Sup"porter"

Well, enough has been said about the footballing world. The players, the managers, the clubs, UEFA, FIFA et all... It's time to talk about the more important contributors to the sport - The supporters.

Warning : This might NOT please many people...

Undoubtedly, the supporters of a football club/country are the most important ingredients to making football what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow. We all know that. But this post is not about that.

A decade ago, not many people I knew, even considered Chelsea as their club to support, to watch, to pay to watch.Then, Mr. Abramovic arrived and shortly thereafter, Mr. Mourinho arrived. Needless to say, many good players arrived and not surprisingly, Chelsea started winning titles(NOT by playing the best football at most times). Suddenly, there were a whole barrage of people supporting Chelsea. People who knew zilch about football were supporting Chelsea left, right and center. People even switched their support from their own club to Chelsea. Is this what you call a "Die-Hard" supporter? Is not a supporter responsible to support a club through the best and worst of times?

I am not saying, people should not watch the football, admire it etc. Hey I am a Liverpool fan and I admire the way Manchester United play at times(Again, I am a football fan first, then a Liverpool fan). But never in a million years would I "yap" about the football United play oreven think of being an United fan.

These people are definitely contributors to the football world (what with the merchandise, tickets et all). But are such people really good for the world watching football? More importantly, are such people really needed for the watching world?

You may be intrigued by the timing of this post, but, it might just be the right timing after all. What with the Manchester City explosion going on.

P.S. I hope you get the subtle pun in the title.

Being a fan of football in India

Here’s the context: India with a population of 1.1 billion people from various backgrounds and cultures, can consider itself to be competitive in the world stage on a regular basis in only one sport: Cricket! Over the last 60 odd years, Indian sport apart from cricket has seen a few highs: The hockey era, brief flashes of brilliance in tennis, some great athletes, a gold medal in Olympics (:P); but ask any Indian to name the sporting moment that he considers the greatest in Indian history, and inevitably the answer would be the 1983 victory in the Cricket world cup.

Cricket dominates Indian sport with its glamour and money so much that almost every Indian school child dreams of playing for the national team. Almost all the other sports are ignored or are considered not worthwhile to pursue. So where does someone like me fit in, in such an environment? For starters, I have been watching football since 1998 and have been a fan of Manchester United ever since. Why Manchester United? Well, they were the only team playing on TV at the time, they were winning all the time, and they wore a classy red!

Mind you, I still loved watching cricket and dreamt, like any other boy in India, that with a bat in my hand, I could weave the magic that Sachin and Sourav did. But there were a few problems – I had as much chance of succeeding on the cricket pitch as Liverpool have of winning the Premier League (which is probably an odds of 100:1; bring it on, you Scouse Bas****s!). Secondly, my father regularly advised me not to watch cricket as it was a huge waste of time: wise words which I understood and followed only years later. Seriously, what a momentous waste of time to watch a sport that people play all day or for 5 days continuously!

Anyway, before I begin to get pilloried by cricket fans, let me get back to the point! The above mentioned were the reasons for me beginning to watch football regularly, sometimes sneaking up to the TV at home way past my bed time to watch the 1998 world cup. (I was caught doing it eventually and didn’t watch the final, and was really disappointed at the events that took place around Ronaldo and how Brazil lost out to France). I even began to start playing football at school with hardly 5% of the class interested in the game, my usual position being, of course the Goal Keeper owing to my slightly rotund frame back then.

These events were the origin of the football fan in me, and how the passion for watching football and Manchester United grew in me. I celebrated along with millions of other fans the Treble of 1999, numerous league victories over the years, great signings like van the Man. I was plunged into sorrow at cup exits, a four year barren period in the Premiership, the departure of greats like Keano and Beckham from the club. More importantly, I had great fun arguing and criticizing Man Utd’s Rivals and their fans.

Now, compare me with a fan from England or Spain or Italy or one of the numerous nations that have efficient football setups in the country. More often than not, you find the people from these places supporting their local clubs, be it Manchester United, Liverpool, Leeds or Northampton! There are fans who are very passionate in supporting their clubs even if they are facing relegation from the Third division of the country! This, I am certain, would never happen to fans like me as we have no kind of exposure to these clubs and no way to follow their exploits regularly. I can say with full confidence that a football fan from India, who supports a European club, would be a fan of only if that club was highly successful in the past or when he started supporting the club.

Take a survey of fans in India who support an English Club: 99% of them would answer that they support Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United, that too only in the televised era. Frankly, how many Manchester United fans know that Leeds is one of United’s greatest rivals and United hates Liverpool much more than Arsenal or Chelsea!

Probably, if Manchester City manages to turn its new found fortunes to trophies in the coming year or two, we will have a new band of City fans joining the Elite 4.

Such a phenomenon again raises the question: Are fans in India and countries other than the home country not ‘True Fans’? Do those so called ‘True Fans’ have the right to criticize fans like us as many of us are part of the ‘Glory Hunters’ party?

Say what you want, but the clubs still love us! Real Madrid, United, Arsenal and Chelsea cannot be among the richest clubs in the world without fans like us. It is we who bring in the Moolah through their T shirt sales and TV rights, and most importantly, improve the Global image for the club! The debate will always go on about the so called ‘True fan’ but whatever they say, they cannot question our passion! Take the case of one particular Chelsea fan I know who knows everything about the club from the wages of its top players to the pre-season scorelines of the club’s under-15 team. This is the same guy who one assaulted and nearly murdered me when we argued over which match we should watch on the tell, the Man Utd one or the Chelsea one J. If I ever met a fanatic to match the ones in London, this was the guy!

We all love Football, and we are TRUE FANS in every manner of the word!