In a country ranked in the last quartile of the FIFA rankings for as long as I can remember, finding people who love football would be hard. I don’t consider the perennial once in 4 years World Cup bandwagon as fans (I agree my prejudice would exclude some purists..but screw them). Those who fall into my certified football lover category are primarily the people who follow a club. Thanks to our colonial past and relatively higher marketing, EPL is by far the most followed league here. Given the background, there are 5 kinds of fans you would find:
- Klops: Someone who has seen the Liverpool FC play in the pre Premier League era or the 2005 Champions league converts. Keywords : Gerrard , YNWA
- Red Devils: The most numerous of the kind, tons of wannabe among them. 13 EPL titles - end of discussion. Keywords: Fergie, Old Trafford, GGMU
- Gooners: Those who wanted to support the challengers rather than top dogs. Thanks to Arsene Wenger. Keyword : Invincibles (long back), Emirate$
- Blues: The new elites from the 2004-’05 season, back to back championships. Keywords: Morinho, Drogba Legend and Dasvidanya FFP.
- Cityzens: The newest elite club and the supporters are like unicorns here. I have come across very few. For a club playing third tier football in 1998, they have come a long way. Thank Shiekhs from Abu Dhabi for the funds and screw you FFP. Keywords: €thihad, Oil, Unicorn
Let’s examine the progression from the Old Heroes to Champions, Challengers and Elites from a numerical standpoint. With numbers dwindling at every stage and the last set of supporters being called the proverbial Unicorns, it might seem that supporters of another other EPL would be non-existent. They would have to be something like a ‘unicorn de la unicorn’ (my French is poor - deal with it).
Yes, I am the unicorn of unicorns. I support Tottenham Hotspurs…have been for over a decade now and will be for the rest of the life. #TTID
P.S: Why Spurs? – It’s a topic for another day.
P.P.S : TTID – Tottenham Till I Die
