Applause vs. Silence

[Frutos]

I know this gets brought up after every time we have one, but what are people's thoughts on the whole minute's applause/minute's silence thing?

Personally, although I can see the thinking behind the minute's applause, the silence is an infinitely better way of paying tribute to someone's life and achievements.

See, football grounds are, by nature, generally quite noisy places. If you take away every bit of that noise for one minute, then surely that's a far more powerful and poignant gesture than just having another minute of noise that just seems to blend into the time periods on either side of it?

 

[dougdeep]

I quite agree. And it makes my hands hurt.

 

[DTES]

I know this gets brought up after every time we have one, but what are people's thoughts on the whole minute's applause/minute's silence thing?

Personally, although I can see the thinking behind the minute's applause, the silence is an infinitely better way of paying tribute to someone's life and achievements.

See, football grounds are, by nature, generally quite noisy places. If you take away every bit of that noise for one minute, then surely that's a far more powerful and poignant gesture than just having another minute of noise that just seems to blend into the time periods on either side of it?

Agree 100%.

A minute's silence really is dedicated to the individual being remembered; a minute's applause is unthinking movement while everyone carries on chatting to their mates. It's irrelevant and meaningless. Bring back the silence.

 

[Dave the OAP]

also at least with silences, everybody respects it....with applause, everybody around us just started chatting away

 

[bhadeb]

I think the silence is better - maybe they went for applause yesterday as they thought the Leeds fans wouldn't respect the silence - will say for them though they did applause and that was good to see

 

[FalmerforAll!**]

I think it was down to the fact that Leeds were in the away end unfortunately.

 

[BensGrandad]

I prefer silence but it is too often spoilt by 1 idiot.

 

[Frutos]

I think it was down to the fact that Leeds were in the away end unfortunately.

Nah, we always seem to do applause rather than silence on these occasions these days, regardless of who we're playing.

 

[cjd]

I prefer minutes silence..........I thought the idea is to spend a minute thinking of the deceased. Not sure how this can be done with the racket from the applause..........or do people think the deceased can hear them.....?

If people must applaud.....I think 30 seconds is ample.

 

[Gritt23]

Silence is by far the more respectful, and more powerful act in a football ground. The applause for George Best was phenomenal because it was spontaneous, and seemed more fitting for him. It's a real shame that we have now adopted this generally, as a way of taking out the lowest of the low, being the person who finds it funny make noise during a silence. Surely society should be making that person realise the error of his judgement rather than just changing our actions to drown him out.

 

[Man of Harveys]

See, football grounds are, by nature, generally quite noisy places. If you take away every bit of that noise for one minute, then surely that's a far more powerful and poignant gesture than just having another minute of noise that just seems to blend into the time periods on either side of it?

Totally agree - I always thought the sight of all those people standing in silence to be very impressive. Plus everyone always seems to make a hell of a lot of noise immediately afterwards to make up for it. Bring 'em back.

And I never actually had a big problem with the odd pomposity-pricking remark during a minute's silence from a well-refreshed fella here and there: I remember at least one in the north stand at the Goldstone being punctuated by a loudly-expressed question of who had just farted for example.

 

[The Large One]

Nah, we always seem to do applause rather than silence on these occasions these days, regardless of who we're playing.

What I think he means is that if it were a minute's silence, you wouldn't have had a respectful minute from some Leeds fans. Anyone else - probably. Just not Leeds.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I disagree...

Why would leeds fans not respect a minutes silence? after all they all clapped along

 

[The Spanish]

a minutes applause is a f***ing disgrace pure and simple, and admission of the defeat of decency and a cowardly way out.

let people show themselves up or stand up to them. a minutes silence is for you to pay your respects and reflect quietly, not a coreographed display to pointlessly impress like some north korean rally. if it is impressive and emotional that is all very nice but its not the point of it.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I disagree...

Why would leeds fans not respect a minutes silence? after all they all clapped along

Quite. I thought the way that the entire away end joined in the minute's applause did the Leeds fans a great deal of credit

 

[desprateseagull]

silence is golden.

fans can cheer/clap any other time, during the match - if only to keep warm..

 

[Paxton Dazo]

Minute's applaud aren't nowhere near as respectful as minutes silence's. But on the other hand, not every stays quiet for minutes silence's.

 

[The Oldman]

Prefer silence. Applause seems as if we are all having a good time rather than thinking of the person.

 

[MORTY]

Quite. I thought the way that the entire away end joined in the minute's applause did the Leeds fans a great deal of credit

Some of them were booing to start with

 

[The Large One]

I disagree...

Why would leeds fans not respect a minutes silence? after all they all clapped along

I don't think for a moment that the minute's applause instead of a minute's silence was chosen for that reason (I was merely attempting to clarify my take on someone else's point), but Leeds don't exactly have an untarnished history when it comes to someone else's minute silences.

The vast majority of their fans, did, as you pointed out, respectfully applaud, but that's different from asking EVERYONE to remain silent.

As for a preference of silence over applause, I think it's about context. I think I'd usually go for silence, but in the case of someone like, say, Peter Ward or Norman Gall or Gordon Smith (when that day comes - some way off, of course), I'd prefer appreciative applause.