So it is not actually the football that they dislike.
Football: the game, the sport, the whole concept, the matches, the profession, the business?
Which of those aspects are you referring to as 'football'?
No need to answer, as I'm ambivalent to football ( the profession, the business, the matches and the fans, but I quite enjoy playing the game, any sport really.) I don't know which particular aspect others dislike. I've never polled them.
I will for this discussion accept the (semantically incorrect) general usage of 'phobia'.
OK. But I don't accept that accept that it's semantically incorrect. If it's in general use, then it is what it is.
Again, dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive.
, but that religionophobia must include islamophobia.
As it would include Christianophobia, or Catholicophobia, or Judaismophobia.
But as religionophobia, Christianophobia, Catholicophobia and Judaismophobia don't exist as words, it's a hypothetical and pointless discussion.
Not to disguise, as such, but I would think the words are (mis)used intentionally to confuse people because when words are misused it is unclear what is actually meant.
You mean like, as an example, "it is not actually the football that they dislike"?
I always thought that was ambiguity, not being clear about the meaning of the sentence.
Either that or it is the case that people of influence in the media are not actually intelligent enough to know what the words mean nor, therefore, do their job properly.
So you think that people in the media are either, a) intentionally misusing words to confuse the population, or b) don't know the meaning of words, or c) not doing their job properly, or d) trying to change the meaning of words?