue as it has.
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These are overpaid 'athletes' that have forgotten what the sport is all about - maybe we should treat them the way Brazil and Argentina is treating their premier league footballers so they get a taste of how good they got it and where it comes from...
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LOL
Seems like when something doesn't go your way, either blame video games, the internet, or the government. welcome to 2007. lol
(i just can't take this guy seriously at all! lol)
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Soccer is Cheap!
Same with basketball; it's cheap, so it's a popular "urban" sport.
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FREAKING BRS
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lol
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Re: lol
(i just can't take this guy seriously at all! lol)
This is pretty funny, this guy is blaming video games for his teams laziness. He must understand that FIFA 08 is just a video game, an while he is moving his fingers he should be moving his ass. Don't blame others for your short comings buddy.
do u all think that is too long lol. have fun reading it lol
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