Football – what’s not to love about it?

By Brenton Shaughnessy
GROWING up I was very much an Aussie rules boy. It was only natural for me, being a boy from country Victoria. I lived and breathed AFL (Australian Football League) and never even gave another sport a chance. That was of course, until I moved to the UK two years ago.

I am now, proudly, a lover soccer (or if you will, of the game that they call football). Over the past 24 months, my thoughts of Riewoldt, Pendlebury, Goodes and Judd have been replaced by foreign names such as Rooney, Messi, Van Persie and Silva. I have well and truly been hooked into this world wide phenomenon and cannot see myself ever getting out of it.

I was brought up to think that football (soccer) was a skill-less, weak and boring game. But my respect for the skills has grown. I have also realised that the precision, fitness and concentration needed is immense. Never would a leading football club be able to poach a player from a rival sporting code, train them up for a few months, then throw them straight into the first team (cough…Israel Folau, cough…Carmichael Hunt), it simply could not be done.

The lack of scoring is replaced by this amazing tension that lasts throughout a match. A missed chance can be just as exciting as a goal, but when the tension is broken and somebody actually does score, the outburst of celebration from all involved is exhilarating.

There is one element above all that has drawn me in, and that is the universal appeal of the game. Football is played by 250 million people in over 200 different countries. The passion that it evokes from players and fans alike is fascinating.

I recently spent quite a bit of time in Morocco, Northern Africa.

It was one of the poorest countries I have had the opportunity to visit, the visible poverty is astonishing. With over four million people living below the poverty line, large unemployment rates and a deteriorating infrastructure, Moroccans generally do not have a lot to look forward to in their lives. There is one thing though, which allows many of these people an escape from their bleak reality.

Everywhere you turn; there are children in replica Messi and Ronaldo shirts. Football fields are set up wherever possible, whether it is in a concrete courtyard in Fes, a park in Casablanca or a sandy rock strewn patch on the outskirts of Merzouga, near the Sahara. Children are forever playing, with whatever they can find, be it a can, scrunched up piece of newspaper or a pumped up ball.

Game day is an event, the cafes are full of eager spectators sipping on mint tea and screaming at every turn of the game (and any unfortunate who happened to inadvertently stand in front of the screen). I can imagine that there would be similar scenes right throughout Africa, Asia, India and the Middle East.

Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, black, white, young, old, male or female, this game appeals to so many. Learning football is akin to learning another language. You will find people in all countries and all walks of life who are willing to drop everything and have a conversation with you about football.

Someone once said to the famous Liverpool manager Bill Shankly: “Football isn’t a matter of life and death to you?” to which he replied: “Listen, it’s more important than that”. He is not alone in the world with this summation.

Australian rules, is still and always will be my first love. But I am so glad that I opened up and allowed the other football into my life. If you have not done so already, I would suggest that you do the same. Apart from giving you a good excuse to get down to the pub on a Sunday afternoon in London, it will enrich your experiences abroad and offer you an inside view of the many different cultures that you will encounter along the journey.

Having difficulty choosing a Premier League team? Use Liam Flanagan’s AFL-EPL comparison guide to help you pick.