The subject of football as a religion I have thought somewhat interesting. On the great terraces we have congregations of people who week in week out sing out their praises for team. Sometimes people's emotions rise and fall with the fortunes of the club and there are even people who will make pilgrimages across the country and even the world just too see them play. In Australia the football faithful have to stay awake to often ridiculous hours watching on cable or lie awake with a tannoy buzzing away in your ear as the sounds flood in from half a world away.
Yet what happens if your team fails you? This morning Liverpool suffered a 3-2 defeat after leading 1-0 for most of the match. This was caused by a Gerrard own goal and with that the chance of silverware died. Gerrard himself threatened to leave the club is success was not forthcoming and yet it is literally on his very head that it was snatched away - I wonder now how he feels as the one who is personally responsible.
But the faithful don't get angry if God doesn't deliver a miracle every week. Football fans on the other hand do get very annoyed if their teams are not performing to the expected level, and miracles are often demanded. I don't think having dedicated fans is enough to class football as a religion. There is no belief in a super-human controlling power in football. Fans watch, support and maybe even worship eleven men running around a pitch every weekend and although that doesn't seem very spiritual nor entirely very wise, it does breed intense patience. Liverpool fans have been waiting 15 years for another league title; there exists an entire generation of people who weren't alive the last time that England raised Jules Rimet.
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich fan to enter heaven" - Alex Ferguson
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." - Bill Shannkly
Of course football's not more important than life and death and I don't think Bill Shankly thought so to. I do think, though, that he recognised a central tenet of humanity - that there's little point in having a life if you don't care for anything during it. That's the real meaning of his quote - that there should be a passion in people's lives. Whether or not you think it should be filled with football is another question altogether but it'll do for 90 minutes... except this morning - Life is crap without silverware.
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