Also not a big sports fan – I love Formula 1 but I’ve been forced to pretty much ignore it for the last couple of years as a sacrifice to work/family life balance, as it really does take a good bite out of a weekend. But it really seems like football (soccer) evokes a higher degree of frustration and anger in its fans than other sports, and I think it has a lot to do with the rare goals. When 1 in 4 games ends in a draw, often 0-0, and especially after a lot of tedious running up and down, being taken to the brink of expectation and dashed many times, diving antics and (un)questionable referee decisions, it’s not surprising that a bunch of frustrated feeling people, divided on tribal lines, hit the bars and there is trouble. Looking at the policing presence for a Reading football match vs a London Irish rugby match at the same stadium, it’s clear more trouble is expected – and I think it’s a bit lazy to blame it on classist assumptions. In rugby, the teams spend a similar amount of time, but they are allowed to batter one another fairly thoroughly on pitch and with score lines like 43-25, they only have a draw 2.7% of the time – so both teams’ fans can normally get thoroughly drunk alongside one another in acceptance of the outcome and a good battle between their tribes. So the ‘make goals bigger’ or otherwise more frequent scoring could really help that in football. But maybe the fans actually like some of the tension they experience, and carrying it over into the rest of the day and week?