When did the tradition of holding a minutes silence at the game before Remembrance Day (often with soldiers present on the field) begin? Is it a relatively new phenomenon?

I'd say probably within the last five years or so when it's become rather the trendy thing for football to adopt. Nowt wrong with that particularly but I much prefer the local village's ceremony this morning. Far more intimate, far more relevant, far more touching.
I get the feeling that, to some extent, this "Football remembers" stuff is a bit of a gimmick.

evensteadiereddie wrote:I'd say probably within the last five years or so when it's become rather the trendy thing for football to adopt. Nowt wrong with that particularly but I much prefer the local village's ceremony this morning. Far more intimate, far more relevant, far more touching.
I get the feeling that, to some extent, this "Football remembers" stuff is a bit of a gimmick.

Thanks, couldn't remember how long it has been around for or why.

It’s absolutely ridiculous now. Did you see the walking poppy on the pitch yesterday? It’s like everyone’s trying to out-do each other.

evensteadiereddie wrote:I'd say probably within the last five years or so when it's become rather the trendy thing for football to adopt. Nowt wrong with that particularly but I much prefer the local village's ceremony this morning. Far more intimate, far more relevant, far more touching.
I get the feeling that, to some extent, this "Football remembers" stuff is a bit of a gimmick.

Same here,I attended the one at a Trawden this morning as usual and found it really moving..

Disagree - with the scope & reach of the PL the more people that know about the armistice worldwide the better.

We need to keep it relevant & in knowledge at all times

evensteadiereddie wrote:I'd say probably within the last five years or so when it's become rather the trendy thing for football to adopt. Nowt wrong with that particularly but I much prefer the local village's ceremony this morning. Far more intimate, far more relevant, far more touching.
I get the feeling that, to some extent, this "Football remembers" stuff is a bit of a gimmick.

It’s a bit longer than five years but it’s not been that long ago that nothing was done. There was definitely one at Leicester in 2007, the day Steve Davis was manager. They brought the ball onto the pitch by helicopter.

Having tens of thousands of people respect the fallen is no bad thing IMO. Long may it continue.

claret2018 wrote:It’s absolutely ridiculous now. Did you see the walking poppy on the pitch yesterday? It’s like everyone’s trying to out-do each other.

Just another choreographed day now, like Bonfire night or halloween. The graves of the lads who died are there all year round, and there's always books in the library if you want to learn what happened to them. But nope, get a giant poppy mascot, paint a soldier on your wall and do some top #remembrance or you're ****.

karatekid wrote:Having tens of thousands of people respect the fallen is no bad thing IMO. Long may it continue.

Which they can do on Rememberance Sunday, and again today at 11. The amount of minutes silences at games now is ludicrous. What has football got to do with the war?

I had a minutes silence at the turf on sat, I went to remembrance day service for the 11 am silence (only day you'll see me in a church) and another minutes silence for the kids football.

I don't have a problem with any of this, and we should never forget, but they have to be really careful that they don't overdo it.

Some of the pics from football that I've seen over the weekend go way into the "overdoing" it.

claret2018 wrote:It’s absolutely ridiculous now. Did you see the walking poppy on the pitch yesterday? It’s like everyone’s trying to out-do each other.

That was at the Tranmere.

Embarrassing but at least nobody knew who he was
I felt more sorry for the guy that had to “escort” it onto the pitch

claret2018 wrote:Which they can do on Rememberance Sunday, and again today at 11. The amount of minutes silences at games now is ludicrous. What has football got to do with the war?

Just a heads up....Gary Linekers on TV tonight regards his Grandad and the war.....the Sunday remembrance service is suffice IMO and covers pretty much all angles of past conflicts.... the Veterans and the soldiers and widows of recent conflicts. Most Celebrity always want to be seen wearing the Biggest poppy and have the best story to tell. IMO of course

The whole Poppy thing has completely got out of hand. This year marks the tenth year that I have not worn mine. It makes me sad to do it, but the whole thing has been hijacked and turned into a virtue-signalling w*nk-fest by groups of people who should know better but can’t help themselves in riding vicariously on the efforts and sacrifices of others.
IMO Armistice Day should be a day of quiet and dignified reflection and respect. I long for a day when it returns to that.

Lord Beamish wrote:The whole Poppy thing has completely got out of hand. This year marks the tenth year that I have not worn mine. It makes me sad to do it, but the whole thing has been hijacked and turned into a virtue-signalling w*nk-fest by groups of people who should know better but can’t help themselves in riding vicariously on the efforts and sacrifices of others.
IMO Armistice Day should be a day of quiet and dignified reflection and respect. I long for a day when it returns to that.

Top post .
It's a bit like marching season over here in the North , just glad when it's all over .

tim_noone wrote:Just a heads up....Gary Linekers on TV tonight regards his Grandad and the war.....the Sunday remembrance service is suffice IMO and covers pretty much all angles of past conflicts.... the Veterans and the soldiers and widows of recent conflicts. Most Celebrity always want to be seen wearing the Biggest poppy and have the best story to tell. IMO of course

Its a program about how his grandfather and the little know Italian campaign.

Personally, I think its beyond disgusting that a program that highlights the sacrifices made by that generation in a forgotten campaign is being used by a poster in 2019 to attack his grandson, who is using his media profile to highlight it to a public who think WWII is either Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain or D-Day.

Course, if I'm reading it wrong then I'm more than willing to apologise.

Lancasterclaret wrote:Its a program about how his grandfather and the little know Italian campaign.

Personally, I think its beyond disgusting that a program that highlights the sacrifices made by that generation in a forgotten campaign is being used by a poster in 2019 to attack his grandson, who is using his media profile to highlight it to a public who think WWII is either Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain or D-Day.

Course, if I'm reading it wrong then I'm more than willing to apologise.

Think what you like....no personal attack.I find the veterans stories more poignant and touching.

tim_noone wrote:Think what you like....no personal attack.I find the veterans stories more poignant and touching.

What do you think this will be?

Match of the Day at Salerno?

The walking poppy mascot was way OTT and the height of poppy kitsch. Also, I now feel that Remembrance is being tarnished by those who wish to out do each other every year. Be it shops, businesses, pubs or football mascots. There seems to be a "We are considerably more patriotic than yow" about it and I say this as someone who comes from a family that lost people in both world wars.

To be honest, I find it disrespectful. I do buy and wear a poppy, but for the last couple of years, due to what I see as poppy commercialisation, I now only wear one on Remembrance Sunday and not before. For me, Remembrance is about respecting and reflecting on the sacrifice that others made for us and future generations and I hate seeing it being tarnished in this way.

Billy Balfour wrote:The walking poppy mascot was way OTT and the height of poppy kitsch. Also, I now feel that Remembrance is being tarnished by those who wish to out do each other every year. Be it shops, businesses, pubs or football mascots. There seems to be a "We are considerably more patriotic than yow" about it and I say this as someone who comes from a family who lost people in both world wars.

To be honest, I find it disrespectful. I do buy and wear a poppy, but for the last couple of years, due to what I see as poppy commercialisation, I now only wear one on Remembrance Sunday and not before. For me, Remembrance is about respecting and reflecting on the sacrifice that others made for us and future generations and I hate seeing it being tarnished in this way.

I'm offended ... For the posters who may be offended by this post.

claret2018 wrote:What has football got to do with the war?

Maybe the lads who went to and still go to war to defend our freedom and therefore the ability to
attend football matches when we so wish.

tim_noone wrote:Think what you like....no personal attack.I find the veterans stories more poignant and touching.

Not many of them left to tell the story though is there?

I'd rather a minutes silence for those who fought for our freedoms over 6 minute's applause each game.

A giant walking poppy is overdoing it, but I think we've consistently done ours in an appropriate fashion.

JohnDearyMe wrote:When did the tradition of holding a minutes silence at the game before Remembrance Day (often with soldiers present on the field) begin? Is it a relatively new phenomenon?

Pretty sure we had poppies on shirts back in 2009, so at least a decade. Hartlepool had a special kit designed this year - kind of ironically by Irish company O'Neill's, who also produced a range of tacky 1916 Rising shirts.

What has football got to do with the war?[/quote]......Its a bloody long list with some Burnley players in there

https://www.footballandthefirstworldwar ... world-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was in town this morning when the two minute silence was held. I was absolutely astonished that it was virtually ignored. A young couple stood next to me throughout but I think just about everyone else continued with what they were doing.

dales_claret wrote:What has football got to do with the war?

......Its a bloody long list with some Burnley players in there

https://www.footballandthefirstworldwar ... world-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[/quote]


Lots of factory workers gave their lives in service in the wars - do all factories hold a minutes silence before each working day in the week leading up to Remembrance Sunday?

I'm obviously not having a go at the idea of Remembrance Sunday, but football seems to be massively virtue signalling in this respect, to the detriment of the whole idea.

ClaretTony wrote:I was in town this morning when the two minute silence was held. I was absolutely astonished that it was virtually ignored. A young couple stood next to me throughout but I think just about everyone else continued with what they were doing.

Same thing happened in my work. Folk just went about their business. I pointed this out afterwards and many genuinely did not realise.

edison wrote:Same thing happened in my work. Folk just went about their business. I pointed this out afterwards and many genuinely did not realise.

We had an organised silence at our work, signalled by a short sound of the fire alarm. We were informed by email and a couple of minutes before our manager reminded us.

One of my colleagues spent the two minutes crunching her way through a bag of crisps.

What other public events - sporting, arts etc.. have a minutes silence before the start?

ClaretTony wrote:I was in town this morning when the two minute silence was held. I was absolutely astonished that it was virtually ignored. A young couple stood next to me throughout but I think just about everyone else continued with what they were doing.

You can't get likes and retweets in town Tony

Hipper wrote:What other public events - sporting, arts etc.. have a minutes silence before the start?

Snooker

gandhisflipflop wrote:You can't get likes and retweets in town Tony

???????

ClaretTony wrote:I was in town this morning when the two minute silence was held. I was absolutely astonished that it was virtually ignored. A young couple stood next to me throughout but I think just about everyone else continued with what they were doing.

This is what happens when things are overdone though.

With the silence at the match Saturday, remembrance Sunday yesterday I actually forgot myself that today was another remembrance day.

They may just have forgotten, overlooked it etc.

claret2018 wrote:Which they can do on Rememberance Sunday, and again today at 11. The amount of minutes silences at games now is ludicrous. What has football got to do with the war?

Not much to be honest...….

Agree with some of the sentiments.

And silences at football are asking for problems. Lots of West Ham (and Burnley fans) pre match drunk under the stand singing on Saturday. BUT as post above, there are that many it is hard to keep up.

But having said all that, there is nothing as moving as a completely silent stadium, observing a silence followed by the last post.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:This is what happens when things are overdone though.

With the silence at the match Saturday, remembrance Sunday yesterday I actually forgot myself that today was another remembrance day.

They may just have forgotten, overlooked it etc.

Easy to have forgotten about it but the signal was loud and clear enough. For me, today is the most important.

ClaretTony wrote:???????

I think gandhisflipflop means that for most people these days its getting recognition for showing respect (likes on Facebook; retweets etc) is more important than actually showing respect (observing an actual 2 minute silence today). Like others have said above everything appears to be one-up-manship these days and the actual 2 minute silence we used to observe has been diluted.

Hats of to you for standing quietly CT, I solemnly sat at my desk for the 2 minutes this morning.

Rick_Muller wrote:I think gandhisflipflop means that for most people these days its getting recognition for showing respect (likes on Facebook; retweets etc) is more important than actually showing respect (observing an actual 2 minute silence today). Like others have said above everything appears to be one-up-manship these days and the actual 2 minute silence we used to observe has been diluted.

Hats of to you for standing quietly CT, I solemnly sat at my desk for the 2 minutes this morning.

It went over my head when I saw the reply.

Maybe we should give up the meaningless Spring Bank Holiday in May and use it instead on 11th November each year. Armistice Day Bank Holiday.

Rick_Muller wrote:I think gandhisflipflop means that for most people these days its getting recognition for showing respect (likes on Facebook; retweets etc) is more important than actually showing respect (observing an actual 2 minute silence today). Like others have said above everything appears to be one-up-manship these days and the actual 2 minute silence we used to observe has been diluted.

Hats of to you for standing quietly CT, I solemnly sat at my desk for the 2 minutes this morning.

Yeah that's exactly what my post meant. It was a sarcastic was of saying the above. CT observed the 2 minutes as it should be observed, a quiet self reflection which should be enough, however we have now the 'i care more than you' brigade which becomes some sort of unofficial contest on social media. It's quite sad really

tim_noone wrote:Just a heads up....Gary Linekers on TV tonight regards his Grandad and the war.....the Sunday remembrance service is suffice IMO and covers pretty much all angles of past conflicts.... the Veterans and the soldiers and widows of recent conflicts. Most Celebrity always want to be seen wearing the Biggest poppy and have the best story to tell. IMO of course

Good programme, very informative and quite moving too. Well done Gary for highlighting the brutal Italian campaign.

karatekid wrote:Good programme, very informative and quite moving too. Well done Gary for highlighting the brutal Italian campaign.

It was well put together and covered exactly where my dad was in the war. He never talked about it, in spite of my two sons asking him what he did throughout almost 30 years and then, on Christmas Day 1997 he started to tell them what he did in North Africa and the advance through Italy. He was Royal Corps of Signals and was laying lines, often in front of the advancing troops. He told us tales of landing at Salerno and of the advance and battles at Monte Cassino and we were absolutely amazed at his tales. At 7 o'clock that evening he got into my car for the half mile journey home, had a massive stroke and ended up in a care home and never spoke another word in his life, which lasted another 4 years.

It was a couple of years later, when I became involved in voluntary work with SSAFA, that I realised that he had probably been suffering from PTSD for years, along with plenty of others and I regretted the way that I had spoken to him at times. I was totally ignorant of the symptoms!

If football chooses to mark Remembrance I definitely have no problem with this, however, it is very much a personal choice as to whether or not you want to observe it.

Ashingtonclaret46 wrote:It was well put together and covered exactly where my dad was in the war. He never talked about it, in spite of my two sons asking him what he did throughout almost 30 years and then, on Christmas Day 1997 he started to tell them what he did in North Africa and the advance through Italy. He was Royal Corps of Signals and was laying lines, often in front of the advancing troops. He told us tales of landing at Salerno and of the advance and battles at Monte Cassino and we were absolutely amazed at his tales. At 7 o'clock that evening he got into my car for the half mile journey home, had a massive stroke and ended up in a care home and never spoke another word in his life, which lasted another 4 years.

It was a couple of years later, when I became involved in voluntary work with SSAFA, that I realised that he had probably been suffering from PTSD for years, along with plenty of others and I regretted the way that I had spoken to him at times. I was totally ignorant of the symptoms!

If football chooses to mark Remembrance I definitely have no problem with this, however, it is very much a personal choice as to whether or not you want to observe it.

Bless him. Its as if he knew. And we all say and do things we shouldnt. No need to regret it I am sure he didnt notice never mind hold a grudge.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng ... SApp_Other" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In real terms some of us ,me and CT included, weren’t actually born that long after the war ended. So forgive us for giving a damn!
Trust those from near the Mersey to get it wrong but are we surprised they lack class?

I am passionate about the Poppy and think if you won’t wear the same shirt as your teammates then don’t play! I respect your opinion but that means not playing for the shirt then don’t play

Spike wrote:In real terms some of us ,me and CT included, weren’t actually born that long after the war ended. So forgive us for giving a damn!
Trust those from near the Mersey to get it wrong but are we surprised they lack class?

I am passionate about the Poppy and think if you won’t wear the same shirt as your teammates then don’t play! I respect your opinion but that means not playing for the shirt then don’t play

I was born about six and a half years after the end of the war. My dad fought in the war and my mum was in the army too. I wear a poppy by choice but I think it is ridiculous to suggest someone choosing not to wear one shouldn’t play. It’s choice and always will be choice.

There seems to be something very American about the overt displays of militarism at football.

It won’t be long before we’re saluting the flag before kick off and showing soldiers dressed in camo sat in the crowd on the big screen for everyone to clap.

What is wrong with being proud and thankful of the men and women who are prepared to stand up to aggressors on behalf of those who cannot?

If you want to see how it should be done take a look at the Australian Football League match played at the MCG every April 25th (Anzac day). A spine-tingling build-up, great respect displayed from the 100,000 crowd and a wonderful sporting experience.

One important aspect of Anzac day in that it's celebrated on the day, - not on a Sunday or nearest Saturday, but on April 25th.