To Put It Mildly

Many of my friends are football (soccer) fans. They take their allegiances very seriously.

A few support one of the two Milan giants (usually Inter, not AC), and most have a soft spot for either Real Madrid or Barcelona, but the vast majority are die-hard fans of English Premier League clubs. Not all the clubs, mind you– Man U claims the most, followed by Chelsea and Arsenal, with a Liverpool supporter here and there. Perhaps there’s some respect for Villa and Newcastle. But that’s it. That’s the domain from which clubs to allegiate with are chosen.

The Indian “football clubs”– Mahindra United, Dempo, Mohun Bagun, East Bengal (viz. Pakistan/Bangladesh, but nobody gets that) are mere novelties, trifles to read about in the newspaper.*

As for myself, I find the proclaimed loyalties to clubs thousands of miles away quite hilarious. These guys refer to their club as “we/us”. As in, “Haha– we beat you yesterday.” “Yeah, but we’re getting Lars Ulrich on a transfer next month– then we’ll beat you hollow.”

My loyalties are very fickle, personally. I go more for the person than the team– I loved the Phoenix Suns, but only for Jason Kidd. I thought Thierry Henry had a cool name, so I was an Arsenal “supporter” in college, but not now that he’s left. I think the LA Lakers will crash and burn spectacularly once Kobe retires, and I’ll stop supporting them then.

I lived in the UK briefly as a kid, and going to school there, I couldn’t but have a favourite football team. (I even had a full-size ball, studs, and shinguards. Sigh.) My team was Crystal Palace. Heard of them? I think they were relegated a decade or two ago, then made a brief return to the First Division, and then went down once more. I supported Crystal Palace because everyone else in my school supported Crystal Palace.

When we shifted locations (once a year, usually), and I moved to a new school, the kids crowded around and asked me which club I supported. (None of that racism crap back then– I talked like them, so it was fine.) “Crystal Palace,” said I, and the rumour ran around the playground. “Where’s Jack? Call Jack G__.”

They found me the ONE boy in that school who also supported Crystal Palace. He was thrilled to meet a fellow fan, but little did he know I would shortly convert myself to better fit in with the rest, and become one more Manchester United supporter. It was the year Ryan Giggs first burst onto the scene, and he was all the rage, with his scraggly black curls. Giggs is now a Man U doyen/stalwart/old man, and every time I see him play I feel a bit old.

The point of all this, of course, has been to tell you that the one team I DO support, unequivocally, completely, madly– the group that taught me the meaning of a fan’s passion, has released their tenth studio album!

… and it doesn’t suck, like I was afraid it would!

I’m so happy!

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* The present coach of the Indian national football team, some poor Briton, went on record a couple of days ago railing against the state of sports administration in this country. It’s impossible to get anything done here, said he, and you can bring in a Guus Hiddink or a Jose Mourinho and the Indian side will still languish in oblivion until they’re given some facilities. He was speaking at the occasion of the departure of the national squad to go and train in Dubai, because of the lack of ONE single world-class football stadium to train in in the whole of India. How do you expect to play World Cup qualifiers against Korea and Japan, said he. Sigh. It’s so pathetic.