{"id":1108,"date":"2026-06-14T07:33:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T07:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2026-06-14T07:33:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T07:33:54","slug":"gom-world-cup-diary-4-whatever-happened-to-just-watching-the-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/gom-world-cup-diary-4-whatever-happened-to-just-watching-the-match\/","title":{"rendered":"GOM World Cup Diary #4: Whatever Happened to Just Watching the Match?"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOM World Cup Diary #4: Whatever Happened to Just Watching the Match?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent part of yesterday watching football supporters watching football.<\/p>\n

Which, when you think about it, is a rather strange thing to do.<\/p>\n

The World Cup is one of the greatest sporting events on the planet. Fans travel thousands of miles, spend eye-watering sums of money on flights, hotels and tickets, and finally find themselves sitting inside a stadium watching the best players in the world.<\/p>\n

And then they spend half the match looking at their phones.<\/p>\n

Everywhere I looked, somebody was filming something.<\/p>\n

They were filming the players warming up.<\/p>\n

Filming the national anthem.<\/p>\n

Filming the crowd.<\/p>\n

Filming themselves filming the crowd.<\/p>\n

At one point I think I saw somebody filming another person who was filming somebody else.<\/p>\n

It was like a digital version of Russian dolls.<\/p>\n

One gentleman appeared to record almost the entire match.<\/p>\n

Now perhaps he had a very good reason.<\/p>\n

Perhaps FIFA had personally appointed him Official Backup Cameraman.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, I’m struggling to understand the plan.<\/p>\n

The television coverage already includes dozens of cameras, drones, slow-motion replays and angles capable of showing what a player had for breakfast.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure the world also needs a shaky recording taken from Row 37 Seat B.<\/p>\n

The thing I don’t understand is why people seem so determined to capture the moment instead of simply enjoying it.<\/p>\n

When I was younger, if your team scored a goal, you celebrated.<\/p>\n

You jumped up.<\/p>\n

You cheered.<\/p>\n

You hugged complete strangers.<\/p>\n

You spilled your drink.<\/p>\n

Sometimes all four at once.<\/p>\n

The memory stayed with you because you were actually there.<\/p>\n

Nowadays it feels as though people are collecting evidence.<\/p>\n

As if nobody will believe they attended a football match unless they produce 247 videos and a gallery full of selfies.<\/p>\n

And don’t get me started on the people who watch the game through their phone while sitting in the stadium.<\/p>\n

You’ve paid hundreds of pounds for one of the best seats in the house and then chosen to recreate the experience of sitting in your living room.<\/p>\n

It’s like going to Paris and spending the entire trip looking at postcards.<\/p>\n

Mind you, perhaps I’m just getting old.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is how football is enjoyed nowadays.<\/p>\n

Maybe the future consists of 80,000 people attending a match and then watching it through a screen.<\/p>\n

If so, I shall continue doing things the old-fashioned way.<\/p>\n

I’ll watch the football.<\/p>\n

And if something amazing happens, I’ll trust my memory to remember it.<\/p>\n

After all, that’s worked reasonably well for me since 1966.<\/p>\n

Anyway, what do I know?<\/p>\n

I’m just a grumpy old man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOM World Cup Diary #4: Whatever Happened to Just Watching the Match? I spent part of yesterday watching football supporters watching football. Which, when you think about it, is a rather strange thing to do. The World Cup is one of the greatest sporting events on the planet. Fans travel thousands of miles, spend eye-watering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,13,53,82,83],"tags":[91,89,86,96,79,109,108,87,90,110,97,101,85,106],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-grumpy-old-man","category-humour","category-soccer","category-world-cup","tag-british-humour","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-football-fans","tag-grumpy-old-man","tag-modern-life","tag-smartphones","tag-soccer","tag-sports-commentary","tag-stadium-experience","tag-tournament-football","tag-usa-world-cup","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-diary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1110,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions\/1110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davethomasonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}