ABSTRACT
Football, for ‘real’ fans, matters a great deal. As a proportion, more boys than girls tend to follow and/or play football with fanatical passion. Boys are greatly influenced by the culture of the professional game. It is a shame that this culture carries aspects which are corrosive to the idea of gentle masculinity. For instance, the expression ‘professional foul’ is a euphemism for ‘cheating’. Talking with boys about how the professional game is played can help lessen its negative effect on their relational cultures. Breaktime football can be a ‘pinch-point’ for angry behaviour and schools should work hard with boys to enable them to play breaktime football successfully.
