One woman’s journey
into a man’s weekly ritual only to discover
Leicester’s Foxes shows the way to her
patriotism.
On a Saturday evening, the men in my house disappear. After many years of this happening,
curiosity got the better of me and I decided to persuade them to let me join in
their enthusiasm.
Picture the scene, a group of men, all eyes centered on the
big screen. A live coverage of a football game is on. The
location could be in a friend’s living room, a pub, or a bar but they are all
enraptured and huddled around the screen, the table strewn with half empty
bottles of beer, crisps, nuts. All of a
sudden, the group get up in unison from the couch, or the bar stool and at the
top of their lungs, yell, scream shout for joy.
Someone has scored a goal.
Admonished and reprimanded for my intrusion and shouted
down, “Its not just “someone”, its
Man U v Man City, and Man U just scored in the last 2 minutes of the
game….shhhh” Indulging in the excitement and enjoyment of a soccer
enthusiast is to understand the true essence of their code of ethics, and at
the top of the list is Club Loyalty. These group of men were Man U supporters. The
excitement is electrifying even for a non football fan.
This is
where men do their bonding. They share
their beer and football stories. They
talk about charismatic players like Wayne Rooney, who gets sent off a lot for
fouling and hard tackling. Movie star
looks like Beckham whose amazing talent seems to go on endlessly. They talk of the betrayal of Tevez who
switched from United to City. How City
mocked United by erecting a billboard with Tevez’s picture that said “Welcome
to Manchester”. Or how both United and
City fought hard to get Robin van Persie
from Arsenal. And in the end Van Persie chose
United.
Amazingly,
these rivalries or spirited nature, spill into Thailand, as soccer is a sport most
Thai men are very passionate about. These
men range from Taxi drivers to college students to office managers who wear
their Red Shirts with pride, boo City fans in their Blue shirts, put team
stickers on their cars, can describe on just about every goal within the season.
This is
not a recent phenomena. The original
Thai soccer fans were back in the eighties.
At this time Liverpool were supreme.
Ask any taxi driver from that era and he can tell you the names of that
great Liverpool side. Although there are
other leagues in Europe such as La Liga (Spain) and Serie A (Italy) it is the
English Premier League teams which are supported by Thais. It is simply the best and on any given
Saturday, True TV show around six games live.
This allows the supporters of Clubs other than the top four to enjoy
their Saturday night at the pubs and clubs.
Teams like Newcastle United and Spurs all have lots of supporters.
The
girlfriends and wives really have no
choice but to join in and enjoy the spectacle.
But please don’t expect us to shout abuse at the referees or gloat over
their friends who may be on the losing side.
Ladies, after all, must show decorum and dignity. I now realize football
teams are cunning and crafty and the fun is not necessary on the pitch but reveling
in big Sponsor challenging stunts. For
example, last year Arsenal played City at City’s Ethihad stadium. To show their
rivalry and superiority City planned to do a fly over the Ethihad stadium but
due to bad Manchester weather, this was not possible. Arsenal’s sponsors, Emirates heaved a sigh of
relief.
The men disdainfully asked what team I
supported knowing full well of my two hour initiation into the game. With a
little help from few patient souls, my strong Thai patriotism took hold and
although not in the Premier league, Leicester City at King Power Stadium in the
Championship League is where I put my heart.
Nigel Person, having managed Hull City before, now heads the team and
they have my full support to scream and shout for them to get into the Premier
League wearing my blue and whites.
