Football is a universal language. In most circumstances it can be a great ice breaker when meeting with strangers or new colleagues.
It establishes a bit of a common ground to build upon. So naturally eventually the question that follows is, “So what team do you support/follow?”.
Traditionally in the UK you can figure out who they support by picking up on their accent. A lot of the larger regions have more than 1 team so you can put it down to 1 or 2 teams.
When I tell people in my mild Black Country accent that I am a Liverpool fan it certainly raises eyebrows. Not so much now because the game has become global.
A Unique Journey
I am a 2nd Generation Asian. My father immigrated to the West Midlands in the UK in the early 1970’s from the Panjab region of India.
He was not a sports fan in any shape or form. Even native sports like Cricket, Hockey or Kabaddi never really interested him.
There was no passing on of the baton to support the local team as it happens most commonly. My local team is Walsall. Ironically my primary school was a stone throw away from the Walsall Stadium called Fellows Park.
They then moved to the Bescot Stadium which was down the road from my high school. The bigger teams near me are West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
Born in 1978 I grew up in the 1980's. I was starting to learn about popular culture. In the football stands across the UK there was brutal violence.
Football was attended largely by young single white males. The football match itself was just a side dish. The real reason for going to matches was for the punch ups.
Each team had their own mafia and would regularly fight with the opposition. Even though the Asian population was growing in the UK, Racism was very much rampant.
Organizations such as the National Front taking out regular demonstrations against immigration were regular attendants at football matches.
At the age of 8 years old football was just something that I would hear about. Team and Player names being mentioned around me.
Stumbling upon the port
I loved playing football in the school playground. That was the only interaction I had with football. On Sunday 13th March 1988 everything changed. I happened to be home alone. I was channel hopping trying to find something to take up my Sunday afternoon. There were only 4 channels in the UK at the time. I came across the below.
I may have joined it in the second half of the game and rest as they say is history. It was love at first sight. The way Liverpool blew away Man City in the match was incredible. Liverpool just bullied Man City into submission. I’ve never seen such domination and swagger.
The more vivid memories come soon after, such as losing to Wimbledon in the FA Cup final in that same year. At the time I was a bit naïve to comprehend the scale of the upset.
The following year was a lot more emotional as we experienced the tragedy that was Hillsborough. By this time I was well into things and looked forward to any match that was on TV. Again as a 9 year old I found it difficult to understand what was really going on.
This event changed the landscape of football and how it would be consumed going forward. The 1989 FA Cup Final was my first taste of Glory in terms of taking it all in and seeing Liverpool lift up a trophy.
The Hillsborough disaster impacted the then manager Kenny Dalglish. To the extent that he felt he had to quit because of the toll it took on him.
This saw the demise of the juggernaut that was Liverpool FC. The 1990 league title was the last title Liverpool would win in 30 years. Liverpool would continue to pick up the odd cup along the way but the league campaigns would be either disastrous or coming second.
Liverpool was more than a club
As I was living my teen years at High School Liverpool and football generally played a huge part in my life. I would love picking up magazines and reading about football.
The first Liverpool game I attended was in the League Cup in 1997. Liverpool visited one of my local teams West Bromwich Albion. This was the highly entertaining team put together by Roy Evans. I got to see Robbie Fowler in his prime at this game.
My first game at Anfield came in November 2003 when Steua Bucherest visited Anfield in the EUFA Cup. It was a drab game with a single winning goal by Harry Kewell.
There was no other highlight of the game itself. Then manager Gerrard Houllier was massively under pressure and eventually left the club the following summer.
Houllier was replaced by Rafa Benitez. Under Rafa going to Anfield became a regular occurrence for me. Especially when it came to European nights.
I had the pleasure of experiencing epic games such as Olympiakos in the final group game and then the game against Juventus in the Quarter-finals. Subsequent years saw incredible games at Anfield against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea.
It's been a beautiful journey that only a club like Liverpool could offer.