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May 04, 2005
Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea
Anyone who knows me will know that I find the appeal of watching most sports pretty mystifying. Of all spectator sports in this country I think football is the strangest. Standing around for the best part of two hours watching a pile of men kick a ball around, and quite probably leaving with a no-score draw, is complete idiocy. And yet people pay large amounts of money to do it, and to wear their side's colours and travel up and down the country supporting (in both senses of the word) a group of the highly overpaid tabloid fodder that we know as the "professional footballer". They even go to pubs and instead of chatting with their friends, they stare at a screen in the corner for the whole evening. And worse than that, they do this when the teams playing aren't even in the British leagues.
And what exactly constitutes a team anyway. They are named after towns and cities like Liverpool and Manchester. But the only regional thing about them is that that is where they have a football stadium. The players nowadays come from all over the world. I haven't the statistics to hand, but I'm sure I'm not far wrong by saying that there aren't many players from Arsenal that actually have played for that team lately.
I'm prepared to admit that once you have nailed your colours to the mast, seeing the football season through and coming out with a good result would be pretty satisfying. So why is it then, that in last nights game between Liverpool and Chelsea, which I believe was quite important, they cannot even agree on whether the single goal scored even went over the line. Why isn't there a camera on each net watching to see if a goal is really a goal. Something so important shouldn't be left to chance. Football clubs are even listed on the stock market. A win or loss could lead to a huge financial loss for the shareholders.
They have had a photo finish in horse racing for decades. After some decidedly dodgy line calls in tennis in the past it is now similarly well observed. If I was a football fan, after last nights appalling fiasco, I really would just have to give up.
Posted by se71 at May 4, 2005 09:09 AM
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