Tottenham v Crystal Palace: Premier League – live
Follow latest updates from 8pm (GMT) kick-off
Get in touch with Daniel via email
Email! “As a Motherwell fan I have some sympathy with the idea of trying to force teams to play football rather than just kick the opponent into the air (mind you, as an agricultural centre-back I am opposed to it, there’s yer paradox),” begins James Humphries. “But, like: of course football is consensual? It’s a whole bunch of people who, at least notionally, have agreed to be at place x, time y, under rules z.
If someone’s not consenting to playing football, then either they’re being forced to take part in a generally consensual institution (see also: standard views of the democratic state), or they’re just in a spectacularly weird thought-experiment with a bunch of people who are playing football!
