Football Not “Footy”
People have many grievances with modern football such as overpaid players acting like buffoons or admission prices equating that of a medium sized mortgage. Another problem which has been prevalent for far too long is some peoples insistence on calling football, “footy”, a crude bastardisation which quite frankly falls off the tongue like a wet shite. While it is used predominantly by those who only have a passing interest at best in football, there is a sizable minority who are self proclaimed ardent football fans. Either way, there is no excuse.
A true football fan would never say “footy” and true football fans know this. Those who do use the term probably wouldn’t be offended if they were told they shouldn’t. If they continued to do so after this initial correction however, they are clearly beyond redemption.
There are some collective character traits of users of the dreaded “footy” word. They tend not to support a team from the town or area they come from. If they were labelled a glory hunter they would not find the accusation wholly offensive even if it was intended that way. In other cases, they may not support a club team, but will have a passing interest when their country is playing in a major tournament.
Interestingly, it’s also often the case that the same people will refer to rock bands the Foo Fighters as “the Foo’s” and Biffy Clyro as “Biffy”. They will probably not own any Captain Beefheart records and definitely none by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. It is important to clarify that they are not necessarily bad people but its worth bearing in mind that some said the same of the nascent Nazi Party, and they turned out to be a right shower of wrongdoers.
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