For those outside of the sport’s dedicated and passionate fan base, it is difficult to understand why or how soccer can have such a significant and emotive impact upon so many people. It is with almost disbelief that some people view grown men and women crying with joy or wailing with anger over what is just a game to them.
Soccer’s importance and presence within its fans’ lives will likely become even more apparent over the next few weeks with the conclusion of the League Cup, which sees Chelsea being the 4/6 favourite to win in the League Cup betting. This colossal event, which sees all clubs of the Football League compete against each other, has been to known to whip fans into an emotional frenzy each and every year.
But why is this and are those non-fans right to judge soccer fans for their seemingly irrational investment in – to quote many a sceptic – a bunch of men kicking a ball around? Moreover, why is it that many find it understandable for those actually playing the sport to show extremities of emotions, such Steven Gerrard’s passionate leaking of emotion after Liverpool’s win over Manchester City in 2014, but feel that fans are weird for also doing so?
To understand the answer to this question, one has to realise that for many soccer is not just a sport but a powerful narrative that they are both emotionally invested in and mentally involved with. It is not just a defined, and isolated, game but an entity comprising of personal belief, identity and loyalty. It is a funnel for national pride and a uniting factor for many a country’s population.
An excellent example of this is the powerful and symbolic domestic reaction to Germany’s victory at the 2014 World Cup. Many critics and observers commentated that Germany’s joyous reaction to their country’s achievement was one of the first carefree expressions of such a feeling since the twin World Wars cast a shadow over the country’s ability to display patriotism.
This is soccer’s power, its ability to harness a collective pride and feeling of achievement and share it amongst its supporters. It is a form of entertainment that invites its punters to invest, not in fictional creations, but real people and their challenges. Likewise, it welcomes these fans to share the credit and the moment of victory with its players.
If people are allowed to cry over the death of Albus Dumbledore or be warmed by the heart-breaking romance of Fault In Their Stars, why should others not weep at watching an underdog side breakthrough or a former star briefly return to glory? Is seeing a group of individuals – through determination, hard work and ambition – achieve their dreams not worthy of a proper emotional response and vocal appraisal?
The answer is, of course, is because to these dedicated professionals and their passionate fans soccer is not a game of grass and goalposts but of blood and tears and heart.
