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Football Fascism

Benjamin Butler

Tuesday, January 8th, 2002

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 It appears to me that if you are,
Male, heterosexual and of an age capable of understanding the offside rule,
It is an unwritten law that you have to like football.
Well, I am male (last time I checked),
I have a girlfriend (last time I checked, she was definitely a she),
And I understand the offside rule (last time I checked),
But,
I don’t avidly support a football team with religious and ritualistic enthusiasm.
Does that make me wrong?
Why do I not enjoy watching my eleven men striving to put the ball in the opposition’s goal just so I can cheer and shout their praise?
Why do I not enjoy sitting on a plastic seat for three hours hoping my team scores enough goals to win?
How come I couldn’t care for the euphoria of winning and the depression in defeat?
Or the excitement of a good draw?
Or the boredom of a bad draw?
A strong challenge?
An adept piece of footwork?
Am I a criminal? Just because I don’t support football,
Just because I don’t believe that winning is everything and devote my Saturday afternoons to this fact.
Just because I don’t view the team sheet and complain that we are not at full strength,
Not strong enough.
Or am I just not a Fascist?
Not believing in the Survival of the Fittest, Winner takes all mentality,
Belonging to a group and, so devoted to them, I’d abuse people I have never met before, just because they don’t share the same ideals as me?
I put it to you,
Is sport in general, and football in particular,
No more than an expression of Fascism.
I put it to you,
That football is Fascism.

© Benjamin Butler

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/football-fascism/