Hate-watchers unite for the World Cup
Fans are paramount, of course, but so are people who simply don’t like the other teams and will pay to see them lose, hopefully to yours.
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It is not all so grim. There was genuine celebration of Jude Bellingham (centre) and Erling Haaland’s (left) continuing friendship in the wake of the England-Norway game, which the former won.
PHOTO : AFP
Howard Chua-Eoan
A friend of mine says quite seriously that he moved to the UK from India to be close to Stamford Bridge, the home stadium of Chelsea, the football team he lives for. A couple of years ago, I searched for a London squad to support and he convinced me to root for the Blues. It was fun until the season that ended in May, which was wretched. Chelsea cratered – falling outside the top six Premier League teams for only the second time in 31 seasons. Making things worse, rival Arsenal took the league title, the best-in-England prize it hadn’t won in 22 years.
My friend consoled himself, admitting that he derived great satisfaction from hate-watching Arsenal’s subsequent loss on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain in the Europe-wide Champions League final. I was relieved: It meant I wasn’t alone in wishing the worst for the Gunners.
