Monday, October 04, 2004

"Fan"aticism - Redefined!!!!!

Have been a sports freak right from childhood. Played cricket like more than 6 hrs a day till my 10th standard. When it rained..the obvious choice was Football. Never knew any rules of the game other than penalty and corner kicks. As I grew up, I developed lot of interest in the game and read about many legendary players. Then came ESPN and Star Sports and gave a chance to watch the beautiful game. I used to get a glimpse of my fav player " The Legendary Diego Maradono" only once or twice on DD. But, ESPN and Start sports provided the chance to see some other great talents.

As I started watching European Leagues regularly, I started liking some of the teams because of some great players. Real Madrid, AC Milan, Barcelona, ManUnited and most recently Arsenal.

But, recently I happened to know about some new definitions of "supporters" or " fans".
If you like one team, you should support them irrespective of the way the play. This is normal and acceptable.

With the slew of "f" words and "b" words into India, the "fan"aticisim took new shapes. People started hating any team other than the team they support. They started abusing players who play for other teams. Someone went to the extent of defining a " fan" as an opposition basher rather than supporter of their own team. This reminds me of the incident that happened last year when Figo shifted to Real Madrid from Barcilona.

So, I wonder whether it is the frustration that the team they like is losing or not playing well at that moment. The self proclaimed fans are ending up with only one option " name calling". I still wonder when would I see genuine fans who could appreciate the greatness of the opposition.

Coming back to the weekend football...

What more would I say about Gunners in this season. The 4-0 win against Charlton Athletic says it all. Henry was in fantastic touch.

But, ManU disaapointed ( again, it is not that you should like either Arsenal or ManU. They are not mutually exclusive. :D )
It still beats me what happened to RvN. He missed almost all the brilliant passes of CrN. Boyy, CrN was a class, I see another Figo in the making. Great going for the youngster.

Real Madrid lost once again in the Spanish League , this time to Deportivo. Praying god that they wont lose any game this season. What happened to the fire that was there in the Champions League match against As Roma?


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