Without wishing to stick my oar in....
I'd agree with the approach you're taking with the General. Some of it has gotten daft, and as a regular, I'm sure I'm at least as much to blame as anyone.
But I'd hope the purge extends to the football forums. You lot do a great job in there, but in terms of getting rid of things that do the site no favours, there seems to be a habit among quite a few posters to persistently post shite, and then spend days on end attritionally arguing the toss until they and whoever they are left arguing with are the only ones who have the will tom post in the thread.
One example is the constant bringing of Berbatov into every argument by certain posters, regardless of what the argument's about, to the point where we can't have a reasonable discussion in there. IMHO a lot of that comes down to the newbies, and perhaps a firmer approach might bring them along a bit quicker.
Just my two cents worth, I'm not trying to step on any toes.
Spoony has given them a name in the mod forum: Agenda Posters. They're the worst posters on here.