Football Is Not 'Just A Game'
Friend: Why can’t any other football club buy Sadio?
Me: He costs too much Mane.
It is going to annoy ladies and non-football fans alike to know that the Premier League resumes on Wednesday June 17 after the season was suspended temporarily due to the coronavirus outbreak. Two matches will be played that night followed by a full round of 10 fixtures from Friday June 19 to Monday June 22, all behind closed doors.
This might be the time to remind everyone that football is not just a game. It is a way of life!
It is the biggest sport in the world, the most watched sport in the world. Football is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and watched by three billion fans. Those are terrifying figures and just goes to show how diverse the sport is. As a matter of fact football is the staple food of world sports. The FIFA World Cup is watched by 3.5 billion people, making it the most watched sports event in the history of television.
Football is extremely popular and as such can be played anywhere and everywhere; on the pitch, on the streets, on the beaches, as a 5 or 7 aside sport, amongst women, as a professional career, as a video game (FIFA being one of the biggest and most played video games on Earth) and in form of table football (foosball).
The Story Of Football
The modern game traces its origins to 1863 when the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with hands or arms while it is in play, except for the goalkeepers within the penalty area. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may also use any other part of their body except the hands and the arms. The team that scores most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout depending on the format of the competition.
Football is thrilling to watch and VERY unpredictable. You just never know whether big teams are likely to beat the smaller teams; not these days anyway. The Premier League is the best domestic league in the world and the most watched league in the world owing to its massive popularity across the six continents and the fact that it is unpredictable!
Football does have its ups and downs. The biggest teams in the world are not the most invincible. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. Sometimes they make you smile everyday, even through your problems and other times they make you want to see a therapist.
Life also works like that. Sometimes you scoop huge Ws, other times you’re picking Ls from the dusty soil. No matter the success, failure will always find us and there’s nothing we can do to prevent from it. Not every result goes our way and we simply have to accept.
There have been surprising stories in the world of football, clubs selling their best ever players to other pastures. Robin Van Persie was one of Arsenal’s best strikers, Manchester United swooping in for his services and winning the league title with him. Chelsea sold Diego Costa back to Atletico Madrid the season following their title triumph in 2016/17, Cristiano Ronaldo sold to Juventus after winning three consecutive Champions League trophies in Real Madrid….but one of the most talked about stories was how Neymar was sold to Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona at a fee of 222 million Euros! (currently the most expensive football transfer fee in the world)
The Beautiful Game
Football can be played for purposes of fun, as part of a charity move or in the professional sense. Regardless of those purposes, the main aim of football, just like any other competitive sport is to win! Teams with 22 players don’t just kick around and chase down a spherical ball for 90 minutes. Playing styles, instructions, tactics are involved, created and practiced repeatedly to outsmart opponents and it is those tactics that win games and determine the outcome of football competitions and leagues. Modern football has brought with it the changes in style and tactics with the introduction of high pressure, more possession and fast buildup. Some managers however have retained the same defensive and solid style of football that has served them well over the years. Jose Mourinho for example has used his ‘park the bus’ defensive tactics in whichever team he’s been to, twice mostly with Chelsea and it has won him numerous major trophies.
You may have heard of the year 2016 where the unthinkable in football fairytales happened. Case in point, Leicester City’s Premier League triumph under former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri. Bookmakers labelled them as 5000/1 outsiders to win the Premier League yet they did it. Playing counter-attacking football. Then there was the Portuguese football team who powered through almost all of the Euro 2016 tournament playing in extra time during the knockout stages and eventually winning the tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo led a team of underdogs to the country’s first international trophy.
Everyone’s different, with different tactics that we try because maybe it worked out for someone else but it doesn’t work that way. The only way to win is by being yourself and believing in yourself, utilizing your own tactics to stay ahead of the game.
You must know Juventus by now. It is Italy’s most successful club, having won seven Scudettos (Serie A titles) in a row. Many would think there’s zero competition in Serie A because the Old Lady harbours huge revenue and glittering talent in the likes of Paulo Dybala, Joao Cancelo, Alex Sandro and the latest in Cristiano Ronaldo.
Her loyal subjects have come from far. They were unfortunately part of a huge scandal that plummeted the club beyond relegation in 2006. Running dangerously short on funds, they began building the team again, bringing in players and a coach who wanted what was best for the club. Now, they dominate Serie A effortlessly.
Football clubs have to perform very well over a long period of time, winning a lot of games that power them to the title. They smash records along the way and beat the best teams. They don’t win four games in a row, lose three in a row and draw five in a row in expectation to win the league. They maintain focus and show consistency season after season. It’s like going to the gym, you need to remain consistent and keep working out if you want that awesome body.
Being a football fan is something likewise. That feeling never leaves you. A football fan displays consistency in being a football fan; once he or she begins following football matches, it’s hard to quit. This is where a lot of ladies fail. The only time they care so much about football is during the World Cup, and they aren’t following it for the sport….they are after the good looking football players and the teams that are known because they are ‘big teams that know how to win’. The majority of ladies supported Brazil in 2014 because of one player in particular: Neymar. In 2018, the story was almost the same, except after Brazil was bundled out by Belgium they shifted to eventual World Cup winners France. Other than that, chances of finding a staunch female Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, even a Manchester City fan in Kenya…are very, very slim!
Box Of Surprises
The beauty about football is that it comes with its host of surprises. In the UEFA Champions League 2018/19, Ajax Amsterdam were the dark horses going into Europe’s prestigious showpiece this season before going unbeaten in the group stages. Then they pulled off two major shocks; in the last 16 they knocked out the holders Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the second leg…..rarely do you hear teams going to the home of Los Blancos and winning. To add upon the fact, Ajax were 2–1 down in the first leg. They went to Madrid with everyone assured that Real would finish the job. The exact opposite happened, with Ajax winning 4–1, dumping the holders out of the tournament just like that.
They then welcomed Juventus in the quarter finals first leg the previous week, held them to a 1–1 draw and went to the Old Lady, everyone anticipating Juventus to finish them off. Again, from out of nowhere, Ajax won 2–1 and dumped them out of the tournament too.
The Premier League lives for shocks. There’s no season that has gone by without hearing a small team unexpectedly topple one of the big dogs. Everybody was waiting eagerly for Liverpool to lose a league game this season while currently leading the pack. Nobody was expecting relegation threatened Watford to thump the Merseysiders 3–0 with such ease.
You might not be the best at what you do, may not be as popular or handsome as you are. You may be met with expectations that no one expects you to fulfil, encounter that fine girl everyone believes will not look your direction, failed to deliver where everyone expects you to fail but the underdog rises to the challenge and against everyone’s expectations.
Football is a special game to everyone. It is the world’s beautiful game according to football legend Pele. It unites everyone, makes everyone put aside their differences for a moment that lasts 90 minutes (maybe more in cup competitions). What was once a sport for the high and mighty has now grown into a global phenomenon.
Becoming a fan of a football club becomes a part of your life. You live football, breathe football and speak football. It is everywhere one goes, played at anytime, enjoyed by everyone, young and old. When you win or your team wins, you feel a sensational mood trickling down you. When the opposite of winning happens, the pain is like losing a loved one but one gets up and goes again.
Football is not ‘Just a game’. Football…..is life! The Premier League returns on Wednesday with Aston Villa taking on Sheffield United and Manchester City welcoming Arsenal in a tasty fixture. The rest of the matches follow on Friday June 19 to Monday June 22 with all of them played behind closed doors as a directive to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Check out the timings of the first round of fixtures below: (Kick off times in GMT)
M.M
