A sporting life: part 1

It wasn’t until I lived in England that I saw my first professional football game. It was Arsenal verses Crystal Palace in the old Arsenal Stadium. Valentine’s Day. I’m with two of my mates and a client of mine who got us the tickets. The air is electric. We are deep in Arsenal territory, surrounded by red. Quite fitting for a 14th of February game.

On the opposite side of the pitch is a small strip of blue bodies separated from the rest of the fans – the Crystal Palace supporters. I’m baffled by this. In Canada, I’ve never remembered fans segregated from each other. But this is England and this is football. A new world of sport – team spirit surpasses playground banter of ‘my team is better than your team – na na na na na na,’ and spills into immense pride. A slight to your team is like a slight to your family, your worth and your place on the earth.

Too often with football, banter becomes violence, rival fans your enemy. Now the pride thing I understand. But this segregation of fans, the fear of hooligans, I’ve never experienced nor even heard of before England became home. But why this Phenomenon? Why here? I think it all boils down to the game and what happens on the pitch.

American and Canadian Football, Hockey, Rugby, they all have lots of violence. Lots and lots. There’s tackles and punches, bashes into boards – those players don’t end up being great lookers by the end of their careers unless they’re very very lucky or like Gretzky, have a bruiser like Messier look after them. But in football here, the violence is subtle. If you know one of the forwards has had a knee injury, a well-placed ‘accidental’ kick wouldn’t go amiss. The fans cry foul but of course the referee didn’t see and the cameras were elsewhere. A game full of small wrong doings and with no final catharsis on the pitch, no clash of fists or faces smashed into the pitch, resentment grows in the guts of the fans. Without the release, they’re left to carry it out into the night to take it out on the opponents they think wronged their team. As the players aren’t usually readily available, the other fans will have to do.

If football had more contact and could give the spectators more of a release like Aristotle says all good shows must, perhaps there would be less violence amongst the fans. Of course this is only a theory. I don’t expect anyone to change a major world-wide sport just to test my idea but it’s worth thinking about.