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Newly-appointed manager of the England football team, the astute, snappily-dressed and very Italian Fabio Capello, has wasted little time in stamping his authority on the perennially underachieving national side. Gone are visits from friends and family before a game. Gone are mobile phones once the team's checked into a hotel for a match. And gone are videogames. Capello believes the England team's obsession with their consoles had contributed to a "PlayStation culture", which was distracting them from the job at hand. Sounds harsh, but then if I was being paid millions of dollars a year to play football and all I had to do was not play games a day or two before a match, I think I could manage.
Capello bans England from playing games [MCV] [Image: Getty]
New England Manager Bans Gaming
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4:30 AM on Fri Feb 8 2008
By Luke Plunkett
2,815 views
77 comments
Comments
I saw New England and football and at first thought this was a post about real football. This news about a silly game from across the pond is irrelevant.
Is that a poor attempt to start a "my sport is better than yours" debate?
@idkmybffgreg:
I thought it was about *real* football too, and to my delight, it was!
Even as a Canadian, when I hear 'Football' I think Soccer. Someone usually has to say 'College' or 'NFL' before football for me to assume its the pigskin kind.
@Re:Loaded: No, it's more a "it's 3:41 a.m. and I don't really know what I'm saying" comment.
Idiots! Why play games while you could be screwing Monica Bellucci or Sophie Ellis Bextor?
being an english guy i play football regularly (im sorry komrade_kace and all of america for this comment) this post had to be written by an american football will never ever be played right in america you should just stick to the nfl dudes i think its too right england were lazy maybe now this will encourage them to play better as a team go on capello
I was about to reply with "BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" because I thought the Patriots' coach was just going crazy over LOSING TO THE GIANTS.
Or maybe the whole thing's just a conspiracy by the Azzurri to make sure England doesn't one-up them come the next Euro.
What the Queen think about this?
The queen honored Clive Marles Sinclair with the "Sir" title, because the contribution of this guy to UK.
Videogames is a new form of art and a new huge industry. And UK has a huge contribution to it.
Will the Queen remove the "Sir" title from Sinclair, nowdays, that is cool to hate the game industry?
@idkmybffgreg:
lovely bait. Not a big fan, but i watch the occasional game. As does most of the planet. Asia, Europe, South America... you know; everyone, everywhere :-)
These dudes get paid too much to be allowed time to spend is on the things they want to do in their own time! ha ha
PS
Most American sports are bastardised European sports. Think about it you crazy Americam cousins!
@Father ColdCuts: He's right. Baseball's just cricket with a different hitting-stick and football's just rugby with oodles of body padding. Oh yeah and don't forget about basketball...that's netball but played by tall black men instead of teen girls.
Football... or, as known in south america, Futbol! Witch almost sounds exactly the same.
Useless trivia!
"Futebol" in Portugal. Wich makes sense, since you play with your feet on the ball... unlike american football wich you spend most of the time carrying it with your hands... take that, IDKMYBFFGREG.
@GMC: Except the Philippines, which is curiously obsessed with basketball.
@idkmybffgreg: Well, the other "people" at the other of the pond should start playing REAL sports, so that it could better relate with the rest of the world.
Yes, I am looking at you CANADA! Enough of that Curling shit.
@tei: eh? What have the queen and Sir Clive's contribution got to do with what clueless people think about modern day gaming?
I'm pretty sure Capello couldn't care less about what people think of his decision so it's not as though he's going along with the anti gaming movement either.
This is awesome.
@The Dark Defender:
It's a conspiracy of the English tabloids!!!
Anyway, Capello knows. Capello is God. Besides, he protects them from the abomination that is PES 2008.
@idkmybffgreg: You get to call it football when you stop chucking it to each other.
@idkmybffgreg: a game called football where you're only allowed to use your feet? EUROPEAN MADNESS
@cheeses: I always thought Basketball was based on some wicked Mayan or Aztec sport, where the losers would be sacificed to the gods.
@FranUnFine: i'd watch it
@nolifedopestar: Ha Ha Exactly!Amen!
I do like NFL (I come from England) but I have to say that to me its American Football not just Football. The one word title goes to our game I'm afraid my American chums.
Football players ar so damn lazy, you know it. GL on winning thw world cup man, because if you get second place the Brittish people will have you crucified.
One day the English people will learn that they ain't the best and havn't been close for decades, but not today deluded english folks lol!
The problem isnt that they're playing videogames, the problem is that they all have the mentality of 10 year old school children.
@MasterOfPastures: Sorry mate I hate to do this but Curling was actully invented in Scotland in the 16th century, so you leave Canada alone, :D
Football is a game played by feet, only the Goalie is allowed to handle the ball.
They should rename NFL to handball or somthing like that?
Any other suggestions?
Answers on a postcard and send to:
Kotaku Tower........
@Irenicus-the one and only: we know dude and if we finished 2nd there'd be celebrations in the streets. don't take tabloid headlines as a cross section of supporters' opinions.
@FranUnFine: Isn't that Hockey?
Not another one of these debates. I could understand mobile phones, but family? That's just wrong.
And personally, I prefer American Football. I'll watch Soccer when there's nothing else on my Direct TV system that I'd like to watch. It's at least more entertaining to watch then golf.
Video games is a good idea but mobile phones? These guys would surely not be able to live without their mobiles. Next thing you know he'll stop all the illegal gambling they do!
@Chimhog: I concur and us being English means that if you americans don't like it we don't care! HAW HAW!
@f0cus: And don't forget the drugs!
@Unclean0ne: Or the prostitutes!
@f0cus: bet beckham's mrs wished they'd banned him from texting a few years ago...
And as for the difference between fans, Futbol fans are crazy, every few weeks someone ends up getting killed because they missed a goal or something like that. Us Americans aren't that crazy, the closest to that kind of crazy in America is college football fans.
@idkmybffgreg: can we ship in a deadspin editor for 2 minutes to ban this tosser?
this sentiment he/she/more likely it expresses is one way only, from americunts to the rest of the world, and i rank it up there with religious and political abuse. you might say 'its only a game' but i say it illustrates a boorish, jingoistic mindset and shouldnt be tolerated on a site read internationally.
"Soccer" -who the hell came up with that!?
@Arcadewolf: My work is done for the day:
[www.gavinrymill.com]
@GingerMohawk:
Handball is already taken, sorry.
We could call it American Rugby lol. Though for some reason I like the NFL and can't stand rugby.
@GingerMohawk: OMG! Your avatar is bananaman! It's bringing back my Dandy and Beano reading memories.
Anyway on subject slightly. Only Americans call NFL footbal. The rest if the world generally refer to football as football. Anyway all American Football is just Rugby for wimps.
@GingerMohawk: Thanks :) shame though, I always thought it had something to do with the long socks they wear!
@SPni: When Eric eats a banana, he get's healthy :D
Who would win in a fight of Bananaman, Captain Marvel and Fabio Capello?
There's no punchline, I want to know the answer. :(
Yes, but you have to think about alternatives. Time will be spent in some fashion, and just as nature abhors a vacuum, people abhor boredom. So will they turn to worse forms of bad behavior, drinking, fighting, etc., in this block of free time? What is the substitute for gaming?
@Chadders: Capello would butter them up with an intense glare and then shout them to death.
@idkmybffgreg: 'English' football came first. American football came later and was based on rugby, another English sport.
@nolifedopestar: I lol'd.
Though I think this is hilarious. Another reason for my distaste for Capello. Not sure how much the boys on the England National Team game, but I do know that a lot of the soccer players in the US take their consoles along with them while they travel....so that would really suck for them if an American coach got wind of this.
the easy way to fix this discussion would be to change the title to "England's New Football..." problem solved
The only true football game that is played by real men is Austrlian Rules Football. A cross between UFC, Rugby, Football and Basket ball. It's a winner all round!
I'm just saying that Playstation culture is better than any other culture in the history of humanity. Better than the Greeks, clearly better than the Romans, and better than the puritans.
Fuck those other cultures. Playstation culture rules, other cultures drool.
I also thought of the Patriots when I first saw the headline, and its more a matter of we don't play as much soccer on a major level in America. That and sports should involve some sort of hitting... All sports jingoism aside, why is Playstation the representative of this culture, anyone miss when it was the "Nintendo Culture." Someone let this guy know he is behind by a few generations. Even "Xbox culture" would have been more up to date.
I was caught in the middle. I saw New England and was thinking about the Revolutions!
@knickers: Seriously, one of the few MLS fans on the planet and the tricky worded subject kinda threw me off.
This is just insanity. Gaming if anything BENEFITS players. Hand eye coordination is none more essential then Futball. Gaming is proven to improve this.
Honestly, it wreaks of duchebaggery too.