Posts
 |
| I respect you and pity you in equal measure |
Of course, this is not some sort of attack on anyone who does support a football club. I have a lot of respect for anyone who follows their team every season, without fail, be it home and away, or just home games, or the much-maligned ‘armchair fan’. For what it’s worth – just because you are in attendance at more games doesn’t make you a better fan, but that’s another argument altogether.
I
have the utmost respect – and possibly pity – for anyone who pays mass sums of
money to go and see their team every or most week(s), whether they be a fan of
non-league football or Premier League football; it doesn’t matter, it’s
incredible dedication and loyalty (which is then exploited by the football club
– again, another argument altogether).
It’s
the money that is the biggest issue for me, and many fans too. I used to
‘support’ a football club but, as prices soared, I just couldn’t afford it
anymore. Admittedly, this was a top Premier League club, so I could just go to
see my local side, who are much further down the football pyramid and would
therefore hold cheaper ticket prices, right?
Well,
not exactly, unless you class £16 for a League 2 game as ‘cheap’, which I
don’t. The club will say it’s all relative, both in comparison with other
football clubs and other entertainment industries (football is seen as a day
out, after all). That doesn’t make it right – ‘they do it so we’ll do it too’ –
but football clubs are businesses now. I understand that, but I don’t accept
it, and I’m not paying sixteen pounds for a game of football that will
inevitably be dire and to watch a team who are, quite frankly, piss-poor – and
who will be playing in the Blue Square Premier next season (this isn’t my fault,
I hasten to add).
Football
fan culture is always something that has mystified me. The partisan nature, the
tinted-spectacles, the tribalism – I just can’t comprehend it. Yes, I have some
blinkered views – I can’t stand Cristiano Ronaldo and therefore he will never
be as good as Lionel Messi – but I just can’t understand the pure hatred that
some fans feel for other fans and clubs.
Kids
who grow up in Manchester United-supporting households will automatically hate
Liverpool and the ‘other side’ of Manchester. Those kids don’t actually know why they hate Liverpool, they just do. I
understand it so some extent because, yes, football would be quite boring
without the rivalry. But I just can’t understand the hatred
that some feel for others and I can’t stand the bias views from the majority of
fans.
Obviously,
there are teams that I enjoy to watch and would happily pay for the odd match
throughout a season. I suppose, in a very loose sense, I am a ‘fan’ of Owen
Coyle’s Bolton because they, in one game of football, can encapsulate both
styles of the sport – the intricate but penetrating passing style and the long
hoof up field. Last season, like many others, I enjoyed watching Napoli in
Serie A, and Borrussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, for different reasons.
In
September I’ll be moving to Sunderland to go to university up there and,
hopefully, I’ll be plodding along to the Stadium of Light. I might even trek
across to Newcastle and see the Magpies in action. As the prices will probably
be obscene, I’ll go to watch some youth or reserve team football. I’m sure I’ll
love it.
But
the point is, I just don’t feel like I really support a football club anymore.
I don’t know whether it’s because I’m now watching a lot more football and so
come across more teams that I like or just because I’m becoming slightly
disillusioned with the game as a whole. For whatever reason, the attachment
that was once there just isn’t anymore.
So
who did I ‘support’ in the first place? Manchester United. Why did I support
them? Because they were on television when I was younger and I liked how they
played, and everyone else supported them. Does that make me a ‘glory
supporter’? Probably.
But
now I’m not really a supporter at all – I’m just a fan of football. And I kind
of like it...
