Following Football is a Full-time Job

Following a football team can be the most exhilarating, emotional, enjoyable experience. Following a football team can also be one of the most frustrating, painful, and downright thankless tasks that anyone can undertake. Success or failure, happiness or heartbreak, the ups and the downs, following a football team requires blind faith, total commitment, and undeniable effort. Sometimes I wonder why on Earth I bother, and then something great happens, and it reaffirms my belief that following Liverpool is the greatest job on Earth.

Imagine sitting at home, in your favourite chair, with the football on the TV. You know there will only be two things going through your head: why can’t we play like this every week? Or, why can’t we play a bit more like we did last week? Well, they’re always the two things I think when I watch Liverpool play. No matter how we play, however, I will always try to watch or listen. I will always have an opinion on how we played, and I will always dwell on the result for a lot longer than is necessary. I hate situations where to listen to the football or seek the score is not appropriate, it leaves me anxious, an emotion I do not enjoy.

I am definitely guilty of waking up on a Monday morning still reeling from the weekend’s result, be it good or bad. I can 100% admit that a loss sets my week off with a bad mood, and a good result leaves me feeling happier and upbeat. Is that sad? Probably, many of my friends think so. Is that going to change? Not as long as I live. Nor should it, football stirs emotions.

Opinions and feelings on football are formed by the most ardent, and the most fair-weather fans. Be it from an armchair in Liverpool, a beach-side bar in Brisbane, or a favela in Rio de Janiero, Liverpool fans will seek access to their team in any way possible and join the fan community. Despite cultural differences and language barriers, the same feelings are felt and the same opinions are formed.

Traveling has changed the way I have consumed football, and I don’t like it. Time zones make watching football live a huge effort, almost impossible if the game is not an early kick-off, and having access to highlights and analysis is non-existent. I can no longer hear radio chats about players and performance, and I can’t share my opinions with my friends as easily. It is deeply frustrating, not helped by the teams current performance. The effort that it requires to follow the club is exponentially increased the further from the city I travel, which begs the question, why do people here bother?

I have been pondering this very question for weeks, well years I suppose. Ever since I heard the foreign voices on the Kop, and then researched foreign fans for my dissertation, I have wondered why they bother. Through all this time, I never thought about the effort that is undertaken to follow a team in England, Liverpool or otherwise. Football is shown in Asia with more frequency than it is in the UK, the access to all fixtures at any time is definitely a benefit to supporting Liverpool here (it’s just a shame that time zones mean staying up to watch them leads to regret in the morning.) Everything else is more difficult. Access to the internet, scores, and fan communities is much more limited and controlled. Access to authentic merchandise is virtually impossible, and the difference in language makes understanding the players, the local fans, and the club infinitely more difficult.

No access to authentic merchandise: OK, I’ll make my own, sell it to everyone who wants it, because hey, having a shirt that’s fake is better than having no shirt at all. Can’t understand the songs or the players: eh that’s alright, I’ll sing the songs out of tune, make up my own words when I can’t understand, and nod along knowing full well our players are the wisest and most talented. Oh, the

fixtures are on late? That’s no big deal, I’ll stay up late tonight and do something productive, you know, a little bit of building, and fixing the tire pressure on the spare bike. Fans out here just find a way. They make it seem so easy, when in fact, following a team on a different continent takes time and effort that they definitely could use more efficiently some place else.

The dedication to Liverpool, and to be fair other teams such as Manchester United makes my effort seem pathetic. I have always considered myself to be a die-hard fan, I have a tattoo representing my team, and I make every effort to attend as many games as I can and support the team at any opportunity. But it just does not compare. I support my team for many reasons, one definitely because they were my local club, where as here, supporting Liverpool is more like a full-time job. One that is completed alongside actual full-time employment.

My admiration for foreign fans has sky-rocketed out here, as has my anger towards those that criticise foreign fans. Try it sometime, follow Melbourne FC or FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok and see how much effort it is!

as IDed by Celebrity Fashion
quick weight loss OPPORTUNITIES FOR PAKISTAN IN AIR