The World Cup 2010, set to start in less than three weeks time, has rapidly climbed up the TellYouGov leaderboard to sixth place on volume, and is one of only two topics which is not explicitly political.
The World Cup’s volume score has risen to 139 in the past 24 hours, level with the latest sting victim, and unwilling centre of media attention, Sarah Ferguson. However, the topic’s score stands below zero at -46, suggesting that most people commenting on TellYouGov are less than happy in the run up to the competition.
Of course, some are looking forward to the global competition with that familiar blend of impatience and excitement which comes around but once every four years. Almost half of the positive ‘tygs’ about the World Cup say they ‘can’t wait’ for the competition to begin. Others were riled into commenting by anti-World Cup sentiment, which, by TellYouGov’s measure, seems to be in plentiful supply. One user, or ‘tygger’ said ‘indeed, there's more to life than stupid men just kicking a ball around ...there's more to life, a World Cup for example’.
But not everyone is looking forward to the month of intense football the World Cup brings. Some are concerned that expectations are so high that grave disappointment is very likely – ‘England expects too much’ said one.
Another tygger is concerned about the fans that football can sometimes attract: ‘The BNP [British National Party, headed by Nick Griffin] mob are out in full force with those St. George’s flags already, [how] depressing’.
However, the most common complaint is that, like it or not, football will dominate the media for a month. One tygger laments that there will be ‘too much coverage’, and another complains that ‘there is football news everywhere and it's not even started’.
It seems that, whether it’s with rising jubilation, escalating boredom or mounting fear, we shall all be counting down the remaining three weeks until the World Cup starts.
Have your say: The TellYouGov keyword for this topic is 'World Cup 2010'
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