The Enigma that is English Football

Heart-stopping entertainment week in, week out is something only the English Premier League can provide

It was a warm Saturday afternoon of April. My dad and I were sitting together after lunch, soaking in the gentler than usual sun, from the air-conditioned comfort of our living room. It was a perfect day to discuss sports.

“We will win today. We have never played better; all our players are in top form. There’s no way our opponents are going to stop us today!” quipped my dad, in his usual, heavy, jury-like voice. A bit surprised, I followed him up. “Absolutely! A nine-point lead over Arsenal, Rooney and Chicharito at their poaching-best, Van-der-Saar’s age defying acrobatic saves. Truly, we are witnessing another red devils’ golden era!”

A stunned and uneasy silence followed. My father was looking at me as if I was speaking parseltongue. For him, Park Ji-Sung must have been a character from Doraemon, and Giggs must have been a badly pronounced rendition of ‘giggles’. He had been talking about Mumbai Indians. Rest of our afternoon was spent in the tender care of sleep!

Nobody knows when this happened. But it happened all right! For an entire generation, the game of football took another meaning. It was not about Brazil or Argentina anymore. It wasn’t even about Mohan Bagan or East Bengal. The new realms in football were Manchester United and Arsenal. Rooney and Lampard were the new wallpaper-boys (‘poster boys’ is a thing of the past). Chelsea and Manchester City were the new villains, hated for ‘buying’ heroes, instead of ‘building’ them. ‘You will never walk alone’ became an anthem for the youth!

No doubt television channels played a big part in this change. India-friendly timings of most of the encounters was also an advantage. But just these could not have sustained English football’s popularity in India. It needed to appeal to that one single thing that an Indian Sportskeeda looks for: Passion!

Passion is one thing that drives the Indian sports fan, and truckloads of passion, is what English football delivered. The Indian fan could relax for two hours on a weekend, watching probably the best in unscripted entertainment. When he saw Spurs leading 2-0 against Manchester United at half-time, he would never have thought of the thumping that the Spurs were in for! He would have never believed that when City and United were stuck at 3-3, a mostly absent and diminutively built Michael Owen would deliver the killer blow in the 94^th minute. Lastly, yet probably the greatest turnarounds, was witnessed in 2005. Who in their right minds would have ever had faith in the Reds to win, when they were down 3-0 against the mighty AC Milan, in a Champions’ League final!

Pure, unbridled adrenaline rush it was. All of it! If it was the magic of Ronaldo once, it was the purebred genius of Gerrard the other time. Whatever it was, it was the most raw, non-polluted form of entertainment. There was another important factor that worked in favor of English football. Before the IPL, India did not know what it was to ‘belong’ to a non-national team. The diversity in India was perfect for a game to create religion-like following amongst groups of people. The Hockey Premier League failed to do this. Our urban population needed some team to belong to, some team they could support at office, in college, at school. They needed a religion without any baggage, which they could follow unabashedly. English football provided this, and how!

Having been addicted to football myself, I know how it feels when my favorite team, Manchester United wins, or loses. This feeling is strengthened when the opposition is an arch enemy, maybe a Chelsea, or Liverpool. In spite of all that jazz, there have been many dark days that English football has had to go through. There are people, who blasphemously call football, soccer. Then there is the crowd that believes IPL is way better since it has a final to decide the winner. Some people even have the audacity to call the EPL a rip-off of the IPL!

But the Rooneys and the Terrys are here to stay. No matter what is thrown at them, they will continue to enthrall football fanatics across India. And when in doubt, just replay the 1999, or the 2005 Champions League Final. It will make a believer out of the worst cynic!