Worshipping Football
I’m a massive football (soccer) fan so understandably I watched with great interest in today’s exploits as the start of the new season kicked off.
Between watching Roy Keane’s Sunderland at 12.45pm then, onto Bolton v Newcastle at 3pm closely followed by, my main event Aston Villa v (The Mighty) Liverpool at 5.15pm it is a feast of football the results of which will determine my mood for the rest of the weekend.
As I write this my mood is on the verge of fantastic, Liverpool won 2-1 thanks to a great free kick by Steven Gerrard. The whole experience got me thinking about how we worship those that take part in the ‘beautiful game’ and it made me question whether the reaction was of a religious nature.
We do indeed treat mere mortals as gods in this regard and with this adulation comes an emotional rollercoaster not possibly seen since the heady days of Dublin’s great GAA football teams of the 1970’s…ok maybe that was a bit strong but you get my point.
People in Ireland have always had to worship from afar. As much as Irish football has had its great eras; it has always been the English League that has been revelled in. Many from this country travel on a over priced packaged weekend to salute the starting XI who take to the field and know that no matter what they will be paid more in a week then most watching them will earn in a year.
It’s an experience, to call up to 70,000 people singing along to the same song anything else would be a crime. In the days before the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, throngs of people filled the terraces up to two hours before the match and with that came a sense of comradery; where people came for the same reason…to give thanks and praise to their team that take the field every week.
This has slightly changed as the necessary change to all-seater stadiums has resulted in a different type of fan; one who shows up ten minutes before the match starts and leaves ten minutes before the end to avoid the traffic. However with the majority of the crowd the original beliefs are still there.
Supporters will tell you that at almost every match deals with God are brokered. ‘Just let us win/draw this week and I promise I’ll go to mass tomorrow etc’. I have always liked to believe that God is a Liverpool fan but I know better. If it is the God I believe in, he won’t take sides, he will consider all opinions.
Saturday, August 11th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.
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