Liverpool’s old coach Bill Shankly once said that Football is not about life and death, it is much more important than that. I am willing to agree with him. Football has so far filled my life with happiness and sorrow that I haven’t experienced in any other way. Football has been an extra spice in my life and I can’t imagine living without it.
So what is so great about running around on a huge filed trying to score a ball that 21 other people also want to score? Lucky enough 10 of them are on your side. Playing football since I was five, both my parents playing I hardly grew up on the football court. I have made friends for life, met wonderful people that have lived there life for the game and I have learned so much about non-profit work and associations. The world of football has taught me so much about team play, friendship, fighting spirit and not to give up when there is still time left. I love to play it, watch it, talk about and live it...because it is my lifestyle.
With everything good comes something bad, someone once said and football is not an exception. A small group of people calling them self supporters bring a great shame over the whole football world. The rest of the world calls them hooligans. Hooliganism cost millions every year, people get hurt or maybe even die. The clubs get punished and the society has to pay for the damage they do. Their beliefs are not even close to what football stands for. Because loving one team does not come with hating its opponent? And hatred is not the way to help your team to success? They call them self supporter but that is the least they are.
The other aspect of football that I am not a fan of is how it has become a billion dollar industry. Billionaires like Roman Abramovitj buy the football clubs like the rest of the world’s population by themselves food. The money gives them power to buy any players they want, and those players will get a weekly payment that would feed thousands of starving people.
No matter how much I love this sport I am never going to defend criminal acts or hooliganism. Football is not suppose to be about money, anger or hate for the once you don’t love it is suppose to be about the game, fellowship, joy and love. Football is such a beautiful thing because it can bring people from all over the world together. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, rich or poor, a boy or a girl, Christian or Muslim; everything you need is a ball. So let’s start play!