There's a reason why football is called football. There's also a reason why football is not called mouthball or verbalball. Unfortunately, nowadays we see more talking being done with the mouth rather than with the foot. People may say that this serves to build up the hype and tension of a football game. But for me, it is a complete distraction from what football is truly about.



When was the last time you saw a game that was dominated by what happened on the pitch than what happened off it? Probably a long time ago. The days where both teams would approach the days before the game without going into a slanging match are long gone.

Who is to blame for such a change? Coaches? players? media?

All of them have played a part in the transformation of football into slangball, or mouthball or whatever you want to call it. Despite this, I would personally point to the coaches for being the main instigators of slanging matches. It is the coaches that are the face of a team before going into battle. However, they tend to engage in phony wars of words before the real war on the pitch.

Thank God that these phony wars tend to be forgotten after the game has been played. The fact that they're quickly forgotten renders them useless. People may say that it adds to the hype, excitement and anticipation leading to a game, but there is no need to hype up a game of football

Knowing that 2 teams are going into a titanic battle over 90 minutes is enough hype for me. Knowing that a team may be risking it all on the line in 1 game is enough hype too. Or even better, knowing that a team is about to play against a bitter rival for the umpteenth time is more than enough to get the blood in the veins moving in football fans everywhere.

Football has sadly become denigrated in recent decades by the antics of managers and coaches in taking the battle on the pitch off the pitch. In some cases, the off field battle is so fierce that people forget that there's a football game actually taking place.

The biggest mouth in the business (at least in the last couple of years) has been Jose Mourinho, who made enemies with every other manager in the EPL. It is no coincidence that his comments at press conferences are remembered as much or more than what Chelsea did on the pitch under his tenure. This is certainly a very sad thing for football.

The battle does not belong off the pitch, it belongs on the pitch and is fought with the feet and not with the mouth.