Again, to clarify for my North American readers, when Tom Hicks, the new American owner of Liverpool FC said of Anfield: “I’d heard so much about the fans, but that was spectacular. I’ve seen a lot of sporting events all around the world, but nothing that comes close to that”, he was not trying to ingratiate himself with the scousers, nor was he gloating over gate receipts, which do not generate serious profits for football clubs. He was simply stating a fact.
If you’ve never been amongst 45,000 people packed inside a close stadium, all singing the same song in unison as loud as they can, and continuing to roar, bellow and chant other songs for 90 minutes, you can’t really fathom the experience. It doesn’t happen anywhere else in human activity, except maybe Zulu warfare. No orchestra or choir or even heavy rock band makes that kind of visceral impact. You don’t hear it through your ears, it transmits directly to your intestines.
The purple-clad people in the video taking pictures and trying to join in with You’ll Never Walk Alone are Barcelona fans. Barcelona play at a much bigger stadium: the Nou Camp has a capacity of over 98,000. But they’ve never experienced that kind of atmosphere.
As Peter likes to remind us on Diversely We Sail, North American sports don’t have the problems of soccer. They are family affairs: kids fidgeting, dads gallumphing off to stock up on hotdogs.
Hooliganism is the dark side of football tribalism. Anfield on a European Cup night is the blinding bright side.
That stand is the Kop, the hub of the tribe.
ReplyDeleteThe women and kids tend to be in the other stands. Now that the stadium is all-seater, there are plenty of women. Too many, I reckon.
(with about 20 seconds to go, there's a kid squeaking, obviously right next to the mike).
ReplyDeleteITV did themselves proud on Tuesday night, and broadcast almost the whole of 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. It was spine-tingling.
ReplyDeleteWhen you go there yourself, you phone someone you know, and hold the mobile up so they can hear it as well. It's really something else.
Yes, in case you're wondering how a song from a musical came to be the anthem for a football club, the answer is that it was a big hit in the 60s for Gerry and the Pacemakers, a band that was part of Liverpool's Mersey Sound movement (led, obviously, by the Beatles).
ReplyDeleteThe Liverpool fans sing their version, and various other clubs have also adopted it, notably Glasgow Celtic (leading to gobsmacking scenes on the rare occasions they play against each other.
Sorry, that Celtic-Liverpool link again.
ReplyDeleteBefore just about any sporting event in the US, the crowd stands and sings the Star Spangled Banner. How many soccer fans know the words to God Save The Queen?
ReplyDeleteMy God, your anti-soccer prejudices astound me. Seriously, it's frightening. Look, football is the national game.
ReplyDeleteAnd the words to the antional anthem aren't exactly difficult.
So the way to Brit's heart turns out to be pretty simple. When he and his crowd of shaved-headed, drunken, menacing friends show up at your house you invite them in, turn the telly to their favorite channel, ply them with beer, and pretend that they're cuddly. You choke back a tear when they start singing their special song. If someone drapes an arm around your shoulder and breathes in your face: "So, squire. If you were to take one word to describe Great Britain, what would it be?" You look him straight in the eye and say: "Great. The word that leaps to mind is, Great." They'll be naming their children after you. So easy a even a dozy Yank could do it. Now if only there were some way to make money from this...
ReplyDeleteYou'd love to know the way to my heart, wouldn't you Joe?
ReplyDeleteJoe, As brit said in a very amusing post some time back, the answer is right in the name for goodness sake.
ReplyDeletePeter and Joe and Ali and Gordon -- why don't you guys post your pictures? David, you too and anyone else I forgot.
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm pro-soccer, for an American.
ReplyDeleteMy all-time favorite memory from my years as a sports writer was the first game of the Tidewater Wings in the International Hockey League, in Norfolk, Va.
ReplyDeleteIce hockey was unknown there, and internationalism, too, but the city fathers were thrilled to be invited to play in the high minor leagues.
They had heard that many hockey players were Canadian, so before the first faceoff, the PA played the national anthems of both countries, "The Star-spangled Banner" and "God Save the Queen."
Hey, it's a meme.
ReplyDeleteNow the football chant is something I know a lot about. A dedicated post is required, however.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete