NO! If your wondering. The sport I'm  referring to should actually also have gentlemen in the row, that being because any rugger fan can immediately see what I'm going for. The fact is that a lot of people I know are real football fans. They love the sport and do know how to keep it socially acceptable. The thing is, if you take a look at the two sports you'll see that one of the two has hooligans and the other has gentlemen.

Now just to calm all the football fans out there I'll state that football is a good sport and don't start off without finishing this piece first. After that matter stated I would also like to state that I'm referring to the small group that is F-ing up the game for the rest of you. "Da Hooligan" or better stated the people who misuse football to fight. None the less it's still something that mostly happens in football. The occasional rugby fight is usually because someone found his wifes lover than his team losing. Even above that if 2 people would fight at a rugby match most wouldn't know if they're from rival teams and they would try to get them to quit and kick them out of the stadium in one go. So fighting is actually something that is saved for the field in rugby. The rivals have a mutual understanding that this is something played out on the field and whatever the outcome, so be it. And sore losers usually end up saying that they'll get revenge in a rematch.

Now over to football. The fights are usually saved for the hooligans. And this being one big frustration for the fans of the sport. These fights lead to police escorts during big matches. Strict checks when entering stadiums and not to mention the amount of negative media attention this all brings to top off the frustration and irritation. The whole game is at a standstill when a player shows how well he can dive to the ground when he can fake it. We all know it happens and most people hate it. And even if it's a real fall and the player is shipped off the field, the team usually ends up telling the ref what he should do, unlike the "Sir" status a ref has in rugby. Not to mention that the occasional kung-fu kick that a ref needs in some country's is a never seen phenomenon in rugby. And if this doesn't top it all off. let me state a simple question. Which would you do? Be a barkeep at a football match or a rugby match(international)?

If the fear factor doesn't count for you let the fact that you won't see the match during football count. Yes, at a lot of high ranking football matches alcohol consumption is illegal within view of the pitch. Drunken football fans are usually avoided, because they might actually be drunken football hooligans. Now a rugby match is missed once in a while, because someone needs a refill. Most rugger fans can imagine a whole match coming to a standstill, because they need new beer in the bars. The biggest problem most barkeeps have at a ruby match is to get enough beer in the case of players entering their bar. Those guys are huge enough to empty a few kegs.

And if we go over to the fact that football has a larger fan base than rugby. I think most rugby fans are happy about this. If a footballer quits he has to leave in the middle of the night to get minimum coverage or else he might get overrun. The behavior is as if they're boy bands, but lets leave that for the real rockers. If a rugby player switches it's a mutual agreement between teams. The fans might not agree, but this is never overstated. Mostly you'll hear something like thats a shame or too bad. In the end of all this I think that no one should ever underestimate Monty Python after he said "No one ever expects a rugby riot." In the end of it all I doubt anyone who isn't a rugby fan could ever understand the under grabs during a scrum or drinking one with your biggest rival. Lets never forget that if you think about rugby, it's a working mans game and lets hope football might reach that status once again.

Here's a nice little compilation for the fans.
Rugby vs. Football(English) [link]
Rugby vs. Football(American) [link]