In Poland going to games is more associated with being a hooli, an ultra, and most middle-class people really despise the idea. I can say my family would definitely never go to a football game, and tbh even avoid going out on the time of the game to not meet the fans on the street to avoid unpleasantries. Also basically all my friends (middle class) despise football and football fans and think it’s an entertainment for simpletons and would never go to a game. The general popular opinion in this class is that footballers are overpaid lazy do-nothings who are all very bad at their job, and the fans are lowlife who will beat someone up.

Interesting - this is exactly how it was in England before the Premier League. Attendances were half of what they are today in the 80s. No families, just predominantly working class men. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to just piss where they were standing in the stadium, so you’d never taken your wife or kids to a game.

I had a look at Polish historical attendances, and if you go back to the 1970s the average league attendance is actually higher than the leagues in France, Netherlands and Scotland at that time. About +40% higher than it is now.

For Ireland, football is still extremely popular over there, probably their 2nd sport after Gaelic football. More so than Rugby despite their success in that. It’s just difficult to encourage people to go out in the cold to watch local football when you can sit in a warm pub and watch a Premier League game on TV easily enough.

Extremely jealous of this.

What makes me sad about England is when I first started working, our factory had a sports and social club that had existed for 100+ years.

This used to be the norm, and many bigger clubs still around today (West Ham: Thames Ironworks) came from these roots. Even once they’d professionalize the Saturday 3pm kick-off time was aligned to the time factories closed so the workers could then go and watch.

Anyway long-story short, the factory got bought by a Chinese firm and they instantly shut-down all of the social and sports clubs. Despite the wages always being relatively low, people used to love working there for the social element which completely disappeared.

It’s admiral how Germans have held on to their institutions compared to how we will just sell off anything to the highest bidder. I think it’s a class issue where the working class here either just don’t own enough to have a say, or worse don’t feel they have a right to have a say in community clubs that have been there for over 100 years.

Poland is among the European countries with fewest people going to football games per capita.

Is that lack of interest in football, or just the domestic league? Most of the Polish I’ve worked with would play in our 6-a-side games. One lad with a Legia Warsaw screensaver who was a bit of a nutter.

Compete is generous. Just an alternative, like LMA Manager or Premier Manager. FM/CM has always been head and shoulders above any other management game.