07 Apr 2025 14:53:03
There's plenty of vile abuse slung out at matches, there's lots of foul language and unedifying comments so why exactly have the media jumped on the abuse of fodens mum yesterday?! I'm not defending it but it happens up and down the country every week so I don't see why United fans are being singled out. Maybe it's because the game was crap and there was little else to talk about. Seems a bit of an overreaction to me.
07 Apr 2025 15:10:22
Really… maybe because it was not about the player or anything to do with football, but a personal attack on a family member, nothing at all to do with football.
07 Apr 2025 17:47:21
I agree, Tim. It's disgusting, but personal stuff is chanted at players up and down the country on a weekly basis, and I never see anything written about it. Some fans will always go for a player's 'achilles heel', unfortunately.
07 Apr 2025 18:39:23
What was said and was it factually correct?
{Ed025's Note - i really dont know Jimbo..
07 Apr 2025 23:33:19
It was just a bit of banter about Foden’s mum, no idea if it was correct but it got a bit of a laugh at the stadium. On Tuesday the Forest fans were calling Bruno for looking like a rat, this has just got traction because Pep brought it up to detract from how bad his team is.
08 Apr 2025 00:36:57
Almost no press about how woeful city are, but apparently we were boring? Utter rubbish.
Pep spent about $150m in jan on top of a championship winning side. His team is awful and he doesn't seem to have any answers.
I thought we played quite well, were the better side and improved performances from several players. All that matters this season now is UEFA, win that and it could rescue the club. Lose and it is a very long way back to top 5.
08 Apr 2025 09:17:52
Hit the nail on the head GDS. that and it feeds into the constant negative united agenda that the media try’s to push. Like it said, this kind of stuff happens every week and hardly gets a mention yet this was front and back page in some papers.
08 Apr 2025 09:28:37
Tim,
We are playing a bit better so the press have to find something to batter us with, Pep knows that and played right into it, as Dodgy says I’ve not seen anything discussing how bad City are and how they might miss out on CL, it’s all about little 13th placed United, despite us taking 4 points off them this season and them not even laying a glove on us on Sunday.
08 Apr 2025 11:10:58
Week after week we get told this is the worst Manchester United team in premier league history. Lists of players names come out that are just not good enough for the team and club and then when we don’t put in a world class performance everyone is outraged and surprised ?
Personally I think we are seeing some green shoots in this team and what Amorim is doing. We absolutely need to improve in some areas but I think the future is and should be exciting.
And if the media can only find fault and criticism in a handful of fans chants then the team must be doing something right. Also, I wonder what the Crystal Palace fans will be singing towards Foden on Saturday now and how that will get reported!
08 Apr 2025 13:23:56
Personal attacks on players and their families is just not on. How do you think Phil Foden's mum feels? What has she done to deserve that crap. How do you think Bruno feels with that rat chant? He's just a man doing his job. How would any of us like it?
Small minded idiots. I hate all this nonsense in football. Football fans can be incredibly funny but that isn't.
08 Apr 2025 18:15:23
Again, what was actually said, and was it true?
Was anyone at the game? Put down in words what was chanted.
This culture of banning everything from every walk of life is the issue.
Are we going to ban the crowd trying to put the keeper off taking a kick soon because it might hurt his feelings?
It's pathetic, that's what it is.
Fan rivalry/ banter has long been part of the culture of football, take it away and it becomes a very sterile event.
08 Apr 2025 18:57:52
Jimbobred, I don't like banning anything. It shouldn't be necessary because people should be able to discern between what is acceptable and what is not.
In the context of what we are talking about, chanting "Phil Foden's Mum is a slag" is not. It's not banter and it's definitely not funny. It's just pathetic.
08 Apr 2025 19:30:39
Man man,
Comedy is subjective, some people found that funny, that doesn’t mean you have to find it funny, and you’re very much allowed to be offended on behalf of some woman you’ve never met, that’s your prerogative. I’m not sure how old you are but I can probably take a guess, I think you’d have hated football in the 90s. There are comedians that I don’t find funny that I know other people do, I don’t say ‘they aren’t funny’ just that I don’t find them funny, it would be a boring world if we all liked the same things.
Fortunately the FA have accepted none of the chants were bad and no action has been taken.
08 Apr 2025 21:34:04
It's a good job Vardy doesn't play for City.
08 Apr 2025 21:38:12
GDS2, there's nothing subjective about it. If you think that's funny then I think there is something wrong with you.
How would you like 70,000 people chanting your mum is a slag? I think if just I called your Mum a slag you would take offense and quite rightly so.
Eds. Please can we have a poll? The question is:
Is it funny to call GDS2's Mum a Slag? :
A - Yes
B - No.
08 Apr 2025 21:40:15
And GDS2, to answer your question; I am 50 years old and I am probably one of the least woke people you could meet. I just happen to have a sense of decency.
08 Apr 2025 22:24:21
There have been far worse things chanted at games. If calling someone’s mum a sl** is the best they have then let them get on with it.
You should have heard some of the abuse Cantona was getting week in week out. Beckham etc all copped some horrendous stuff.
Your mum is a slag is chicken feed in comparison.
Move on. Nothing to see here.
08 Apr 2025 23:18:17
Manc man,
You literally have no idea who I am or who my mum is so you can say whatever you want, I’m hardly going to be offended by some fool on the internet and I doubt Foden was offended either, it’s just football fans and banter, a lot worse has been said over the years, it’s not racist or sexist etc it’s just silly and some people found it funny, nothing wrong with anyone for finding anything funny or being offended on behalf of others as I said earlier, each to their own.
{Ed001's Note - actually it is sexist. To try and claim it isn't is pure ignorance. Whether it is offensive is a different matter, but it is certainly sexist.}
09 Apr 2025 06:37:18
Exactly, if it’s offensive is down to the individual’s opinion, is it very childish, that’s an astounding yes and anyone who thinks it’s not childish and it’s not the right thing to say, might not be all there, but hey that seems the majority of the world we now live in.
Idiots that say some stupid things don’t even care about the little boys and girls at the ground with their parents, thinking that’s normal behaviour!
But of course it’s 100% sexist, how on earth can anyone think it’s not, oh yeah maybe the morons that say it and think it’s funny.
09 Apr 2025 08:59:26
Of course it was offensive. That was the intention. It was sexist and misogynistic. Of course Foden would be offended. It was his mum . Has worse been chanted? Yes, but so what. This was awful. Nothing to do with humour. Or any subjective bollox. Nasty and sadistic uttered by the same.
09 Apr 2025 09:27:29
Let’s stop swearing at the football as well then as kids shouldn’t be hearing that and repeating it at school and I’m offended by it. It was a silly chant, some people found it funny, it’s just not that big of a deal.
09 Apr 2025 09:29:07
Apologies if people think it’s sexist, I don’t really think it is but obviously I’m wrong on that one which is fine, I just thought it was a silly little joke, I’ve no idea if his mother is a slag or not, she’s definitely a crank.
09 Apr 2025 09:48:35
Well she is from Stockport!
09 Apr 2025 10:54:12
I don't think anyone is justifying the actual chant. But at a football ground, people will sing things they'd never dream of saying in a one to one setting - herd mentality and all that.
There's times I've smiled despite myself, at some of the chants, while inwardly wincing at how close to the knucke they are.
My point, and that of the OP, is that after reading the many, many reports on the incident in the media, you'd be led to believe it was the first time such a thing had ever happened.
09 Apr 2025 11:41:39
I agree Noucamp, and just to be clear I didn’t join in with the chant, I also don’t join in with the Georgie Best one either as my mates find it distasteful, but I don’t buy into policing everything everyone does just because the minority are offended, a lot worse used to go on and still does go on, when I was younger sticks and stones broke my bones but names never hurt me, maybe I’m just immune to it or grown up at a different time.
09 Apr 2025 11:44:26
Isn’t the whole point of having a home advantage that you make it uncomfortable for the opposition, imagine that Galatasaray game in the 90s now, they would have stadium bans for months if that happened now, they were saying welcome to hell and threatening our players, it was just seen as a tough place to go. The home crowd should be making it uncomfortable for the opposition, Foden even reacted to it which is absolutely perfect as it showed he wasn’t concentrating fully on his game.
{Ed001's Note - but Galatasaray regularly went through periods of struggle because their crowd would make it so uncomfortable their own players would be scared to play. The teams with the most success, and I include United in that as well, usually did that because the crowd supported them, rather than hassled the opposition. The best times come for teams when the crowd get behind them and lift them - like Leicester's prem trophy, that crowd got behind them and pushed them over the line whenever they started to look like faltering.}
09 Apr 2025 12:12:26
GDS2, that's the point right there. Chanting that someone's Mum is a slag is not banter. There's no humour or wit in it. It's just sad and pathetic nonsense from stupid people who have no class or grace.
And its part of the whole crap that ruins football; mindless idiots with your sexism, racism and tribalism.
Rugby, cricket, formula 1, etc tennis doesn't have this kind of thing going on, so why football?
And why do you think it's Ok to do something on a football terrace that you wouldn't dream of doing in any other situation?
09 Apr 2025 13:55:04
Last year I think in a FA cup game you could hear nearly the entire opposition fans singing repeatedly "Antony is a rapist". No apologies from the broadcaster and in fact the commentator who heard it found it amusing if I remember rightly. Maybe somewhere amongst that lies the problem. Seems to be allowable for some players and clubs to be on the receiving end more than others.
In a survey last year something like 8 of the top 10 most abused players particularly online were Manchester United players. I doubt very much that it is many Manchester united fans giving their own players that much abuse.
09 Apr 2025 14:17:36
Rugby certainly does have it going on, you’ve clearly never been to a rugby match. Google Joe Westerman. 70,000 people don’t go and watch Lancashire cricket every week, but I’ve heard a lot worse at Ashes matches so it does happen at cricket also. There is a famous sledge from cricket of a player suggesting he’s slept with a player’s mother.
It’s such a strange question about why would you do something on a football terrace you wouldn’t do in a normal situation, I don’t sit in my living room and sing take me home united road but I do it at the game, of course people behave differently when they are at the match, as someone said above its just what happens in groups. I celebrate a lot more when we score when I’m at the game, especially at an away game, more so than I would in my armchair.
I assume when you said ‘your’ you don’t mean me MancMan, I am certainly not sexist or racist in any way, I just disagree that a chant is that big of a deal that’s all. I’ve said everyone is welcome to their own opinion. I’ll certainly accept the tribalism though, it’s what football is all about, but putting tribalism on a level with sexism and racism is ridiculous for me.
09 Apr 2025 17:08:23
So your basically saying because it happens at other grounds or other sporting events that makes it ok…. what tosh that is, when you heard the sticks and stones saying did you not learn the 2 wrongs don’t make a right!
I don’t buy all this oh it’s United being picked on crap, it’s wrong, deplorable, childish whatever way you look at it and RedMan is right 100% if you think it’s ok, you seriously need to question yourself and your upbringing.
09 Apr 2025 18:33:34
MAZE, you're the one who compared it to other sports in the first place ?♂️.
09 Apr 2025 18:52:20
Maze,
If people disagree with your opinion they need to question their upbringing? To be honest if I ever agreed with you I’d worry so happy to disagree on this one.
09 Apr 2025 20:02:19
First of all GDS2;no. Like you say, I don't know you so I'm not accusing you of any 'isms'.
This is obviously an emotive subject so I'd like to take it down a notch and perhaps make the discussion less personal.
I do however think tribalism is a bad thing because like the other isms it accentuates differences between us and encourages ill feeling. At the end of the day people just support different football teams.
Like you say, I think we just have to accept we disagree on what should and shouldn't be chanted at a game. My opinion is that nasty personal attacks cross the line.
10 Apr 2025 00:14:43
Manc man,
Absolutely agree and to be honest I was enjoying the discussion and it has given me chance to think about it and listen to other people’s opinions on the matter and understand why people find it offensive, there was certainly nothing personal and I didn’t feel like either of us crossed the line, it’s what a forum like this should be about. I think some of the point I was making was lost anyway, I didn’t sing the chant, i just agreed with the OP that I don’t think it’s that bad, I agree with you that racism and other chants you hear obviously shouldn’t happen, I just found that making a big deal of this one when there are 100s of chants as bad or worse that never get mentioned was a little odd, I personally had a chuckle and thought it was a bit daft, I get why others are offended now though and appreciate that point.
There is only one person that gets personal on this site but he’s about 20 different people anyway so no need to worry.
10 Apr 2025 17:53:58
Well said GDS2, I have also enjoyed what has been a robust discussion.
It's easy to get entrenched in one's own views and not listen to others'. My takeaway is maybe I'm a bit too sensitive and most people truly aren't bothered about the insults and the abuse.
I'll finish by saying one of my all time favourite chants is from the Spurs fans - "taxi for Maicon" when Bale gave him an absolute torrid time back in 2010.
I also used to find it really funny when fans behind Wenger imitated him en-masse him when he used to wave his arms around.
They're both pretty lame but that's the kind of humour/ banter I want to see and hear at a football match.