For Asian football fans, it is very common to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch your favorite team’s match on a local TV channel at the comfort of your own home or at a bar. Oftentimes, fans end up watching the game either alert or half-asleep, sometimes not even watching or listening intently to what is on the screen.
Real Madrid fans, who watched their team face off against Levante at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on an early Monday morning, may have heard a dominant noise in the stadium. It was not the roar of the crowd when Welsh man Gareth Bale scored a brace after a lengthy goal drought, but the sound of the the Bernabeu crowd jeering at him and his teammates. This happened not only during that match, but also the other matches prior, wherein they were not able to get the win.
Those whistling Real Madrid fans obviously have something to be discontented about—the team’s run in 2015 cannot mirror their successful run the previous year. As the world’s richest club, its fans expect them to play magnificent football, and they are not afraid of voicing out their feelings if things don’t go they way they want.
While fans are a team’s “support group,” sometimes they are also the team’s harshest critics. After all, some of them have been following the team for as long as they can remember, while some make the team their life, devoting themselves to them completely.
The case isn’t quite as extreme in the Philippines. It is normal, however, to see people expressing their frustration when a player like LA Tenorio misses shots or when Phil Younghusband shoots off-target. No one whistles at them or laments them for not trying enough, though, no matter how painful the outcome of these misfortunes. Sure, there are outliers who turn on the team when they lose, but they are outnumbered by the ones who stick around until the team earns their success.
What these Madrid fans—and other groups should know as well—is that the relevance of a team does not end in its success, but rather, on how the team maintains its character through wins and losses. They should learn how to empathize and support their players and their management. There should be a certain sense of belief that whatever slump the team is in, they will, no doubt, bounce back from it. As the Atenean phrase goes, “Win or lose, it’s the school we choose.”
In the grand scheme of things, it does not matter how long you have supported a team or to what lengths you will go to support your team. This is not a contest of one’s devotion to or knowledge of the team. Commitment is a key part in choosing to support a team and if you do not value this, then it would be better if you did not support a team at all. Being a fan does not mean that you just see the team or the athlete for what they are good at—it also means that you are courageous enough to see the faults that these players have.
People forget that athletes are humans who have problems and feelings as well, because the world sees only one side of their persona. Sometimes, they have to set aside these problems because they simply want to play a sport. Fans do not exist in the game so that the team can earn profit or garner popularity. A relationship has to be fostered between the players and the fans—one that is based on solidarity and camaraderie. After all, both parties are united by the fact that they want nothing but the best for the team and for the sport.
