FAO Jo or any othe ABE

[miasmum]

Jo what do you say when people ask why you are an ABE? I have had a lot of flack, especially as like you, I like football

I find it hard to explain apart from I dislike the hype, the posturing, the bandwagon, the thuggery, the fake patriotism etc etc

[Workingman]

Shell, I am not a hardcore ABE, more a CBAAE (Can't be arsed about England) and for all the reasons mentioned above.

I do not read any articles and only tune in after the BLM nonsense is over. I go make a sarnie and a cuppa at half time, then tune out at full time as the wonderful English wordsmiths - pundits - get in full flow. However, I sometimes give them a minute or two just for a laugh.

Mind you I am like that with all sports. I am only interested in the event and not all the befores and afters.

[saundra]

I'm the same time in at the start cuppa at half switch of at the end time
Can't do with hype

[TheOstrich]

ABE?

Adult Basic Education?
Association of Business Executives?
Artificial Baseball Engine?
Antivirus Business Edition?
Autonomous Benthic Explorer?
Automated Barcode Evaluator?
Army Budget Estimate?

Not run into that one before. You've lost me .....

And I've never evaluated a barcode in my life, despite any scurrilous rumours you may have heard!

[meriad]

Not run into that one before. You've lost me .....

Glad you're asking Ossie

[Workingman]

ABE = Anyone But England.

[TheOstrich]

Ah yes!

Count me in - where do I sign up?

Back to the original question:

Jo what do you say when people ask why you are an ABE? I have had a lot of flack, especially as like you, I like football

Um, in my experience, I haven't actually had any flack, in fact most people have been sympathetic!

[saundra]

I'm not into all these abbreviation stuff
A friend messaged me last week to say she was going to MK???
Had to ask what it meant
Answer .Milton Keynes

[miasmum]

I'd never heard it before Jo said it, but I love it.

Milton Keynes is often MK round here, but then its only 10 miles up the road

[Osc]

I’m an ABE, it is practically in the Irish DNA. On a personal level, even though we lived in London in the early 70s and had a great time despite anti-Irish feeling and prejudice, one of my reasons is the riot at Lansdowne Road in Dublin in February 1995 during a “friendly” Ireland -v- England match. English “fans” tore apart their section of the stadium and caused the match to be abandoned. Edward and Miss Osc were there, I didn’t know where they were sitting, and in the days before mobile phones I had a very worrying couple of hours before they got home. So many of the so called fans are just scum, and as was seen this past weekend, they are no better than they were 26 years ago. Also, the jingoistic media really does not help. All the Football’s coming Home stuff is teeth grindingly irritating and the assumption that England has the divine right to win every tournament is so annoying. When we lived in London, we used to support English athletes and teams, and yes Irish people do support Premiership teams, but overall now, we always wait for England to be eliminated in team events before settling down to enjoy them……that made Sunday night rather stressful!! That said, we both like and support English golfers

With regard to last weekend, it really does seem as if the Wembley authorities and FA were completely and shamefully unprepared and I hope there will be an investigation into the policing of the whole day.