Football Fan?

When I finally uploaded some photos into Flickr yesterday, Bev said "You're into football". I was surprised by my own negative reaction to that suggestion.

In the old days, I watched rugby and Formula 1. As I am too far from quality rugby and too bored with Formula 1, I join in with the Portuguese national obsession - football - but not obsessively so.

There's very little hooliganism in Portugal, but even so I wouldn't risk most league games. I stick to the big events, when tickets come my way, like yesterday's cup final, which was a good show and won by my adopted club, F.C. Porto. Even so, there was a dismaying number of obsessed fans at the game - apparently normal people who use a football match as an excuse to behave like they are retarded.

Many words have been written about the appeal of football to mankind's basic tribal instincts, which were so much on display yesterday, with chanting aimed to offend the national coach and against Benfica, who weren't even playing. For me, it's enough to be considered a "fan" with a lower-case "f", and I'll keep on following Liverpool (which won the F.A. Cup this weekend too!) and Porto in my own quiet way.