It's only a game

As the great Bill Shankly once said “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that”. Even as a Man Utd fan I still respect what Shankly did as a manager, however sadly he was wrong. Football is just a game.

I love football as much as the next person and during pre season I feel like my life is empty. I’ve been a mascot for Port Vale and shed tears over United; I love the banter that happens in football. I loved it when Roy Carroll dropped the ball against Tottenham and was so far in the net even the fishermen of England felt the ball. I argued that it never crossed the line even though I know it did, winding people up and singing “we’ll do what we want”. However I take it as much as I give it and being a United fan from Stoke, believe me I get it. So why do I think Shankly was wrong?

It is only a game, I still go work on Monday as do the majority of football fans because football is a working class sport. We live for Saturdays whether we’re playing or watching but nothing winds me up more than when I hear songs about the Munich air disaster, that really makes my blood boil. There’s simply no need what so ever. 

On that terrible day in 1958 there were no Man Utd players on that plane, there were no Man City fans there were simply human beings who had all come together for the beautiful game. Twenty three people died that day including the ex Man City goalkeeper Frank Swift. Do these sick idiots who sing the songs at United fans realise that? There were a total of 10 people who weren’t affiliated with the club who died that day, again a stat that always gets lost.

Another example of why the football is only a game is the tragedy of Hillsborough. On that sad day in 1989, there was 96 Liverpool supporters killed, there were 96 people who supported Liverpool, they were people first, Liverpool supporters second. I’ve loved the last few season watching Liverpool struggle, they are our old enemy but I would never dream of making any sort of jokes or chants regarding what happened on that day. Innocent people died that day and hope that one day there will be justice for the 96!

Racism is another reason, I can never understand how “supporters” can cheer foreign players one week then shout racial abuse at them the minute they put a national shirt on. I’d love to know how the human mind works because this baffles me, we all bleed red blood regardless of our colour, and personally the minute we kick racism out the better.

At the end of the day nobody should hear chants about disasters or racism. These players and fans are human beings and the minute people recognise this, the game will become even more beautiful.

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Supporting your local team

Support your local team! That’s all I ever hear. It seems to have become a fashionable jibe as witless football fans look at ways to attempt “banter” with football fans that don’t support the team of their city.

However as the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. There are reasons why people support the team that they do. I personally support Man Utd and I’m from Stoke-on-Trent. Why? Is the question I’ve always been asked. Simply because my uncle did and he influenced me at a young age.  I have no idea why he supported them but what we have to remember is that kids are impressionable!

Glory hunter, the biggest thing I hear and if I’m honest it’s the one dig that does get under my skin a little. I have supported Man Utd since I was around 5 and during this time Liverpool were dominant. I was 11 when United won their first Premier League title.

But what exactly does “support your local team” actually mean. I played for a Saturday football team for 8 years which was ran less than 1 mile from my front door. Does that not mean I support my local team more than others?

Taking Stoke-on-Trent as a classic example, there are only 2 professional football teams in the 17^th largest city in the UK. One now sells out weekly and the other struggles to get 5000 fans. As my other blog stated what an amazing job Pulis has done it’s no coincidence that Stoke’s ground now sells out every week. However it was only 5 years ago that they struggled to get 15 000, which always leads me to the dig, “did you buy your Stoke shirt before they got promoted or after?” So where have the other 12 000 “supporters” come from? I personally have no answer to this question!! Maybe they’ve done the wrong thing and switched across the city from Vale Park to the Brit.

But what about the others? Kidsgrove Athletic are a semi professional football team from Stoke. I found it interesting to read that in 2001 Kidsgrove had a population of 24 112. For arguments sakes let say that 70% of this town don’t like football or are too young to go. That means there are 7233 Kidsgrove fans available. However in the 2009/2010 season Kidsgrove had an average attendance of just 157!! So where exactly are the other 7076 football fans! They probably support another team. However it is these hypocritical fans that are to blame for killing grass roots football. There is nothing wrong in supporting Stoke, Man Utd, Port Vale, Liverpool etc but most people can’t get to their teams games, or if they do attend their home games can’t get to away games, so why not get down to Kidsgroves ground and get behind your “local” team!

Before everyone jumps on my back, I still continue to play Saturday football and when I’m free I try to attend Port Vale games as I can’t afford to go to Manchester . You can also find me around other Staffordshire County Senior League grounds watching and getting behind grass roots football.

This for me is evidence alone that people are hypocrites and do not support their local team, even ones that claim that they do! At the end of the day we all love and support the team we do; does it really matter why we support that team? I think not. In my honest opinion I think we should support who we do whatever the reason and get behind our grass roots team!

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