Why football?

I'm not even sure about motivation of this article, why I decided to express all my feelings, tell what annoys me, what excites me, what makes me sit down for a while and think everything over.

Wow, what a way to begin a piece of pun - you may think there are going to be a few pages of absolutely nothing, some silly talk that pretends to be serious. Don't worry, it will be far from my previous articles as they were all about United, but it won't be that spooky!

I won't lie to anyone, why would I? Football is a damn important part of my life. I think about football pretty much all the time, matchdays are the best days of my week usually and I never ever deny myself a good piece of football by United even when there's a concrete party around, I'd rather be late for it than miss an important game.

Most of people who know me think that football is only about twenty two men running around like headless chickens, chasing the ball and eventually booting it with very little of thought between two posts that stand there for some reason, not necessarily coherent. Then, there are several thousands of freaks like Bartek on the stands cheering their team, which makes very little of sense, 'cause at the end of the day they seems to get nothing from their club's victories. But trust me, they take a damn lot from it.

I'm there to say that it's not strictly limited to these activities. Obviously, the game is an important part of it, but these are the build-up to it and everything that follows afterwards that make it so unusual. The feeling of superiority over arch-rivals, the possibility of telling someone 'We were better than you the other day', the awareness of people around you knowing that something just happened, as they can feel it in the air when you are around smiling in a cheek-to-cheek way as if the sky fell into your hands. That eleven men plus a few on the bench you support are just a part of the game you love so much, someday they will all hang up their boots and be replaced by other people, and your heart will still have the same colour, because it's all about tradition, a history and memories that will always be there.

This piece of read isn't there to CONVINCE you about something because I'm fully concious that most of people who condemn me and everyone else for putting so much heart into football aren't going to be convinced by a couple of words. I'm here to EXPLAIN something to you, with a bit of hope that you will see some sense in my words and at least try to understand why football is so damn exciting.

I was like 8 years old when I saw the first football game, and admittedly I comprehended very little of it, thing typical for an 8-year old kid. For instance, when Warzycha scored against Legia, I started crying because I thought that the cunt had just eliminated his own team with an own-goal, 'cause he was a Pole after all, wasn't he? To my amazement, he found the right net, he played for Panathinaikos, but as an 8-year old I took my time to understand the whole idea of it.

Then there was United, team followed by my brother who was 17 that times. I remember watching United being eliminated by Dortmund in 1997, but then we won the title and I got my first United shirt a few days before the last game of a season. It was on TV and luckily enough, I had access to a channel that broadcasted it, so I couldn't miss an opportunity to take a photo with players lifting their trophy. I still have it, after ten years it still lies somewhere in my drawer. Me, 8-year old Bartek, with very little of football knowledge, wearing a red shirt with Cantona's name on my back, with a red scarf around my neck, standing proud in front of TV when his idols were a thousand miles away. Then there were ten years of following United, and I'm sure there will be more of them because my passion doesn't seem like stopping. I still watch 1999 tapes frequently just to remind myself that when I was a kid, United shook the Europe and left it with very little of doubt about who prevailed.

It annoys me when people show so little of indulgence and act as if watching football was a crime. I know, I put so much attention to it all the time, but I have never said it's the only thing I care about. In fact, there's a whole life to care about, so how could I just sheckle myself to football and see nothing else?

I will never be connected to football in all likelihood. I won't be a footballer, I can't hit a barn door with a ball, nor can any of my friends to be fair. I won't be a manager, I don't know anything about management besides what I've learnt from a computer game. I wanted to be a journalist, but I won't be one, I'm probably not good enough for it. I won't be a chairman, it's difficult to be one in a contemporary world. I take no profits from football at the moment, I used to when I was involved in gambling and stuff like that but I parted company with any gambling activities a couple of months ago and I don't think I'm ever going back even though I made a considerable profit in my days.

But I still treat football as a style of my life, I pay a lot of attention to it, I want to be up-to-date all the time, I don't want to miss anything. I haven't missed United game for a few years in a row, I remember correctly most of the games played in the last few years.

Do I consider myself a freak? Well, honestly I don't. I think people have a right to have their own hobbies, even passions and there is nothing wrong with people who put football above everything else. It makes as much sense as watching TV, listening to the radio, reading books. It's a great fun, it gets a lot of people across the world together, it creates a kind of unity that is never to be torn apart.

This is football. Leave it to me. Simple as that.

That was me, the Bartek guy you love reading so much. Cheers ppl.