My friend Dave is a decent chap. Soft spoken, mild mannered, courteous with a good job, he is the type, I suspect, any girl would love to take home to meet her parents. But like all people, he too has a side that is well hidden from the outside world - his Achilles heel is football. And his team is Manchester United. Every time a match approaches, you can sense a subtle change taking place in Dave. A certain restlessness, a disturbance in his normally calm nature that is hard to pinpoint. This reaches a crescendo on the day before the big match. Heaven help you, if you happen to cross him at this stage -Jekyll and Hyde will seem like missionaries!
The recent match between Manchester United and Manchester City was a scorcher. It was a really thrilling game and was the perfect example of good quality football. Of course, people ended up getting red cards for major offenses. Unfortunately, this too is considered an acceptable advertisement of the rough and tough sport that football is. It is not a game for sissies and ninnies. Sensitive and delicate people are not invited.
There was a time when football was nothing but a game where people tried their level best to kick the ball into the goal. These games are sometimes spanned over many streets and even many villages. The game invariably ended in a huge riot and caused a lot of law and order problems. Well, the game has changed beyond recognition today. It is no longer just a sport. It has become a business. Clubs spend millions of dollars purchasing the best talent in the world so that they can dominate the competition. This helps them attract sponsorship from the companies that want to exploit the popularity of the clubs. The World Cup tournament is a prestigious one where the top nations in the world compete against each other. In such a scenario, a mistake by the referee is no longer going to be treated as a part and parcel of the game.
I came across a very funny and satirical piece of news related to the recent controversy surrounding star footballer Carlos Tevez and his refusal to take the field as a substitute in the second half of the game between Manchester City and Bayern Munich. The writer of the news article stated that the star footballer was right in refusing to take the field. It was not his job to play football after being purchased for such a huge sum. Instead, it was his job to make sure that the club and its management was always in the news at all times.
In such a scenario, it is indeed pertinent to question the role of big money in football. They have been numerous instances where clubs have paid a king’s ransom for a footballer only to find that he is just not worth the money.
Footballers also have to ride two horses at once. They have to give their best for their club and also have to pay for their country. David Beckham missed the recent World Cup because he suffered an injury when playing for his club. As far as the club management is concerned, there were focused on the consequence of the injury and its impact on their plans. Of course, the entire country was devastated when they discovered that they’ve star footballer would no longer have the last opportunity to make amends in the World Cup.
It is unfair to take sides in this debate. Both sides have their pros and cons. As far as the clubs are concerned, they are the ones who bring in huge amounts of money filled in metal boxes to make a football a big money sport. Players playing for their country are never paid millions of dollars just for making an appearance. It is the club that converts the footballer into a superstar. On the other hand, the passion and pride for playing for one’s country cannot be replaced by money, can it?
The issue is whether Carlos Tevez would have behaved in such a manner if he had been representing his national team? Certainly not. The public outrage would have been too scary thing for the footballer to attempt such a move.
Don’t you just hate it when a star footballer decides to skip a tournament simply because of an injury? I don’t understand how footballers can get injured so often. They make use of mizuno running shoes or running shoes made by other reputed manufacturers. They do not run on concrete or artificial surface.
They run on grass and do not suffer from the same disadvantage that tennis players and other athletes face. They do not use their hands when playing More
With the new season closing in I like many others, am hoping that the corruption and scandal that has dogged the past year will take a back seat to the game itself. With Ryan Giggs and so many other players being revealed to be lying two timing idiots who think they are above everyone else, football in the UK and abroad has become little more then an extended episode of EastEnders.
My dad is mad on football, but actually that’s nothing compared to the madness that is my mum at a game when her team – Everton – win a match. All I can say is you don’t wanna be near her when she starts screaming. Or, if you are, you really want to have ear-muffs on. If you haven’t you’ll definitely not make the same mistake again…
The first time I kicked a ball, incidentally, I was with my mum. My dad was at work and I’d heard of this thing called football but never really actually played it. It seems like madness to write with such innocence about football now, after all this time, but that’s the truth. Back then I was more or less a blank page open to anything. Football wasn’t in my blood yet.
Or maybe it was…just…because when we went to the park and I had my very first kick of the ball – my mum’s memory more than my own, I was only about 3 – my mum started to scream and cheer and then she picked me up and said, “that boy’s a natural!” It was a good feeling. Even though I’m much bigger than my mum now, I still sometimes wish she could come along and scoop me up like on that big brave day.
I don’t know if I really remember that first kick, or if it’s just I’ve heard mum’s memory so much that it’s become my own
God, I’m never going to tell her that, though. She’d think me a right old softie. Now, I’m a man, and I can’t be having that!
I remember the next part, the backing up to kick the ball again. I had some really old-school asics running shoes on back then, mini ones, as I hadn’t really started on the footie yet and didn’t want me any boots. That all changed after that first kick of course. Mum says that after that first kick, then that second one, I wanted boots more than I wanted anything. More, even, than I wanted chocolate. And believe you me I was a little chocaholic!
I don’t know if I really remember that first kick, or if it’s just I’ve heard mum’s memory so much that it’s become my own. But in a way it doesn’t matter. I feel it now, this passion for football, and ain’t nothing ever gonna take me away from it.
This man is gonna love his footie until the day he dies, and after that he hopes that wherever he ends up there’ll be some kind of pitch there and at least one decent football.
And so we begin again. The ever shortening close season window has now slammed shut. Today’s unveiling of a shiny set of fixtures means the countdown to another season has begun. Focus naturally falls on the opening day, as fans jostle to see their first away trip and hope for a gentle start to the season.
As is the norm, there are few breathtaking fixtures - champions Man Utd travel to West Brom in one of the more intriguing ties, More
A game of football is a nice game if you plan to hang out with your fellow friends. Football is one such game where you can get all the pleasure and enjoy as well, in spite of the wild cheering ruckus and noise induced hearing loss. Many countries today enjoy almost all kinds of sport, however the craze and the frenzy for the game of football is always different. This is because of the huge number of fans around the globe. More
Wigan Athletic could be set to lose one of their prize assets as Liverpool step up their interest in James McCarthy. The 20-year old midfield star turned down a move to Anfield in favour of the DW Stadium in 2007 as he felt the chance of first team football with the Lancashire club would be better for his career, but it is rumoured the player is now ready to step up and make the move to Merseyside. More
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