 “Everywhere we go……..” Recently, I found myself high-fiving a Spanish bloke who I had never met before and will in all likelihood never meet again. The occasion that demanded such a display of wild celebration was the third goal scored by Xerez CD in a 3-0 win against Valladolid in the 28th match of the La Liga 09/10 season. Xerez – a Spanish team who a few short weeks ago I had never heard of and had no affiliation towards whatsoever – and yet here I was celebrating their success with gusto!
It’s true what they say, football really is a funny old game. To be fair, the actual football part of it is quite straightforward – governed by more or less the same laws the world over with the primary aim being to score more goals than your opposition. Where things start to get ‘funny’ is when you start considering the supplementary bits and bobs that surround the ‘game’ and make for the matchday ‘experience’. I’ve been lucky enough to watch football in a few European countries now, and my recent Spanish experience got me thinking about the similarities and more interestingly the differences between football across Europe. Let’s take a simple example – the day and time of kick off. In League 2 it’s pretty straightforward, with the vast majority of matches kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday. OK, so there’s the odd Friday night match and the obligatory matches on public holidays over Christmas and Easter, but fans know well in advance where they need to be and at what time if they want to watch their team. Things are a little more ‘fluid’ in the Premiership, and to an extent the Championship, where television plays more of a role in dictating the day and time of kick off, but even then forward planning prevails. So can you imagine the uproar if the Premiership adopted the approach taken by many of the top European leagues of not announcing the date and time of matches until two weeks before the match? The 6-0-6 telephone lines would be in meltdown with people apoplectic about the situation, but this is acceptable practice in places like Germany and Spain. Although the fixtures are scheduled in advance, the kick off time - and for weekend matches the actual day of the match – is not confirmed until a couple of weeks before. As a visiting supporter, it must be a nightmare if you want to attend matches using public transport – unless of course these countries have an integrated public transport system with sensible pricing policies that encourage use. Hmmm, there’s an idea. Those sensible Germans take this one step further by including use of local public transport on the day of the game within the cost of the matchday ticket. This practice was also adopted at both World Cup ’06 and Euro ’08, and with a little creative thinking from the powers that be, could work in the UK. Which brings me onto kick off times. Here in the UK, grumbles of disapproval can be heard far and wide if kick off is anything earlier than 3pm on Saturday. So imagine kick off at 10am on a Sunday morning, as is commonplace in the Slovakian Corgoň Liga. It came in handy a few years back when we managed ‘3 matches, 3 countries, 24 hours’ - the match between Artmedia Bratislava (a.k.a MFK Petržalka) and MŠK Žilina in the Corgoň Liga allowed for a quick hop to Vienna for the 3pm kick off there. The most bizarre thing about the Artmedia match was the group of kids in front who were obviously on their way to or back from ice-hockey practice – with all their kit with them. Including their sticks. Can you imagine trying to take one of those into Old Trafford? “No chance, son”. From one extreme to the other - kick off for another game I attended whilst in Spain was 10pm on a Tuesday evening. Granted, Sevilla’s opponents were the aforementioned Xerez CD – a short journey of about 50 miles for the away supporters. Although this makes them what we would consider to be ‘local rivals’, the fans don’t see it that way at all. Indeed, just before kick off the Sevilla supporters held up a banner which stated ‘Welcome to our Home, Brothers’. Maybe rivalry would develop in time if the two teams had been playing in the same league for many years, but as this is Xerez’s first season in the top flight, the hand of friendship remains extended. I can’t quite see the Pontoon extending the same courtesy to Taaaaghers should we face Hull City in a league match sometime soon….. Walking out of a match at near to midnight was a strange experience, but fits the Spanish culture perfectly. Even so, I was amazed at the number of young children at the match on what was after all a school night! Granted, the late kick off time was dictated by the fact that it was a televised match (Sevilla being fourth in La Liga at that point), but isn’t that unusual for Spain. The match finished 1-1 by the way, with the Sevilla manager getting the boot straight afterwards for the crime of only managing a draw with a small unfashionable team stranded at the foot of the table. Sound familiar? Maybe that’s why I was so excited to see Xerez do well a few days later. I’ve not even touched on some of the other things that make up the full matchday experience – food, drink and singing. That will have to come in Part Two…until then, Adios! Emma Blackbourn
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