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IN a
pub, one man said to another, “My wife thinks I put
football before marriage. That’s rubbish. Why we just
celebrated our third season together.”
When the
late Bill Shankly made his bold proclamation about
football being more important than life and death, many
thought that it was mere hyperbole. After the Heysel and
Hillsborough disasters, some ventured that the famous
quote bordered on the extreme. Yet one thing is for
sure, the game does permeate itself into one’s
consciousness.
Between
reports that men prefer to go to a sporting event to
having sex—Deportivo La Coruna’s midfielder Julian de
Guzman* promised that if he scored against Real Madrid
earlier this year, he would give up sex for a whole
year. “I don’t have a girlfriend and I’m willing to make
sacrifices to help the team beat the leaders,” he said.
“I know what it’s like to score against [Madrid keeper
Iker] Casillas and it was like an orgasm”—and how
divorces can be even more acrimonious when it comes to
those season tickets, football is now seeking to unite
in many ways rather than be divisive like a hooligan.
A full
Heathcotes wedding awaits those who live and breathe
Liverpool FC at their home field of Anfield. It isn’t
solely “You’ll Never Walk Alone” that you can sing
together, but songs of Holy Matrimony! And now no
wedding has to be interrupted with occasional updates on
scores, yellow cards and substitutions. You’re right
there above the Kop where the bride and the groom can
tell whoever is marrying them to “get on with it” so
they can get on with the game.
Liverpool literally rolls out the red carpet for the
bride and groom’s arrival at the stadium. The club does
all the running around whether the ceremony is for a
small intimate number (where the party can be situated
in one of the executive boxes) or for a bigger party
(they’re booked in one of the tastefully decorated
lounges). And to make the wedding even more memorable,
the club “can source speakers, entertainment or one of
our famous ex-players to add to your event.”
Isn’t
that cool? Now when a couple goes to watch a home game,
it’s more than just telling their children to come that,
“I sat here when the lads tallied eight goals against
Besiktas.” It now includes, “This is where yer mam and
yer da got hitched now.”
But
where the rest of one’s so-called life begins, there’s
also the opposite—death.
Argentina’s
Boca Juniors football club—which is second only to AC
Milan for the total number of international
championships it has won—has one of the world’s most
rabid followings. It is here where even the fans follow
their heroes to their graves.
In the
La Boca neighborhood of
Buenos Aires,
it is popular for the club’s supporters to have their
ashes scattered on the pitch at the club’s stadium of
Estadio Alberto J. Armando, or more popularly known as
La Bombonera (“the Chocolate Box” in English for the
stadium’s uncanny resemblance to one). But this ritual
has had its problems. “Many Boca fans leave instructions
to their families to scatter their ashes on the playing
field,” said Orlando Salvestrini, a team official. “They
would arrive on weekdays with their urns and scatter the
ashes on the playing field.” Boca’s press officer, Laura
Acosta, added: “You could see little mounds of ashes
left afterward, and this would cause problems with the
conditions of the pitch.”
Not
wanting to displease their massive fan base, team
management established a cemetery just south of
Buenos Aires.
Now with turf transplanted from La Bombonera and graves
of former Boca players transplanted from elsewhere in
the cemetery, die-hard (pun intended) fans can be buried
alongside their heroes. The cemetery features a fountain
designed with the club’s blue-and-yellow crest and
blue-and-yellow walls with the names of the deceased
inscribed on them. “Boca fans are very passionate,”
pronounced Salvestrini. “It is an eternal love where we
can all together cheer our club from heaven.”
That’s
great. Take the fans money while their alive, and take
it still when they’re pushing up daisies.
Taking a
cue from
Argentina,
German club Hamburg put up Europe’s first football
cemetery. One of the graveyard’s masons explained why it
was necessary for such a patch of land that is just a
stone’s-throw away from the club’s home field of HSH
Nordbank Arena: “If you think about people supporting a
club for 30, 40, 50 years, it’s part of their life. So
why shouldn’t it be part of their death?” The cemetery’s
designs included an archway entrance made to look like
goal posts, while the graves would be arranged on three
levels in a football stadium kind of look.
Since
the Hamburg graveyard is in a highly urban area where
real estate is limited and expensive to come by,
Bestattung Wien, a local metal-works company, has been
producing urns for those opting for cremation. The urns
cost around £280 (that’s P23,254.87 for the forex-conscious).
“We are doing this as it is European Championship year,”
said Wittigo Keller, curator of the funeral company’s
museum, referring to Euro 2008, which is in its
semifinals stage. “In the last year there have been
plenty of reports of football clubs helping their fans
prepare for their own personal final whistles by
reserving plots for themselves at official club
graveyards.”
One
Hamburg fan, Ernst Schmidt, declared that it was a
wonderful idea to build a cemetery next to the stadium.
“I’m considering reserving myself a space. But it’s
difficult, because my wife has already been buried in a
different cemetery.”
Even in
death, something comes between sports and one’s
marriage.
In
between Shankly’s statement is that age-old adage that
singer Dave Matthews so cheerily warbled about: “Eat and
be merry for tomorrow you may die.”
And at
North Holloway,
London, supporters of Arsenal can take their wives or girlfriends
to enjoy a hearty prematch meal while being entertain by
an ex-player in the fans’ restaurant, Highbury House.
The restaurant overlooks the magnificent Emirates
Stadium, providing supporters with a relaxed setting and
the perfect buildup to the game.
During
the Gunners’ recent quarterfinals clash with Liverpool
in the UEFA Champions League, the restaurant offered
fans a discounted treat:
Three-course buffet £29.95 (normal price £39.95)
Three-course Buffet with drinks—£45.00 (normal price
£55.00)
And a
children’s menu (13 years or younger)—£14.95 (normal
price £19.95)
Real
Madrid’s famous stadium, the Santiago Bernabeu, located
in the financial district of Madrid, boasts of three
first-class restaurants—the Asador de la Esquina, Puerta
57 and the Real Café Bernabeu—that serve Grade-A beef
from the Guadarrama Mountains, traditional Spanish
cuisine, and a spectacular T-bone steak. The Real Café
terrace is open every summer from 10 a.m., and is one of
the most attractive places in
Madrid to have a drink. And get this…valet parking is offered.
So for
all of football’s current concerns such as South Africa
not being ready for the World Cup in 2010, the rich
clubs getting richer, and the endless poaching of
players for the more popular leagues, the game is indeed
embedded in our daily lives. Where a win makes for a
euphoric week and a loss, a bout with depression. And
the experience…a season of joy.
* Luckily for Deportivo’s de Guzman, he missed out on an
orgasmic experience against Madrid (with Depor winning
1-0, thanks to a Pepe own goal), at least he won’t have
to wait for a whole 12 months before having another one. |
