I am talking about sports in particular, football. This is a football mad country, nothing wrong with that because it is both the most watched and most popular sport in the world. But I have an issue with the local football fans.
Take for instance, Chelsea Football Club. Only recently, they have only become strong, thanks largely to the impressive spending power of their owner, Roman Abramovich who brought in big star players and a big mouthed football manager who has since left to manage Inter Milan in Italy.
This club finally clinched the Premier League title in 2004-05 season, ending the title drought of 50 long years when they last won the 1954-55 season in the then, Football League 1st Division. Overnight, we saw so many Chelsea supporters proudly showing their affiliation with the club through displaying of the club’s merchandise in cars and donning the jersey. Prior to this, were they cooped up in a cave somewhere and only upon their club winning the title, released from the cave? This sounds far-fetched. Therefore, the only plausible explanation is that these supporters are glory hunters.
Another sudden and mysterious emergence of so many fans albeit of a different club was when Arsenal won the league in 1997-98 season and the numbers just multiplied when “The Invincibles” team won the 2003-04 season unbeaten. However, in recent years these so called Gunners are not as ubiquitous as during the club’s glorious years. Ever wondered where they are now? Most of them are Chelsea supporters now. If Manchester United wins this season’s Premiership title, rest assured these supporters will jump ship.
Mark my words, in the future, if Port Vale F.C or Millwall F.C manages to gain promotion to the Premier League and subsequently win the league, many Malaysians will automatically pride themselves as supporters of either club in an instant. Never mind that as of now, they have not heard of these 2 clubs.
Liverpool supporters have my greatest admiration. Even though this club last won the league title when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth, the supporters still stay loyal and proud of it too, until today.
1 comment:
I became a Chelsea fan back in the mid 90s when they lost to Man.Utd 1-0 in, if I remember correctly, the FA Cup final. It was a painful defeat, but it was a good fight. A renegade club with a player/manager at its helm, and the only danger is coming from a little man by the name of Zola, you can't just shrug off saying they're no good.
Yup, in recent years they had it good, thanks to the Russian billionaire, and old fans are sure to rejoice. I just don't know who are all these blokes around me....
*the word verification for the comment is "ductases"....haha
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