Yesterday I was writing about football, victories and defeats and how all these take their special place in the minds of fans, shape a collective memory, which is to be shared among people, strengthening bonds between them and eventually making their lives more interesting. I forgot to mention the obvious, that is that all of the above apply to sane people only.I count myself among the sane ones. I 'll bear the grief for yesterday's defeat, share it with my father and friends, long for an opportunity to regain the pride and wipe out the shame of this 4-0. It is now part of our club's history, which as the history of a nation includes both victories, disasters and triumphs. But, these are all having to do with one thing ONLY and that is football. Insane people, on the other hand, are totally missing this point. They feel a football game result, is a projection of their whole lives, which void of any meaning are in desperate need of a cause. And they find this cause in questioning life itself. They do it by killing each other.
Yesterday night, right after the game an Olympiakos' fan was stubbed in the heart by some people I don't even dare to describe as football fans. He died on the spot, simply because he was too unlucky in being at the wrong place in the wrong time, celebrating victory with a drink, with his team's scarf around his neck. He did the most natural thing to do, and if my team had won and I was not living in Barcelona, I could have been in his place.
The question is what WE do about all this. How long can this keep going? It's high time people take action to stop this disgrace. Above all we, football fans, should stand up for our right to enjoy freely the game we love without having to apologise all the time about the brutal insanity, with which some maniac idiots have chosen to surround it. Unless, fans, sports journalists and footballers, everyone that has a say about this game go down the streets to declare that we shall tolerate this no more, we don't deserve anything better than this!
It's probably more compicated than footbal fan rivalry - latest news include a kind of long lasting personal conflict that involved some drug dealing, a bit of police "informer" behaviour ("rouf" for Greeks), plus a general "macho" attitude that was possibly reinforced by the match outcome. Both greens and reds were members of fan clubs (not the nicest of people, most probably).
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, this doesn't make things easier and prevents me from enjoying the re-establishment of order in our little universe... My condolences for the 4-0 (why not stick with Liverpool and forget about the green stuff, if it makes you feel that miserable, anyway...)
Greetings from Heraklio :-)
Vas.
PS. I'm not a blog fan, so I log as anonymous. I just have troto around these days and he's blogging around with my laptop on the rooftop... I told him to go watch OFI-OSFP tomorrow, but he's not this type of guy, so I'll go with the other seniors of the lab...
Take care!
thanks anonymous Vas. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell informed and with a dispassionate perspective as always.
I 'd like to stick with Liverpool but it seems like they are doing even worse this year.
Maybe I should just stop caring, but you know as well as I do it's not that easy.
Cheer for your lads tomorrow, they deserve it! (and it hurts me so...)
C.
Sorry, pal, I could not cheer since I was surrounded by an overwhelming number of black/white fans with somewhat agressive attitude... So when we scored (the final score was 0-1) I just sat there murmuring and looking disappointed like everybody around... The rest of the match was nothing special (nothing to cheer about) so probably next time I will choose TV (if I ever purchase one). No other big match in Heraklion this year (I saw Ergotelis twice and National team once - that makes four matches, about the same number I watched live for the past 39 years).
ReplyDeleteTrotos is back to the navy and I am back to the lab... Salpiggidis scores for PAO by the end of first half... Business as usual...
Well, instead of making a blog myself I might start posting in others... very practical, no need to setup a profile...
Kali evdomada
Anonymous Vas.