“The Bogend Forum for Tooting and Mitcham Utd FC fans”


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



05/12/2017 9:05 am  #1


The Elephant In the Room

Do any of you stand on the Bog End and think wouldn't it be great to have more families and kids running around. Do you ever wonder what will happen to our support in about twenty years’ time when the vast majority of our fans behind the goals are dead and buried....... Or like one or two behind the goal think that the best way to support the club and bring families into games is to shout C*NT!!!!!  at the top of your voice at every single and I do mean every single refereeing decision for 90 minutes
Last Saturday I spoke to a number of people in regards to try and make TMUFC games more friendly place to visit and get ideas of how to bring more people and families in to see us..... One of the things that does keep coming up is how unfriendly the whole match day experience can be at home games.
Remember the family day a couple of years ago against Whyteleafe... That went well didn't it.
I was told that someone from a very well-known events and listing magazine came to a home game this year with his family and a couple of friends after moving to Tooting and thought he'd pop along to watch the team. Yet again pointless abuse and swearing from one or two individuals meant his family friendly day at his new local football team was anything but that. He has told a number of people he won't be back.
I have a mate who used to go and watch AFC Wimbledon but stopped due to having a young family and the cost. He brought his three sons along to Tooting and Mitcham and told me how shocked he was at the hatred and abuse dished out the match officials. He told me that he won't come and watch us now and for the past four seasons has been a regular down the road at Carshalton.
Another friend often comes along but won't bring his kids because of the swearing and abuse. The truth is I have loads of other stories as well along the same lines... All of them with the same outcome... All involving people saying they are not going to bother watching us again.
There's always going to be swearing and anger at football but please come on... Anyone who stands near me at games will tell you I've got a foul mouth most of the times but some of the stuff that goes on at TMUFC is frankly embarrassing and makes us look stupid.
We have a sponsors day on the 16th December, a chance for the local businesses and people who have put money into the club to get together and find out more about this great club, the set up and it's support..... Please come along and shout C*NT !!!!! at the top of your voice every ten seconds while making out that you are some kind of Terrace Oscar Wilde….
Rant Over.
 

 

05/12/2017 9:12 am  #2


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Harry - it's not just the Bog End where the foul language comes from. I'm no saint but sitting in the stand with my 10 year old daughter can be just as unpleasant, there is even a member of the club committee (who I will not name) that is constantly swearing and shouting at players and officials, not really a good example for the rest..
 

 

05/12/2017 9:16 am  #3


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Well said Harry, unfortunately you can not change the few who feel language such as you described, is acceptable, they probably speak in the same manner at home.
It is a fact that at any football match there is a small minority who feel it acceptable to abuse players and officials in the way you describe, personally I do not feel the need, critize yes but foul and abusive language no!. 
In the modern day society it is accepted and tolerated by a lot of people, but their is a time and a place and for me, Imperial Fields is not the place.

 

05/12/2017 9:21 am  #4


Re: The Elephant In the Room

DaveM, I also sit in the stand, at the far end near the tea bar and whilst I hear a lot of shouting , mainly from the centre section, I have not noticed the swearing, I am not saying you are incorrect but if it is the case then the person in question should be warned that if he persists then he will be banned, you at least should expect better from a committee member.

 

05/12/2017 9:30 am  #5


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Alan. On the whole it's not to bad and I accept that at football there will always be a bit of swearing and it is mainly from one or two offenders. I agree with Harry that behind the goal is not the place for kids to be and the club will not attract new supporters until something is done about it. TMU would like to be a family club but won't ever be as long as this continues.

 

05/12/2017 9:36 am  #6


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Its the more direct swearing that would be the biggest problem.  The unimaginative "You cheating confucius, ref" that might come from a load, lone voice that echoes around the ground is pretty bad.  Everyone in the ground can hear it.  And I'm sure ref's are immune to it, so it is a pointless gesture and will make other supporters uncomfortable.

I don't mind swearing behind the goal, although I think it should be curtailed in the stands.  But you have to remember that everyone can hear you at a non-league game.  Anyway, a cleverly placed "What a waste of skin ref" is wittier, funnier and more likely to be absorbed by the ref.

 

05/12/2017 9:49 am  #7


Re: The Elephant In the Room

endofthelane wrote:

Its the more direct swearing that would be the biggest problem.  The unimaginative "You cheating confucius, ref" that might come from a load, lone voice that echoes around the ground is pretty bad.  Everyone in the ground can hear it.  And I'm sure ref's are immune to it, so it is a pointless gesture and will make other supporters uncomfortable.

I don't mind swearing behind the goal, although I think it should be curtailed in the stands.  But you have to remember that everyone can hear you at a non-league game.  Anyway, a cleverly placed "What a waste of skin ref" is wittier, funnier and more likely to be absorbed by the ref.

It is just a couple of people. A lot of the said and sung is pretty funny . 90 minutes of pointless unfunny swearing from one or two nutcases is really getting beyond a joke now... It makes me cringe....
Anyone you has been unlucky enough to spend time with me knows I swear a lot.... But if someone like me thinks that things are getting out of hand then it really must be bad.

 

     Thread Starter
 

05/12/2017 10:32 am  #8


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Totally agree with you Harry.We should be attracting families,because it’s cheaper than taking them to the professional game.I don’t feel comfortable behind the goal.How you stop it or at least take it down a notch.Kids grow up with swearing ,but that’s not a good thing.I think the demon drink sometimes may have something to do with it as well.I must admit I haven’t noticed to much abuse from the stands,which is where I go.Maybe have a swear box in the ground,then we will be as rich as Billericay.

 

05/12/2017 10:55 am  #9


Re: The Elephant In the Room

I missed the first 25 or so minutes in conversation with someone who is working behind the scenes looking at improving things at TMUFC. We need to attract more families. We need to build a future. We need to look at what has gone on at Sutton United and Dulwich and learn from them. Work out if there are things they have done that could work for us here.
This season has really brought it home to a number of people how far we are away from getting and building on our fan base after the last couple of successful seasons
 
 
Tooting and Mitcham are different from the Trendy Wendy types at Dulwich. We are not the boring suburban Sutton United. We have our own identity which is a bit rough and ready… I’d hate that to change, it’s what we are. That’s why I follow this great club… But…..Screaming like a  mad parrot with Tourette’s syndrome having some kind of fit behind the goal is not going to help.
 

     Thread Starter
 

05/12/2017 6:20 pm  #10


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Well said Dad... Language like that sets a poor example on our club... Most of the time I'm the only child on the BogEnd and no wonder because of the language that only a few people say...

 

05/12/2017 7:52 pm  #11


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Me and my boy have been attending when we can since the beginning of last season. I do agree with what Harry is saying in regards to what i would call "over the top" abuse towards officals. We've all given a ref a bit when a decision hasn't gone our way. But as you say the full blast screaming of "confucius"every 2 minutes does grate me. My boys 7, he's heard most words and knows they're bad but that one..... to strong. If your shouting that in any packed place you need to have a look at yourself.
As for appealing to families, less than a mile up the road outside the David Weir center every Saturday morning are about 300 odd boys and girls all playing in carshalton little leauge. All under 16, all obviously football crazy all with a mum/dad that will no doubt do anything to keep them happy. How the club hasn't tapped into that markwt is beyond me? When i tell people im going T&M later the majority dont even no they're there.
Ps sorry for the essay.

 

06/12/2017 7:58 am  #12


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Bluntnshort wrote:

Me and my boy have been attending when we can since the beginning of last season. I do agree with what Harry is saying in regards to what i would call "over the top" abuse towards officals. We've all given a ref a bit when a decision hasn't gone our way. But as you say the full blast screaming of "confucius"every 2 minutes does grate me. My boys 7, he's heard most words and knows they're bad but that one..... to strong. If your shouting that in any packed place you need to have a look at yourself.
As for appealing to families, less than a mile up the road outside the David Weir center every Saturday morning are about 300 odd boys and girls all playing in carshalton little leauge. All under 16, all obviously football crazy all with a mum/dad that will no doubt do anything to keep them happy. How the club hasn't tapped into that markwt is beyond me? When i tell people im going T&M later the majority dont even no they're there.
Ps sorry for the essay.

The club does and has a very good youth and academy set up so there are plenty of younger kids involved in TMUFC, the hard part is getting them into watch the 1st team due to the problems I mentioned earlier.

I go to most games home and away but if I do miss an away fixture I'll go and watch some one local. Went to see Sutton Common Rovers the other day play W&H.... Loads of kids and families there including a couple from Anthony's (Bogend Ant) school. Also seen Carshalton a hand full of times over the years. Plenty of kids and families there. Sutton have huge family support

We have quite a few at TMUFC home games but no where near what others get., such a shame..... We need to face facts unless we sort this out the club will be dead in a few years time... The mind set of some our support needs to change.
 

     Thread Starter
 

06/12/2017 1:01 pm  #13


Re: The Elephant In the Room

I would have thought the match day stewards would have a word with anyone using excessive bad language?

 

06/12/2017 1:27 pm  #14


Re: The Elephant In the Room

We actually did have a crackdown on swearing a few years ago. Mob handed stewards dealt with the culprits by giving them a warning then threatened with being ejected from the ground. At the moment that would be a blessing in disguise!
I think this lasted about three games, then normal service resumed.

 

06/12/2017 3:14 pm  #15


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Well said HH. Name and shame them and if they continue kick them out.
It has got worse and it is not what we want at our club.
So come on clean your language up especially as we are playing Dulwich soon and we will certainly have more kids in attendance.

 

06/12/2017 3:30 pm  #16


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Handout leaflets at turnstile?asking for better behaviour.

 

06/12/2017 9:54 pm  #17


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Casey you would probably be told to fcuk off!

 

06/12/2017 10:16 pm  #18


Re: The Elephant In the Room

I can not deny your point about foul language within the ground is valid but I have just been reading a thread on the "K`s" forum and the f , c, and b, words are used quite liberally by several poster`s, and not on just one posting
Not that it is much consolation but at least this forum has not stooped to that level.

 

07/12/2017 5:46 am  #19


Re: The Elephant In the Room

alanj wrote:

I can not deny your point about foul language within the ground is valid but I have just been reading a thread on the "K`s" forum and the f , c, and b, words are used quite liberally by several poster`s, and not on just one posting
Not that it is much consolation but at least this forum has not stooped to that level.

Lets not worry about other clubs or their forums. I really don't want this thread to get bogged down with their problems.

From the feed back on here it seems as if their is a fair bit of agreement that things have got out of hand at our games....

I just hope the message gets across to people.

     Thread Starter
 

07/12/2017 6:16 am  #20


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Andy Mc wrote:

We actually did have a crackdown on swearing a few years ago. Mob handed stewards dealt with the culprits by giving them a warning then threatened with being ejected from the ground. At the moment that would be a blessing in disguise!
I think this lasted about three games, then normal service resumed.

I do remember Andy, it was in fact a good five years ago.  Leaflets were stuck up around the ground and ignored.  But surely in the case of persistant swearing it is a perpetual job for the stewards to deal with whether it is behind the goal or anywhere else in the ground, be it home or away supporters.
 

 

07/12/2017 8:30 am  #21


Re: The Elephant In the Room

evthedog wrote:

Andy Mc wrote:

We actually did have a crackdown on swearing a few years ago. Mob handed stewards dealt with the culprits by giving them a warning then threatened with being ejected from the ground. At the moment that would be a blessing in disguise!
I think this lasted about three games, then normal service resumed.

I do remember Andy, it was in fact a good five years ago.  Leaflets were stuck up around the ground and ignored.  But surely in the case of persistant swearing it is a perpetual job for the stewards to deal with whether it is behind the goal or anywhere else in the ground, be it home or away supporters.
 

You can never get rid of swearing at Football matches and really it's not that I'm worried about... We have some funny people behind the goal and some great songs... Swearing is part and parcel on standing on terraces. We have one of the great Non League Terrace wits on the Bog End... None of us want to see Sir Tim Magone live the life of a silent Monk...

It's people who just seem to totally lose the plot and go off on these loud pointless swearing rants....
Either they are drunk or just showing off I have no idea but if people had done what they did last Saturday at Arsenal,  Crystal Palace or Fulham etc. they would have been either ejected, arrested or given a football banning order and that is a fact. If you had never seen TMUFC before and didn't know the people yelling their heads off you could be quite intimidated by them...

If you don't believe me go and stand in your local Sainsbury's and start shouting C*NT !!!!!! at the top of your voice and see how many people avoid going anywhere near you.

We need our games to be more of a family friendly environment or the club will never move forward.
Our crowds have not really grown at all over the last few years while the clubs around us go from strength to strength.

 

     Thread Starter
 

07/12/2017 8:38 am  #22


Re: The Elephant In the Room

Surely if the club really has any real intentions of stopping swearing within the ground, it is within their powers to prevent it.
Perhaps a flyer could be given upon entry over a couple of home games detailing what is acceptable and what is not, then if swearing is noticed on matchday, a senior steward who has the authority, not some poor youngster who will just be told to go away, can give a warning to the person involved regarding the consequences of their actions, three warnings and a season long ban is given.
But this is something which once started has to be continued it is no good just paying a token service to what is an unacceptable problem, then letting it drift away.
How can we expect our club to flourish and grow when the very means for it to do so, ie. the young generation, are not encouraged due to the actions of a minority.
 

 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum