New Religion

Contrary to Pop-ular opinion, this blog post is NOT about Duran Duran's splendid 1984 hit from the album 'Seven And The Ragged Tiger'... (by the way, they were my favourite group when young... what a dynamite band they were).

I'm talking in fact about an excellent article I read in the magazine TwentyFour7 Football (yes, it's about football again, haha). This is a brand-new magazine that just came out this year, so I'm proud to say I have got every single issue of this mag so far in its existence, haha. It's quite a good magazine and I'm getting quite drawn to it. Good interviews, real factual stuff, like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink saying how difficult George Graham was to please, and insightful nuggets like that.

This great article is actually predicated on a rather lengthy e-mail exchange between popular Spanish football aficionado Guillem Balague and a revered priest, Father William Glasswell. And they're talking about whether football is indeed the new religion of the world.

With sectarian violence and burning of bibles happening all over the planet, maybe football is indeed the new religion of the world? I like Father William's line on how football is the embodiment of how society should be lived - a group of men using teamwork towards a common objective - helping, supporting, cheering on one another towards a common goal.... Isn't that how society and happy living is all about?

And that hits the nail on the head. There is no team game quite like football. It is the greatest team sport on the planet. To control a ball with your hands is easy. To control a ball with your feet is quite difficult. And there lies it...you have to work as a team to have any chance. THERE IS NO TEAM GAME LIKE FOOTBALL. And it suddenly dawned on me why I like it so much. Just watching 11 men work so hard for one another on the football pitch. supporting, combining, integrating with one another, cheering one another on and wishing the best for one another..... what could be lovelier than that?

And it's all about Respect. Because while you're enjoying the spirit of competition, you always respect your opposition and play fairly. Shaking hands before the match starts, exchanging jerseys after the match ends, helping fallen opponents when they fall down.... that's what society is all about.... and it's all best captured in football. Now does anyone still wonder why it's the most popular game on the planet?