You probably don't watch it either.

The truth is, soccer, or football as it is known around here is actually quite a violent sport.

Soccer is a contact sport, there's just no getting around that fact. Perhaps you have played the sport for fun, in kickabouts in your youth and most possibly in a hdb void deck. But really, its a horrible violent game.

At the top level of the game, especially in the commercially dominant English premier league, a player is not just judged by his skill, stamina, and speed with or without the ball, but also crucially by his strength.

What exactly is strength? Exactly what it is. Strength is an aspect crucial in sport. Whether you are pushing someone else as you race for the ball, jumping for a header, or running at him or her in an attempt to tackle.

It is common to see footballers, pushing each other in attempts to get the ball and pulling each other shirts, almost as common as nimble players darting around the pitch.

But these are against the rules you say, surely shirt pulling and pushing is not allowed, yet it is allowed in the English Premier League. Fine, but football has yet another ugly side.

Tackling. Its actually a horrific affair. Naturally the stories of football players having to be stitched up and even breaking legs after receiving errant tackles are well known. But the truth is, a tackle is considered not a foul, no matter how violent, as long as the defender touches the ball first.

Now consider the implications, in the case of a tackle, it may consist of a kick, and a rather violent kick in an attempt to take the ball away. After hitting the ball, it would be unreasonable to assume that the defender can stop his foot instantaneously, its not possible all of time, should his foot hit or clatter violently against the attackers leg in the completion of the tackle, it is not a foul. Too bad for the attacker, it is essentially a kick, but legal.

Next, consider the spectacular defensive move, the sliding tackle. A defender throws himself off his feet to dispossess the attacker. Even if he times it "correctly" hitting the ball away, he may go on to fell the attacker and hit him with the full force of the tackle.

Naturally someone throwing himself off his feet and hitting you feet-first is going to hurt and cause some damage. But it is allowed in the game. Such violence is allowed. Its a contact sport, and a terribly violent one at that.

Urgh, I have no clue why I typed all of that so formally.

My legs hurt so much now. Kudos to you if you actually bothered to read it.

(;