For fair-weather supporters tournaments offer a taste of the pain – as well as the joy – of being a seasoned follower
Football is about pleasure and pain, a zero-sum ball game. The level of joy we feel at a goal or a victory is mirrored precisely in the pain of others. This pain is, in a sense, at the heart of football fandom; for without despair, there can be no joy.
I recall Colin Moynihan, as minister for sport in the last years of the Thatcher government, saying something well-meaning, but specious about football. It was along the lines of the game being a good thing for the economy because when their team won, its supporters’ productivity would improve. Didn’t they have spads in those days? Surely someone should have explained that the opposite would also apply for the productivity of supporters of the losing side. If he had been a passionate fan of a club, he would have known this to be true.
