The most hated sport

[tee rex]

Is it rugby or golf?

I don't mean least popular sport. Obviously that's something obscure like synchro-slalom-athlon. I mean the one that arouses the strongest Pavlovian response, an instant, angry, spittly "Grrrrrr ...".

It's not cricket, which a lot of people find deadly dull, but indifference is not loathing. Of course millions heartily detest football, but I think that would have been a better (i.e. worse) contender in the 1980's.

The Rugby World Cup brought this front of mind, as it invades football stadiums. You get the impression many would have less objection to Billy Graham on the pitch (or whoever it is that spreads God's word in tents these days). Donald Trump even. No hang on, he poisons the land with golf courses. Bastard.

It's partly a class thing, but there are other sports (horses and boats) which seem to be mocked more than detested.

Any other nominations?

[ad hoc]

The most hated sport

Polo

[Janik]

The most hated sport

Partly a class thing? It is entirely a class thing. I don't think it is the mechanics of the sports themselves that cause the ire, people would simply ignore them if it was just that they were boring. It is the people who play/follow that winds people up.

Polo, probably.

Oh and if we are talking about the world in general rather than the OTF microcosm, Football would be right at the top of this list. The Rugby/Golf posh crowd probably hate that equally virulently for the mirror image reasons that some on here hate their sports. And lots in the USA detest it as some sort of European Socialist horribleness.

[Janik]

The most hated sport

Heh, Mr hoc, you are predictable.

[Janik]

The most hated sport

Actually, Football is almost certainly the No.1 most hated sport in both Britain and the world at large, and by a considerable distance.

That is because one of the biggest groups who will hate a particular sport are those who hate all sports. And as Football is the biggest and noisiest, it becomes the lightening rod.

[Jah Womble]

The most hated sport

Bullfighting, surely?

(If we're to include such things.)

[tee rex]

The most hated sport

Janik wrote: Partly a class thing? It is entirely a class thing. I don't think it is the mechanics of the sports themselves that cause the ire, people would simply ignore them if it was just that they were boring. It is the people who play/follow that winds people up.

In New Zealand (which is even less of a world-sample than OTF) it doesn't have those class connotations, but it still provokes antipathy for other reasons - funnily enough, the same ones people elsewhere dislike football. The domain of boufheads, drunks, and general male dickery.

[tee rex]

The most hated sport

And yeah, it's how much the sport invades your own life that influences the Hateometer. So you could argue that the insular flyover USA doesn't much care about the evil of soccer because it is from a Galaxy far, far away (geddit? I bet nobody's ever done that before). Whereas football would be more hated when it dominates the media and usurps e.g. the cricket season.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The most hated sport

Janik wrote:

And lots in the USA detest it as some sort of European Socialist horribleness.

Mexican (and Latin American) Marxist revolutionary horribleness, surely.

[Borracho]

The most hated sport

I was going to say polo too.

Rugby v golf – tough one. But on reflection, not really a tough one at all. Rugby (in this country at any rate) is annoyingly invasive in its marketing machine and media coverage etc, but golf is much more insidious and harmful in one very important respect: namely, it is way, way more of a threat to the environment than rugby is, what with the ridiculous amounts of water and fertiliser and pesticides required to keep all those fairways and greens looking tip-top. When you look at it that way, rugby is relatively harmless by comparison.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

The most hated sport

Polo's barely a sport, surely? I've seen one polo stadium (or whatever they're called) in my whole life and never met anyone who plays it or watches it.

I'd go with rugby or maybe tennis. The fans - and I'm probably talking about those who come out of the woodwork for world cups & grand slams more than regular fans - are unbearable.

I hate my Twitter timeline when the darts is on, too.

[Ray de Galles]

The most hated sport

I'd say Formula One but it's not a sport.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

The most hated sport

Dressage. Blood sports. Anything with cunts, fancy dress and horses, basically. Seconds on the bullfighting, then.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The most hated sport

F1 ticks quite a few of the boxes mentioned above. Environmentally friendly? Hardly. Fans who don't drive their BMWs like twats down the M1? A few. Millionaire competitors who behave like dicks? Definitely.

[Furtho]

The most hated sport

I loathe rugby (union) because I went to a suburban boys' grammar school that was basically dedicated to the sport, acting as a feeder to the local club. There was pretty much no tolerance of football so, as a specky little twat and a football fan, I was never going to fit in with such an ethos. But that's a personal thing, obviously. Otherwise, yeah - golf, motor sport, anything to do with horses.

[Sits]

The most hated sport

Exactly what Furtho said. Also there is a terrible smug self-satisfaction about the rugby set in this neck of the woods.

And despite all that, I may watch the odd RWC game if it happens to fit with my timetable.

So it's the people, and associations with rugby, rather than the game itself.

[KGR]

The most hated sport

Surprised nobody has mentioned National Hunt racing. Especially when there are deaths in the Grand National.

[Sean of the Shed]

The most hated sport

Sits wrote: Exactly what Furtho said. Also there is a terrible smug self-satisfaction about the rugby set in this neck of the woods.

And despite all that, I may watch the odd RWC game if it happens to fit with my timetable.

So it's the people, and associations with rugby, rather than the game itself.

I'd agree with that. I have no problem with anyone who likes the sport, but there's always some public school Tory voting cunt who feels they have to justify it by telling you what makes it so superior to football (which they usually insist on calling soccer).

[Benjm]

The most hated sport

If specky ex-grammar school corner isn't getting too crowded, it's Rugby Union for me too. Not that the game or even, probably, people are that much worse than polo, racing, rowing, and other such sports but those were easy enough to ignore.

I doubt that fiction's top short sighted former grammar school pupil, Harry Palmer, was an enthusiastic rugby player. Too busy charming the girls with his omelettes. And wouldn't have been able to see the ball, obviously.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

The most hated sport

For me personally it's American Football.

I used to like it but it's just too violent and too coach micromanaged. It's essentially a procession of choreographed set pieces that afford very little opportunity for improvisation and creativity and too few of the players on the field actually ever touch the ball.

Hearing grown men at work talk about their fantasy teams adds another level of annoyance as does the violent behavior of the players off the field. Then there's the Super Bowl which last like 7 hours and everyone goes on about how great this or that commercial was. It's tiresome in the extreme.

[Jimski]

The most hated sport

Rugby, because I was forced to play it at school, and it was an opportunity for the thugs and bullies to get in some extra thuggishness and bullying. And it was the national sport of white South Africa, which was apt in many ways.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The most hated sport

Any sport where part of the intent includes killing or maiming another living creature. All bloodsports of course. Firstly, non-human ones that feature bulls, bears, foxes, hares, elk or any other being that has no choice in whether it takes part or not, would be top of the list. Then human bloodsports, when player injury is either a prerequisite or visceral desire, particularly on the part of spectators. UFC and other MMA derivatives, are the most obvious, The NFL and NASCAR, also lean strongly in that direction.

[laverte]

The most hated sport

Amor de Cosmos wrote: human bloodsports, when player injury is either a prerequisite or visceral desire, particularly on the part of spectators. UFC and other MMA derivatives, are the most obvious, The NFL and NASCAR, also lean strongly in that direction.

There's no direct connection, but all those sports also feature ring girls, podium girls, pom-pom girls, cheerleaders, etc – as do Formula 1 and boxing. I guess they know their audience.

I hated playing hockey, and it's no fun to watch, either. I think if you restricted this topic to the sports we most hated having to play at school, hockey would be right up there with cross country running and perhaps the throwing disciplines from track and field, at least among girls.

[ursus arctos]

The most hated sport

That's an interesting angle.

I much preferred cross-country to running the same distance around an oval.

The massive winner among "school sports" you hated among my cohort would be square dancing.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The most hated sport

Dancing is no more a sport than singing or painting.

I think if you restricted this topic to the sports we most hated having to play at school,

I was relatively tall, but physical contact averse. So, as personal preference was of no consequence at my school, I was always picked to play full-back at Rugby. Saturday mornings eating mud with a pile of teenage boys on top of you tends to curb any enthusiasm for the sport.

The other would be boxing. This was the school's routine way of settling any dispute between students. I only suffered it once and was big enough to hold my own, despite incipient pacifist leanings. It was worse for others. The brightest kid in my class also happened to be quite overweight. As a result, he was picked on and bullied unmercifully. He frequently ended up in the ring with his worse tormentors, who took great glee in pounding him relentlessly under the approving eye of the gym teacher.