There was a football match recently in the football league, a competitive match between two teams only a few miles apart. There is no love lost between the respective fans, as is often the way in a (near) derby. The chairman of one of the teams had recently died, a tragedy their fans were reminded of during the match as the opposition fans chanted “where’s your chairman gone?”
Welcome to modern football.
But we are not all savages of course, happy to twist the knife and wind up the fans of the other side with the vilest, sickest song we can think of, to find their Achilles heel, the event in their history that will upset them most. But whilst a minority of fans use tragedy to abuse other fans, it often takes a tragedy to remind us what decent people we generally are, to remind us that football fans are a family, with a common bond, a common passion.
That Spurs fans (and Bolton fans too of course) acted with dignity during the horrific events on the White Hart Lane pitch on Saturday should not be something inspirational that deserves endless praise – they were acting how any decent human being should do. But we all know football fans don’t act that way sometimes, that normal men (and women, but mostly men) who have families, decent jobs, and a sunny disposition go to a football match and become possessed, become animals. So it is only fair after all that praise goes to the Spurs fans – it was a response from them that deserves to be acknowledged, and acts as a reminder to those that don’t follow the sport that grounds are filled with everyday people like you and I. Credit too apart from the brilliant actions of the medical staff must go to Howard Webb for his handling of the situation.
But as mentioned, bad news unites, crosses boundaries. The death of Gary Speed for example was a shocking event that resonated throughout every club, throughout every fan, even those that had never seen him play for their team, or manage their country. Horrible things happen outside football every day, some worse than we could imagine, and it passes by, but there is no need to feel guilty about feeling more when something horrific happens on or around the sporting field. The idea that our heroes, these supreme athletes, can be cut down in their prime is hard to accept. Hard to accept that these people with millions in the bank, successful careers, the adoration of millions and beautiful families could ever be anything other than perfectly happy.
Football is tribal, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Though as people pray for Muamba and celebrate the early signs of what is hopefully a miraculous recovery, soon we will return to our default settings. Slagging off opposing fans, teams and managers, defending our own. Perhaps there is too much hatred in the sport, but that’s the way it is. Muamba’s collapse did indeed put things into perspective, but football does still matter nevertheless. And things will only be put in perspective for a short while, before we all return to behaving how we did before – that is the way of the world. And it’s because football matters to us all so much that incidents like Muamba’s hit many so hard, more than similar incidents elsewhere. And if people want to pray for a stricken footballer, then fine. I am an atheist, but football is the closest thing to a church, it’s the only place I have ever said a prayer (usually for a much-needed goal).
Tragedy struck north of the border too, with Kilmarnock’s Liam Kelly’s tragic loss of his father, who suffered a heart attack at full time, the greatest day of the Kilmarnock players’ lives overshadowed by this horrible turn of events. But at the weekend comes the next Old Firm derby, and no doubt the “banter” will be as vociferous as ever. That’s not a dig, but just saying that nothing will ever change, as we all know. And football needs tribalism, as whilst it may stray over the line of decency on many an occasion, it also helps make the game as passionate as it is – it would be pretty boring if we all sat in our seats politely applauding everything that happened.
Football is always of huge importance, it brought Muamba away from civil war, it brought so many others away from poverty, it kept them out of prison, it provided for them and made many rich and it entertains us. So it’s nice to see the scarves of many clubs lain outside a ground as a sign of respect, it’s good to hear a crowd applause as one for someone, or stay quiet for the same reason, the silence almost deafening. It’s great that a bad thing happening to another teams player is of importance to us, is sufficient to make us reflect, if even for a day. And fans can get along, it’s not always a relationship based on hatred (though half and half scarves is pushing it). But we all move on, and when Chelsea visit the Etihad stadium this week, I’ll be booing John Terry (on the bench) and accusing David Luiz of diving just like I always would have done. God bless football.
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