Your personal experiences playing/watching soccer

[Giles Daldanus]

When did you start watching soccer?
Which is your favourite era in football?
Do you still practice (as part of a school or university team, purely for fun/non-competitive, etc.) the sport?
What are your experiences (have you witnessed any racial tensions or altercations/ other problems arising due to differences in styles of play between footballers of different ethnicities or have the matches been characterized by a high degree of decorum)?
I started watching soccer in the mid 1990s (first major tournament I clearly recall was the 1994 World Cup), but really got into the sport in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Euro 2000 is my favourite tournament to date – Portugal vs. England, Holland vs. Czech Republic, France vs Portugal, Italy vs. Romania, etc. were some fantastic matches). I am a far from a capable player (I usually play goalie or defender), but I am on the pitch at least once per week (my teammates are sometimes friends/neighbors and on other occasions colleagues from the university).
I have found it rather easy to get along with others and my impression is that people of all races and ethnicities have embraced the relatively physical style of play (I am currently residing in England). I have so far seen tensions flare up only on two occasions – an Eastern European guy took issue with an East Asian dude’s overly physical approach and a Chinese guy almost got into a fight with a Norwegian student for the same reason, but the situations didn't escalate. I have also been told by friends that matches involving exclusively Balkan vs. Iberian-only teams are usually tense affairs and tend to end in fights.
All in all, I am grateful to have discovered this sport at a relatively early age, as I have made friends and have many fond memories thanks to my soccer exploits.

 

[MilanClass]

I started watching European soccer seriously in mid 2000's. Growing up in he U.S. it was almost impossible to find a soccer match on TV unless you had Fox Sports World. I also have fond memories of watching the 1994 USA World Cup when I was a little kid. That was the first time we ever heard about the World Cup and I remember our teachers in school letting us watch ESPN near the end of the school year to learn about it.

I watched casually until the 2006 World Cup and then that is when I started following it seriously. I don't know why but visiting Germany during the World Cup made it seem almost magical. The whole country had World Cup fever and I got it too. I've been hooked since then.

The funny thing is, I never used to dislike black players until recently. I actually enjoyed watching players like Clarence Seedorf, Theirry Henry, and Ronaldo. These guys actually had skill. The black players today are just awful and they have no respect for the game. They are there because of the cultural marxism agenda and not because they deserve to be on the field.

I played casual pickup games at my University and I still do today. I never really noticed any racial tensions per se but I knew a lot of people that didn't like having Africans or black Caribbeans on their team. Not because of race but because they would never pass the ball and they would always try to dribble through the entire opposing team instead of passing to an open teammate.

And that shouldn't be surprising. It's a perfect reflection of most African and Caribbean national teams. The just play selfishly and not as a team.

 

[frederic38]

When did you start watching soccer?

the first match i watched was juventus-real madrid, with my father
i don't remember very well
then i watched the 1998 world cup held in france, which took place a few weeks after the juventus-real madrid match
i was 11 years old

Which is your favourite era in football?

the early 2000's, where leeds, lazio, real madrid and barcelona were the most exciting teams
i was a real madrid fan

Do you still practice (as part of a school or university team, purely for fun/non-competitive, etc.) the sport?

unfortunately, not that much, for the reasons i will give later

What are your experiences (have you witnessed any racial tensions or altercations/ other problems arising due to differences in styles of play between footballers of different ethnicities or have the matches been characterized by a high degree of decorum)?

althought soccer was my favourite sport, by far, i had to choose another sport because my father (rightfully) wouldn't let me play soccer
where i live no whites play it
i have a few friends who tried to play soccer in my local club and they all hate soccer now, because they were bullied for being the only whites
you could play football if you were sicilian, spanish, or portuguese, but not if you were pretty fair skinned like i was

my local club mentions italy and africa in its name

sometimes i played football with friends (mostly whites, the only non-whites were from south america or asia)
but it was dificult also
there are arabs and blacks that wait for regular guys to go to the stadium to steal their ball

sometimes we played against them
but they have poor sportmanship, and they can't stand losing to a team with only white players
we managed to win usually, but we played like greece in the 2004 euro champs, because we are not very skilled :grin:

in one of these matches, a black guy who was half my size started to hit a white from my team on purpose, whithout any reason
i punched him and we left the stadium
the next time i played, a week later, he came back with 3 arabs with hoodies and knives
the kind of arabs who could kill you for nothing
this was the last time i played football at my local stadium


while we left, the black guy insulted us with some slurs refering to our skin colour
when i was younger, the arabs insulted us frequently saying that our mother cooked pig for us (pig is forbidden for muslims)
they used to say "pig" in arabic
the atmosphere has always been very hostile

my best memories were when we played football in my school
there was a tournament, and we had a team
we were friends, none of us played football in a club
again, we played like greece in 2004, and relied mostly on fighting spirit and physicality
we won matches that i still remember today

 

[Zeus]

I have never played football, I mean in a team or something, even though my father was a professional football player who even competed in AEK FC for 5 years back in the early 70's. I played in school, but it was never a sport I got involved with seriously. Instead I was an amateur Kickboxer and Pankratiast with State, National and Mediterranean High School titles, something which gave me an athletic scholarship later.

I started watching football at the age of 5-6, World Cup of Mexico 1986, when Argentina and God Maradona (I consider Argentina an over 90% white nation, Maradona is of Italian and Croatian heritage) conquered the world. I also have great memories from Euro of 1988, when the incredible Van Basten shined and world cup of 1990.

My favorite moments would have to be the win of my two countries, a white dominated team of France winning the world cup of 1998 and Greece winning Euro in 2004.

My favorite era of football would be the mid-late 90's because of Del Piero, Raul, Demis Nikolaidis, Zidane, Lizarazu etc.

Football is the king of sports and a very white dominated sports. If one counts carefully all the world champions by team, the golden ball winners and the vast majority of all time greats in lists of this nature, whites make nearly 85-90% in all those things.

Great question.

PS
Oh yes, no I have never seen any racial tension inside this sport, but I have many stories to say from Kickboxing and my military service in the special forces, especially our NATO trips in Somalia, but I better not say anything hahaha.:hat:

 

[Giles Daldanus]

I started watching European soccer seriously in mid 2000's. Growing up in he U.S. it was almost impossible to find a soccer match on TV unless you had Fox Sports World. I also have fond memories of watching the 1994 USA World Cup when I was a little kid. That was the first time we ever heard about the World Cup and I remember our teachers in school letting us

watch ESPN near the end of the school year to learn about it.

I watched casually until the 2006 World Cup and then that is when I started following it seriously. I don't know why but visiting Germany during the World Cup made it seem almost magical. The whole country had World Cup fever and I got it too. I've been hooked since then.

The funny thing is, I never used to dislike black players until recently. I actually enjoyed watching players like Clarence Seedorf, Theirry Henry, and Ronaldo. These guys actually had skill. The black players today are just awful and they have no respect for the game. They are there because of the cultural marxism agenda and not because they deserve to be on the field.

I played casual pickup games at my University and I still do today. I never really noticed any racial tensions per se but I knew a lot of people that didn't like having Africans or black Caribbeans on their team. Not because of race but because they would never pass the ball and they would always try to dribble through the entire opposing team instead of passing to an open teammate.

And that shouldn't be surprising. It's a perfect reflection of most African and Caribbean national teams. The just play selfishly and not as a team.

@MilanClass, very interesting, it’s good that you developed a passion for soccer while being there during an actual tournament and seeing it all first hand…I think that Americans are sometimes unfairly criticized for “not getting the game”. The 1994 World Cup was well-organized and the atmosphere was mesmerizing. I think that the display of the German flags during the 2006 World Cup was judged to be a sign of the Germans feeling that they had received absolution from the international community and were free to be patriotic once again.
My major beef is with naturalization in soccer (and other sports as well), I don’t like it when players are permitted to switch nationalities (unless they have ancestral ties to certain countries), as it destroys the integrity of competitions involving national teams.

@Frederic

the first match i watched was juventus-real madrid, with my father
i don't remember very well
then i watched the 1998 world cup held in france, which took place a few weeks after the juventus-real madrid match
i was 11 years old

Same here, I was 12 years old at the time of the 1998 World Cup and enjoyed it immensely.

althought soccer was my favourite sport, by far, i had to choose another sport because my father (rightfully) wouldn't let me play soccer
where i live no whites play it
i have a few friends who tried to play soccer in my local club and they all hate soccer now, because they were bullied for being the only whites
you could play football if you were sicilian, spanish, or portuguese, but not if you were pretty fair skinned like i was

my local club mentions italy and africa in its name

sometimes i played football with friends (mostly whites, the only non-whites were from south america or asia)
but it was dificult also
there are

arabs and blacks that wait for regular guys to go to the stadium to steal their ball

sometimes we played against them but they have poor sportmanship, and they can't stand losing to a team with only white players
we managed to win usually, but we played like greece in the 2004 euro champs, because we are not very skilled

in one of these matches, a black guy who was half my size started to hit a white from my team on purpose, whithout any reason
i punched him and we left the stadium
the next time i played, a week later, he came back with 3 arabs with hoodies and knives
the kind of arabs who could kill you for nothing
this was the last time i played football at my local stadium


while we left, the black guy insulted us with some slurs refering to our skin colour
when i was younger, the arabs insulted us frequently saying that our mother cooked pig for us (pig is forbidden for muslims)
they used to say "pig" in arabic
the atmosphere has always been very hostile

my best memories were when we played football in my school
there was a tournament, and we had a team
we were friends, none of us played football in a club
again, we played like greece in 2004, and relied mostly on fighting spirit and physicality
we won matches that i still remember today

Wow, that’s really scary…good that you and your friends escaped unscathed, but it’s sad that you have been subjected to intimidation and cannot play the sport you enjoy (except I am guessing on rare occasions when there is no one around).
I am assuming that there aren’t any stadium security officers or if there are, you cannot really rely on them?
Would a person still be a target if he plays in a mixed team (being teammates with members of different races)?
I am not sure whether this would be appropriate advice, but if there are opportunities for indoor soccer, maybe you should look into them, as there would likely be proper security checks prior to entering an indoor venue. However, always trust your gut feeling, as you know much more about the situation than I do….
A friend of mine got into an argument with a group of Pakistanis while playing table tennis (inside a library & sports complex) and was attacked by them, but luckily security arrived on the scene and was quick to quell matters.
It’s also interesting how the racial dynamics look – if I understand correctly, if you look like a Northern or Central European, you are more likely to be singled out for abuse. Are there European blacks and Arabs who are non-prejudiced and would be willing to defend you or is it too risky for them to intervene on your behalf? As for the South Americans, it seems as if they usually side with the white Europeans, no matter their race…
I am not a vindictive person, but I would derive double satisfaction from winning a game against a team consisting of players who would insult me without any reason…but it’s no joke when weapons are brought.
I wear glasses and am not a technical player, so others do not usually take me very seriously and it sometimes works to my advantage…I also enjoy the tidy & defensive style of play and make use of my positional awareness (I used to be a bit rough as a player, but have learned to tone it down).

I have never played football, I mean in a team or something, even though my father was a professional football player who even competed in AEK FC for 5 years back in the early 70's. I played in school, but it was never a sport I got involved with seriously. Instead I was an amateur Kickboxer and Pankratiast with State, National and Mediterranean High School titles, something which gave me an athletic scholarship later.

I started watching football at the age of 5-6, World Cup of Mexico 1986, when Argentina and God Maradona (I consider Argentina an over 90% white nation, Maradona is of Italian and Croatian heritage) conquered the world. I also have great memories from Euro of 1988, when the incredible Van Basten shined and world cup of 1990.

My favorite moments would have to be the win of my two countries, a white dominated team of France winning the world cup of 1998 and Greece winning Euro in 2004.

My favorite era of football would be the mid-late 90's because of Del Piero, Raul, Demis Nikolaidis, Zidane, Lizarazu etc.

Football is the king of sports and a very white dominated sports. If one counts carefully all the world champions by team, the golden ball winners and the vast majority of all time greats in lists of this nature, whites make nearly 85-90% in all those things.

Great question.

Welcome to the forum, Zeus, you are really committed to your beliefs and I like that you seem to always try to look on the bright side of things! I am also usually a “glass half full” type of guy and have had very few issues (racial or otherwise) when playing soccer.
It’s good that you have experience when it comes to a number of different sports...AEK FC is one of the top clubs in Greece, so it’s nice to have such a connection with them due to your father’s years with the team.
I have watched many clips featuring Maradona and Van Basten, though luckily for me there was no shortage of star players in the early 2000s as well (Figo and Shevchenko were setting the soccer world ablaze at the time). I wasn’t able to see the 1998 World Cup final (was past my bedtime: D), but I vividly remember Greece’s 2004 triumph…Charisteas was one of the heroes and he is a charismatic player who is still going strong. Traianos Dellas’ overtime winner against the Czech Republic was another memorable moment.

Oh yes, no I have never seen any racial tension inside this sport, but I have many stories to say from Kickboxing and my military service in the special forces, especially our NATO trips in Somalia, but I better not say anything hahaha

Sounds fascinating….I have never personally witnessed combat actions and humanitarian operations, but it’s always admirable whenever innocent lives are being saved in such situations of extreme risk while your life is constantly on the line.

 

[angel]

I began watching football casually starting with the 2006 World Cup. Since then, football has been a big hobby of mine starting with the 2010-11 season. I have been playing football for fun every Saturday morning with my friends for the last year. Starting out, I couldn't kick the ball, but I have improved so much since then. I mostly play as a right-back or right-midfielder.

Since my only friends are Whites and they're the only ones at the games I play in, I cannot comment on how other races play.

 

[Giles Daldanus]

Welcome to the forum, @Angel! The right-back position is probably my favourite one when I am on the pitch.

I have noticed that East Asian students in the UK frequently play together against other teams that are more mixed from a racial standpoint. The Chinese and Japanese are quite accepting of others, but also tend to form very closely-knit and cohesive groups. Ethnically based teams (even at the college level) are not that uncommon in Canada. Croatians and Serbs (as well as other people from the Balkans) often prefer to play in the same team, especially if they are still learning the English language, as they tend to be quite vocal (frequently barking out instructions) on the pitch and proper communication is important for them.

 

[Matra2]

Ethnically based teams (even at the college level) are not that uncommon in Canada. Croatians and Serbs (as well as other people from the Balkans) often prefer to play in the same team, especially if they are still learning the English language, as they tend to be quite vocal (frequently barking out instructions) on the pitch and proper communication is important for them.

Some of the players at Toronto Croatia don't look all that ethnically Croatian to me:

http://www.torontocroatia.com/team.html

The Serbian White Eagles team also has a couple of black guys with definitively non-Serbian names.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

In addition to hoops and (American) football, I played soccer as a kid back in the late 70s/early 80s. I was primarily defender and played some mid-fielder. I enjoyed it and still have alotta respect for soccer players on all levels (my daughter plays in our county's rec league).

I used to pull for the Atlanta Chiefs during their NASL "reformation" of 1979 - 1981. I started playing basketball in 1983 and begin to lose interest in following pro soccer. As I've gotten older, I'm beginning to (again) appreciate soccer. It's an under-appreciated sport here in the (DWF) U.S.

 

[Porthos]

I played soccer recreationally in racially mixed team here in California. I also coached a kids team here.
My observations of different races playing soccer coincide with the ideas brought forward by this site.

In the team I was playing we had a Negro and a several Mexicans. The Negro was a typical "physical" player stereotype right out of the English Premier league. Lots of energy, and even pretty fast, but little ball control or brains. Very fouly, lots of pushing, enormous problems controlling the ball, passing, not to mention "keeping cool" in critical situations. Several of his misses could easily have made it in the "horrid misses" thread. He played defensive middlefielder an we were lucky he was usually covered by a White central defender, an older guy who couldn't run much but with great positioning skills.

The Mexican guys were pretty technical and one was definitely a good player, maybe the best in the team. However, they were prone to constant dribbling and self-promotion, also prone to playing pretty dirty, even at this recreational level. All these colored dudes seem to have difficulties being altruistic, passing the ball to someone who is better positioned etc. They are very selfish. Many times it would happen that the good work done by a White guy would be wasted after he would pass the ball to the colored guy who would miss the shot badly or would try to go into a dumb dribbling and loose the ball. In this case, the colored guy would almost never apologize for his mistake (Whites were constantly apologizing). If the colored guy scored, very rarely would he thank the White player who passed the ball, preferring to take all the "glory" himself and show how great he is.

Having a multiculti team also breaks down team cohesion, in my opinion. The Mexican guys tended to band together and pass the ball among themself, the Negro was pretty isolated and didn't talk much to anybody, even the white guys were pretty individualistic in such an environment. I have not witnessed any big confrontation on a racial basis, but there was definitely a lack in cohesion. I'm not sure how these big multikulti teams keep all these "rainbow coalition" people together - money is probably a big factor - but it must be hard, with considerable tensions in the locker room. When I was in Europe playing in an all-White team, we were playing for each other (and arguig a lot too, but this was part of the game). Then we often would go out for a beer or even a dinner after the game, there was a lot of banter, jokes etc. A lot of cameraderie. With the team here this was unthinkable. At most there is a brief excahnge of a couple of phrases before/after the game, then everybody would just pack their stuff and go home.

Also, as mentioned, the concept of "sportsmanship" seems to be completely foreign to non-Whites (with a notable exception of some Asians). Once the kids' team I was coaching was playing against a team of Mexicans. At the end of the game, I counted the fouls comitted by both sides. The foul count was 17:2 for the Mexicans (who also won the game, of course). White kids in the US suburbs are brought up to be complete wimps. They are afraid of physical contact, afraid to fight. When asking them to play a bit more aggresively and fight back, they could not understand. These kids spend way too much time in front of their Playstations and live in a fantasy world. Everything they do on the field, even the stupidest mistake, is "great", "awesome", "fantastic" according to their parents who chear from the sidelines. Never any word of dissaproval or even of mild criticism. How are these Kids supposed to learn if nobody ever criticizes them? I try to bring up my kids a bit differently, but it's hard. In the hard times ahead, we are not going to go very far with this type of "pacifist" attitudes.