How deep is your love?
Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger
My last column didn't exactly sit well with a few die-hard Bayern supporters.
Uli has never seen Kip Wells of the Pirates in the flesh but he's still a fan, ok? (Photography/GettyImages)
Yet their e-mails of complaint were a tad unfair, methinks, because the headline of the piece ('Fortune favours the Bavarians') was chosen by the nice people at Soccernet, not me, and the same went for the lead which claimed I was one of the many Germans who constantly moan about Bayern's luck. When I didn't and don't.
But be that as it may, it got me thinking about the nature of football fans in general. Actually, the trigger was that I attended a Tim Parks reading the other day, briefly mentioned in the column that dealt with the build-up to the World Cup and this travelling giant football that hosts so-called cultural events. Parks read from 'A Season with Verona', of course, his book about the year he spent watching every Hellas game, home and away.
After the reading, there was a quarter of an hour scheduled for questions. The very first person to stand up had this to say: 'Mr Parks, you are a real football fan, as we know from your book. But at the same time you are here to promote an event, the World Cup, which only has negative effects on real fans.'
He then mentioned some of those negative effects, such as the police closely monitoring people they deem undesirable, very quickly imposed bans on supporters who get caught with, for instance, flares, rising ticket prices, all-seater stadia and so on.
Parks pondered this for a moment, then he explained he was not there to promote the World Cup and that he indeed had very mixed feelings about the tournament.
He mentioned the scenes from Japan and South Korea in 2002, 'all those people with their painted faces. You don't see people like that at football games. It was all set up.'
Then he said there were too many games during a World Cup he couldn't care less about and mentioned the match he once saw from a press box which was 'so boring' it had him yearn for the stands where his fellow fans were.
As much as I admire Parks (especially for his non-fiction books about life in Italy), this somewhat reminded me of another Englishman I know, let's call him Jack.
Well over ten years ago, when Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' first came out, I said to Jack this was the first truly good book by and about a football fan. Whereupon Jack exploded in my face. 'But that guy is just pretending to be a real fan!' he protested. 'He only goes to the home games! And only to the games of the first team!'
Jack, I should explain, at that time hadn't missed a game - any game! - of his club in a decade or so. To him, Hornby was only slightly removed from an couch potato on the evolutionary ladder and, yes, I have deleted a few expletives.
Also - and don't be afraid, this time I won't lose the red thread -, a Swedish writer by the name of Mattias will drop by next week during his tour of Germany. He has an idea for a piece about the fans' 'counter movement', meaning supporters who rise up to and are vocal about the trappings of commercialism. He thinks this is a particularly German phenomenon.
“ That guy is just pretending to be a real fan ”
— Uli's mate Jack on Nick Hornby
And he's probably right. English fans, once the people we looked up to, have obviously succumbed to ridiculous ticket prices, all-seater arenas, kick-offs at noon, the power of pay-per-view and being told to keep quiet and behave during matches.
OK, then. What is a real football fan? Is he someone who puts pen to paper as soon as he thinks something critical about his team or country has been published? I don't think so. I come from a city and support a club where we pride ourselves on being critical, as we feel it's precisely that which makes the difference between a casual onlooker and somebody who cares deeply.
Is a real football fan someone who supports his team in sound and gesture and in person - meaning: at every game - and looks down on the World Cup as a carnival for part-time thrill-seekers? I don't think so. I like the World Cup and watch as many matches as I can, because besides supporting a specific team I also love the game itself.
I prefer the stands, as Tim Parks does, but I don't find sitting in the press stand boring, because there is still a game to be watched, even if I can't sing or shout. Heck, I even enjoy watching kids play in the park - when I can't support one of the two sides or make myself, the spectator, the true star of the whole thing.
Finally, is a real football fan someone who works and schemes for the better of the game, whatever that may be, who forms pressure groups and picket lines against those who want to take football away from those to whom it belongs? I don't think so.
I have never figured out to whom the game belongs, because as far as I see it, it's basically only about the players. They could and would play even if we weren't watching.
Oh sure, they'd make less money or none, but that doesn't stop anyone, as amateur football proves every Sunday. Yet watching, chanting and waving scarves without players on the pitch seems, er, rather daft.
Or how about this: I consider myself a baseball fan and support my team, the Pirates. Yet I have never attended a major league game in person. But I guess that's ok, I don't have to physically prove I like the game of this club by flying around the world.
By the same token, the many fans of Bayern or the German national team who send me mails from the USA and even Africa are certainly fans in my book.
They aren't better or worse than the guy who stood up to ask Tim Parks a question, they are just different. The people who paint their faces during a World Cup and the people who throw flares so that Inter vs Milan has to be abandoned - I may not like them, but they don't deserve somebody saying they are not real fans.
Even the people in the press stands could be fans, who knows? Uh, now I might have gone too far.
/What do you guys think of this? I think he has some good points.
Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger
My last column didn't exactly sit well with a few die-hard Bayern supporters.
Uli has never seen Kip Wells of the Pirates in the flesh but he's still a fan, ok? (Photography/GettyImages)
Yet their e-mails of complaint were a tad unfair, methinks, because the headline of the piece ('Fortune favours the Bavarians') was chosen by the nice people at Soccernet, not me, and the same went for the lead which claimed I was one of the many Germans who constantly moan about Bayern's luck. When I didn't and don't.
But be that as it may, it got me thinking about the nature of football fans in general. Actually, the trigger was that I attended a Tim Parks reading the other day, briefly mentioned in the column that dealt with the build-up to the World Cup and this travelling giant football that hosts so-called cultural events. Parks read from 'A Season with Verona', of course, his book about the year he spent watching every Hellas game, home and away.
After the reading, there was a quarter of an hour scheduled for questions. The very first person to stand up had this to say: 'Mr Parks, you are a real football fan, as we know from your book. But at the same time you are here to promote an event, the World Cup, which only has negative effects on real fans.'
He then mentioned some of those negative effects, such as the police closely monitoring people they deem undesirable, very quickly imposed bans on supporters who get caught with, for instance, flares, rising ticket prices, all-seater stadia and so on.
Parks pondered this for a moment, then he explained he was not there to promote the World Cup and that he indeed had very mixed feelings about the tournament.
He mentioned the scenes from Japan and South Korea in 2002, 'all those people with their painted faces. You don't see people like that at football games. It was all set up.'
Then he said there were too many games during a World Cup he couldn't care less about and mentioned the match he once saw from a press box which was 'so boring' it had him yearn for the stands where his fellow fans were.
As much as I admire Parks (especially for his non-fiction books about life in Italy), this somewhat reminded me of another Englishman I know, let's call him Jack.
Well over ten years ago, when Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' first came out, I said to Jack this was the first truly good book by and about a football fan. Whereupon Jack exploded in my face. 'But that guy is just pretending to be a real fan!' he protested. 'He only goes to the home games! And only to the games of the first team!'
Jack, I should explain, at that time hadn't missed a game - any game! - of his club in a decade or so. To him, Hornby was only slightly removed from an couch potato on the evolutionary ladder and, yes, I have deleted a few expletives.
Also - and don't be afraid, this time I won't lose the red thread -, a Swedish writer by the name of Mattias will drop by next week during his tour of Germany. He has an idea for a piece about the fans' 'counter movement', meaning supporters who rise up to and are vocal about the trappings of commercialism. He thinks this is a particularly German phenomenon.
“ That guy is just pretending to be a real fan ”
— Uli's mate Jack on Nick Hornby
And he's probably right. English fans, once the people we looked up to, have obviously succumbed to ridiculous ticket prices, all-seater arenas, kick-offs at noon, the power of pay-per-view and being told to keep quiet and behave during matches.
OK, then. What is a real football fan? Is he someone who puts pen to paper as soon as he thinks something critical about his team or country has been published? I don't think so. I come from a city and support a club where we pride ourselves on being critical, as we feel it's precisely that which makes the difference between a casual onlooker and somebody who cares deeply.
Is a real football fan someone who supports his team in sound and gesture and in person - meaning: at every game - and looks down on the World Cup as a carnival for part-time thrill-seekers? I don't think so. I like the World Cup and watch as many matches as I can, because besides supporting a specific team I also love the game itself.
I prefer the stands, as Tim Parks does, but I don't find sitting in the press stand boring, because there is still a game to be watched, even if I can't sing or shout. Heck, I even enjoy watching kids play in the park - when I can't support one of the two sides or make myself, the spectator, the true star of the whole thing.
Finally, is a real football fan someone who works and schemes for the better of the game, whatever that may be, who forms pressure groups and picket lines against those who want to take football away from those to whom it belongs? I don't think so.
I have never figured out to whom the game belongs, because as far as I see it, it's basically only about the players. They could and would play even if we weren't watching.
Oh sure, they'd make less money or none, but that doesn't stop anyone, as amateur football proves every Sunday. Yet watching, chanting and waving scarves without players on the pitch seems, er, rather daft.
Or how about this: I consider myself a baseball fan and support my team, the Pirates. Yet I have never attended a major league game in person. But I guess that's ok, I don't have to physically prove I like the game of this club by flying around the world.
By the same token, the many fans of Bayern or the German national team who send me mails from the USA and even Africa are certainly fans in my book.
They aren't better or worse than the guy who stood up to ask Tim Parks a question, they are just different. The people who paint their faces during a World Cup and the people who throw flares so that Inter vs Milan has to be abandoned - I may not like them, but they don't deserve somebody saying they are not real fans.
Even the people in the press stands could be fans, who knows? Uh, now I might have gone too far.
/What do you guys think of this? I think he has some good points.
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