Same Sport, Different World

What is it that makes us care about one particular sports team over another? When you consider that some people will resort to violence, abuse and even murder to defend the honour of their beloved football club, how likely is it that that self same person could have ended up with a different allegiance if something in his/her past had just gone that little bit differently?

When we were in primary school in Ireland, lunchtime games would soon turn into 'Man Utd V Liverpool' and the race would be on to claim the identity of your favourite players for the duration of our precious free-time. At the time, it didn't occur to us that we were slagging off the British in one breath, before claiming allegiance to a British team from a city most of us had never even been to with the next. The 'Irish links' would be talked-up (legends such as George Best, and lesser greats like Irwin, Houghton, Aldridge, etc.) but none of us ever seemed to be too interested in the clubs we had right on our doorsteps, such as Finn Harps or Derry City.

My connection to Man Utd stemmed, very simply, from my uncle Peter supporting them. I have no idea why he liked them, in particular, and we have no geographical ties to Manchester or anything like that. Still, they were the team I defended to the hilt during corridor football talk. I wanted to be Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona - Barnes, Clough and Rush were dirty words. Over the years that built up to the point where Man Utd were the only club I cared about really, even though I couldn't explain rationally why...

My earliest experiences of football were at Derry City matches with my Dad, his friend, and his son who was around my age. I guess I was there during our glory days, without even realising it. At the time, I wouldn't say that I paid much attention. I remember the stands being pretty packed, and the kids just wandering about the place probably getting into trouble (which I'm sure I simply watched from a safe distance...). It was only as I matured and became more critical and socially aware that I questioned my loyalty to a foreign team I had no physical link to, and started to identify with the local team, a place I could actually go to and witness my club in action regularly. So started my real relationship with Derry City FC, still going strong today.

Then, just to complicate things, I move to Seoul. Early in my time here I went to K-League games with friends more as something to do (and an excuse to hang out with mates and beers under the pretense of doing something 'different') rather than something I was actually interested in. Yes, the stadium was amazing. Yes, the fans were colourful. Still, I didn't feel anything for this club. If they won, we cheered. If they lost, we didn't exactly need counseling. The quality of football at the time probably didn't help. In that first year, we only ever seemed to see 0-0 draws! And not even the exciting type, at that.

Somewhere, at some undefined point in time, something changed in me. I started to get to know the players, the style, the history (albeit VERY short) and the passion of the fans. I felt myself REALLY looking forward to games and being hungry for information regarding transfers, injuries, gossip, and so on. The real clincher was meeting Adi and Dejan at COEX (mentioned in an earlier blog) and then Dejan giving me his sweat-soaked shirt after a game. NOW THIS IS A FEELING! This season has been incredible. It helps that we're playing good football and being exciting, but the real link comes simply from the fact that, wherever I have lived in Korea, FC Seoul has been my 'local' team. It took time, but now I really feel a part of what they're doing. Perhaps as indicative, I have started to really dislike our traditional rivals, Suwon Bluewings. When they won the FA Cup on Sunday, I found myself cursing the competition as a backdoor to Champion's League football. I'm never ever going to get to the point where I hate the club (just as I don't hate Finn Harps or Liverpool), but I'll certainly always be clear about where my loyalties lie.

So, when I look at the world of football these days I see it from three distinct and varied perspectives. Whilst I might roll my eyes at Rooney's latest antics and grumble about the role of money and agents in the game, I know that that is part of the attraction. We love the Premiership precisely because the stakes are so high and if they weren't, stories like that simply wouldn't occur. Whereas the star striker at Man Utd is a millionaire with his private life sprawled across the world press, his equivalent at Derry City went to school with me. He lives down the road from my family home. He kissed my ex-girlfriend around the back of their school when they went to primary school together for crying out loud! Their counterpart at FC Seoul is a Montenegran international who has somehow wound up playing on the other side of the planet in a stadium and in front of capacities he could probably never have hoped to have achieved had he stayed playing in Europe, never mind being adored by some wee Irish teacher he, no doubt, can't even remember having met.

With Derry City on the verge of promotion back to the top-flight of Irish football, FC Seoul vying to win their first championship since 2000 and Man Utd recovering from a stuttering start to the season over-shadowed by off-field antics, each teams' fortunes will affect me in varying ways. I don't think I have to justify or prioritise my attachments. I'd never get to the point where I did something for any of the three that I would regret. No matter how many mindless quotes are repeated and celebrated, it is just a game. In saying that, it really is the beautiful game. I will enjoy the highs and suffer the lows, still reminding myself that under different circumstances, I might well have been cheering the opposition.