THE FICKLE FAN

THE FICKLE FAN

 
 

THINGS I KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL:

  1. DAVID BECKHAM

  2. 2006 WAS THE YEAR OF THE WAG 

I am in a grotty pub. The carpet is sticky. The guy next to me burps and it smells like bacon frazzles. My neck is cranked into a position I didn’t know was possible, and i’m looking at a blurry tv, where i can just about make out that a couple of guys are running about a field - I presume they have abs under their white shirts.

I look around me. And quickly realise that i am not the only one without a clue. I am enjoying a game that I would normally have 0 interest in whatsoever! Because that’s the magic of the World Cup, it has the power to make a football fan out of anyone.

I am not into football. I only go to Tottenham matches to spend some time with my dad. And sometimes in the pub i watch it just to avoid an awkward conversation.

But when it’s the World Cup I become a fan. I begin reading the back of the newspaper before the front. I scream at the TV like it can hear me.

I turn up. Join in. and I’ll happily nod along to conversations about formations that i don’t understand.

and then when it’s all over. I hang my shirt up.

I go back to my normal relationship with football. Where it doesn’t bother me, and I don’t bother it. Me and football resume this kind of awkwardness. Very similar to when you bump into a one-night stand down the veg isle of Sainsbury’s.

The Fickle Fan - shares intense burst of passion for the game which happens every four years, and more importantly when England actually have a chance. Which apparently is rare, very rare.