Soccer mania

Aug 23 , 2005
I found myself inching towards the entrance of the Vélodrome Statium in Marseille, wading across a sea of blue-tshirts. ALL of them were fans of the local football team- Olympique de Marseille waiting to gain entry to the finals of the UEFA Intertito Cup to be played versus the Spaniards La Corogne- Deportivo.

I have never watched a cricket match or for that matter ANY match from a stadium in India. And here I was going to a soccer match in Marseille, to see 2 teams playing, either of which I did not know.

But my neutrality did not last long. Something in my appearance, made the security guy describe the security procedure in Spanish to me, instead of French. Anybody would guess, that it isnt a fantastic idea to look like a fan of the foreign team, sitting beside a horde of atleast 30000 supporters. I bought a official OM cap, which was to be a life-saver and souvenir at the same time...

The home team was 2 down in the first encounter with Deportivo, and had to score a lead of atleast 3 goals to win the cup. Thats already too much to ask to a pretty average team playing against a stronger team, and losing their strong defender to injury.

My main objective was to soak in the frenzied atmosphere, and witness the peoples emotions and crowd behaviour. The energy in the stands for so high and the sight of people jumping and singing in the stands was great. As always I forgot to bring my camera in the most crucial moment. Besides the stadium is like a university for learning the juiciest foul language that French has to offer, during missed goals, opponents fouls, referees mistakes and other unfavourable situations.

There is a critical difference in how they expressed their discouragement for the rival team, and for support for home team. Clapping hands, and crying "Allez Allez!" is counted as expressions of support, but whistling loud with the fingers in the mouth is to disapprove the opponents gains and goals- which is just the opposite in India- whistling aloud is the strongest (and eardrum piercing) way to express your approval. So I had to check myself not to whistle when the home team scored !

And there were lots of such emotional outbursts to follow: OM scored in the first 4 minutes, and conceded one before the celebration for the first goal were over ! This meant they had to score 3 more to win the match. Except a few missed goals and yellow cards, nothing seemed to happen till the last 15 minutes of the second half.

While I was losing hope, my friend Eric who is a passionate supporter of OM seemed to need some moral support for himself. So given the critical stage of the match, I offered that by saying, I too would support OM for 1 year if they lead by 1, 2 years if they lead by 2, and lifelong supporter if they won with 3 lead. I let out some long vocal chants of "Om!", to invoke some divine support from the heavens.

And OM won the match 5-1 !

I leave it to your imagination the sights and sounds of the stadium, after such a result by the home team, which stood no chances to win before the match began....