I thought i would share this from FourFourTwo magazine as it gave me a laugh and got me thinking. enjoy!
Are football fans utter masochists?
It's a question worth asking. After all,unlike buying a ticket to any other occasion, the price of passing through a turnstile guarantees only one thing: admittance. Not pleasure. Not satisfaction. And very often quite the opposite. Cat kicking-misery. Artery-endangering anger.
Imagine you purchased a couple of seats for the English National Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. But instead of dazzling you with their graceful athleticism, the corps de ballet sit around smoking fags, while the prima ballerina performs a half arsed version of the hokey cokey. You'd be fuming.
Yet football supporters accept this kind of insult every week, turning the other cheek like terrace Christians and returning the following Saturday for another kick in the swingers.
The default setting of virtually every supporter is always doom: basic mathamatics decrees it. Only a few teams each season can enjoy cup or league-winning magic, or play-off glory.
What makes you support your team and the inevitable misery that comes with it?. I really don't know what keeps me going back to Palmerston. Maybe its a feeling of obligation, or maybe i don't want to miss that one game we win 6-0.
Often it's the team you grew up with (or I think it should be!), like in my husband's case. He's been so miserable at times (when things go seriously pear shaped), and often wishes he could take football less seriously. There are happy moments, too, maybe once a year?
I can't quite understand it, as I've never been that keen on any team. Neither the fact that Finland is never in the big football finals, nor that Finland is the World Champion in ice hockey moves me very much. I sort of support the local football team and a northern ice hockey team, but I couldn't even list the players… I lose my sleep over other things than sport.
Mili, you are so right, you have no idea how much it gets on my tits that people from all over Scotland who have their own local team, still support Rangers or Celtic.
