If you want to deal with the ever-changing and frustrating circumstances of life, support a small football team (and I don’t mean American football)
Examining the relations between Politics, Fandom, and the Beautiful Game
Forgive the long title, as it is not the easiest way to draw an American into an article that will discuss a sport that many Americans fail to understand and respect. However, I hope that by using my obsession with football to interact with some of life’s essential issues, one can see some of the benefits that come with football obsession, and the experience of being a fan. First, I must demonstrate to you how much football matters to the fan community, and to the lives of individuals, to set the stakes of a football teams success or failure.
One thing that many Americans fail to realize is the nature of obsession of football fans. I would consider myself obsessed with football, but I would argue that I am not obsessed in the near the same way as some European or worldwide fans are with Manchester United, the team which I support. Particularly for those in England, football teams mean a helluva lot to the communities they occupy. There are 69 teams in the Top Tiers of English football, and that does not come close to covering the massive amount of smaller teams that play vital roles in their communities. Sports in England is less of a hobby or an interest, it’s a vital part of community life and culture. Teams are reflections of the communities they represent, and countless players become inspirations for those young players rising up to grow into better players and/or better people. Players like Marcus Rashford MBE (who plays for Man United) have been instrumental in providing food for children without the means to acquire it throughout the pandemic. This is not to say that philanthropy and youthful inspiration does not happen in other sports, it clearly does, but only serves to point out the intense connection between football teams and the cities/neighborhoods they represent. The city of London has 7 (!!) football clubs in the Premier League next season, and has a total of 17 professional clubs. This means that most localities get representation in a football team in big cities. Arguably small cities, at least in England also get representation with football clubs, with Brighton and Hove Albion being one notable example that plays in the EPL. Key to the point I’m trying to make is that this representation creates a very strong bond between the fans and the football team they support, especially those fans that are local.
Now, some background is required on how supporting different clubs breeds different types of fandom.
As I’ve said, I support Manchester United Football Club. For many football fans, that would not be a surprising thing to figure out. Manchester United is one of the worlds biggest football clubs, and has millions of fans worldwide, extending heavily into the US as well. While I wouldn’t argue I’m as huge of a fan as someone who lives in Manchester and goes to games regularly, I am fairly devoted by the standard of most American fans of the EPL. Being a fan of Manchester United means expectations that the team will win every match. The storied history of the club includes 3 European Cups, 20 Premier League Titles, 12 FA Cups, 5 League Cups, and 21 Community Shields. While Manchester United have had a disappointing last 9 years since the retirement of legendary Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, their history provides their players and fans with expectations that are extremely high. While many United fans don’t legitimately think that we’ll win the Premier League title each year nowadays, we expect the team to challenge for the league and win trophies every season (maybe foolishly). Failure to do so results in a judgement of failure on the entire season. Two seasons ago, Manchester United’s loss to Villarreal in the 2021 Europa League Final resulted in a backlash of harsh reaction from Manchester United fans, as without the capture of the Europa League title, many United fans considered a 4th consecutive season without a trophy another major failure. The most recent season resulted again in no trophies and a club worst 58 total points in the English Premier League with a 6th place finish, another failure, despite major offseason investment in the team. Man United fans have high expectations, and based on their storied past, they dream big, which is why any failure to achieve their goals is seen as shambolic.
A Manchester United fan would be somewhat different in nature to a fan of a different club. For instance, lets look at Newcastle United Football Club (pre-purchase from a Saudi Consortium). For all my readers that know very little about Newcastle United, they also have a storied history. Newcastle’s legacy includes 4 League Titles, 6 FA Cups, and a Charity Shield. They were the club who longest held the famed English striker Alan Shearer, and were once the 5th highest revenue producing club in the world, second in England only behind Manchester United.
Keep in mind before I dive deeper into Newcastle, that finishing in the top 5 or 6 in the league means winning most of your games, while those teams that are relegated will lose a lot of games. Those who avoid relegation get the odd win here and there, and are able to accrue enough points through draws to avoid being one of the bottom two or three by the end of the season. Every year, however, a few teams face the dreaded relegation.
Newcastle, like many other teams in football leagues around the world, have been relegated. Relegation occurs at the end of a league season to a predetermined number of teams that finish at the bottom of their respective league tables. They are relegated down to the next highest tiered league of their countries’ football at that point. Newcastle have not been a team that spent much time in the EFL Championship — the second tier of English Football — as they won promotion in the year after their most recent relegations, but they have gone from a club that finished second in the Premier League in the late 90s, to a team that consistently fights against relegation from the Premier League. For a Newcastle United fan nowadays, there are similar frustrations to that of a Manchester United fan. While the fans expectations for the success of the club may not be that great, the club’s history is known by so many loyal fans, leaving them yearning for the glory days of NUFC once again. Of course, their frustration in some cases is greater than that of Manchester United fans, as the ambition to becoming a top English club again is not shown by the club itself, and money is not invested enough to make sure that Newcastle reach the heights that their fans expect, until now! Being a Newcastle fan has been like being a Man United fan if United were consistently in the relegation battle, it’s been painstakingly sad. Hopefully, things are looking up, though, with a larger investment in the team.
This brings me to a third type of fan. We’ll call this fan the “happy to be here” fan. I think of clubs like Norwich City Football Club when I think of these teams, but there are many clubs similar. These are clubs that get relegated and promoted often between leagues, that to them, just staying in the league they were promoted to is a success. Of course, when these teams eventually get relegated, then their motivations change, and they look to win the next tiered league. But, for the English “happy to be here” clubs, the ultimate goal is to retain a place in the Premier League. Another name for clubs like this is a “Yo-yo club”, mainly because these clubs are consistently swinging up and down between football leagues. Norwich City, once again, came up to the Premier League last year, only to then be relegated again by the end of the season, finishing last in the league.
It’s fine to be a Man United or Newcastle fan, but I personally think that we could all learn a lot about life from fans of “happy to be here” clubs. In our lives, we expect consistent “winning” and we see “losing” or the mediocrity of “drawing” as a horrid exception to the norm. We don’t accept that we should ever be unhappy. For those of us who have had success in the past but have met a period of mediocrity and failure, we find it difficult to accept our circumstances, and not reflect on our dissapointment based on our past sets of expectations for ourselves. However, if one can be happy with the small victories, and be content with minor success, while also being content with the pain of losing, then one is more prepared for the unpredictability of life. Many of us, including me, take our lives as seriously as many fans take the results of their favorite team. We take our own wins, losses, and draws to heart, metaphorically. This is largely because of the expectation we place on “each specific result”.
Living a life with fewer set expectations not only allows us all to live a life more filled with appreciation and joy, but it also allows people to be more satisfied with the things that they do everyday.
I’m a political science major, so I’m consistently emersed in day-to-day political matters. While I’m obsessed with politics sometimes, the consistent frustration is the massive amount of work that it takes to create small societal change, and that the incremental national/regional change in what I believe to be the “right direction” does not solve all the problems that need to be solved, and it can be rolled back by a subsequent administration/government. For example, when I believe the Biden administration should dole out more expansive policy on certain issues but they pass policy that doesn’t cover all the bases I would want it to, it frustrates me. Despite the improvement in people’s lives as a result of the policy, an activists job is to almost never completely be satisfied. An activist is almost supposed to be seen as a cynic, consistently complaining and working until their goal is met (which it quite often isn’t). While I may have that instinct as part of my being, knowing that our country isn’t doing a good enough job of providing basic security for its people, I also recognize that it’s a mentally unhealthy lifestyle to work in a situation where you have little to no chance of ever being truly satisfied. If you can’t be accepting and happy of little victories that you achieve along the way, or be proud of yourself and your peers for putting in the week, there is a high chance of burn out.
Of course, most activists will tell you that burn out is normal, but you don’t want to get to a point where you’re completely unmotivated because you’ve been so deflated by a lack of what you perceive as success. For instance, if you’re a supporter of a team like Manchester United, and a league title is your only marker of true success, how are you ever going to be happy unless that obscenly difficult goal is achieved? I’m not arguing for an activist to accomplish a small goal and be satisfied, then stop working. I’m just imploring you to recognize that the work you’ve done is good, enjoy that, and then go out there and do more work. It may sound like an easy thing to do, and I’m sure many activists do it, but I think that it might be a more difficult concept for younger activists to grasp, especially those on social media who fall into a rabbit hole and feel like the whole system needs to be changed, and aren’t satisfied with anything less. That’s a feeling I have sometimes, but I have to recognize that small victories (like a draw in soccer) are helpful, and continue to do work to create more small victories. Even more, to enjoy the work that I’m doing, the cause that I fight for and believe in is what’s most important. Not only should we set our expectations lower and put less stake into the biggest of goals, while working towards small victories, we should enjoy doing the work itself.
Just like fans of Norwich City enjoy their time in the Premier League while they have it, celebrating the small wins when they can get them, but supporting their club and SHOWING UP win, lose, or draw, we should celebrate the work as activists. In our everyday lives, whether we’re an activist or not, we should appreciate the moment — the journey — and care less about the results of that journey — the destination — . It will do us well. While I’m sure I’m not the best to speak on all of these issues, and I don’t hold the opinion of most/all activists, I hope that I’ve entered some productive thinking into the discourse about how we can be better people, and better activists, and how ‘the beautiful game’ can help us do that.
