A Different League

I am a Newcastle United fan, through and through. I’ve never supported any other team, but there was a period in my life when I didn’t support any team, to be honest. I think as a kid the older I got I just lost interest when I realised I wasn’t actually very good at football (or any team sports, to be honest), and this just led to me to move away from watching it as well. I didn’t get back into it until about 2011/12ish, so you can’t accuse me of being a fan who suddenly regained interest post-takeover (mind I do remember some of those Pardew days quite fondly). No, I just started going to games again and it made me realise what football is really all about, especially in this city of Newcastle, which I also identify with very strongly despite not being your stereotypical Geordie. On the day my grandad offered me a spare ticket to my first game for years, it took about 5 seconds to remember everything beautiful about this game.

The noise of the fans is an inspiration. It's impossible to fathom such a level of dedication and passion without witnessing it first-hand. And this is just the beginning. It gets better when the anthems play and the players come onto the pitch. And this was a cup tie. I mean, I can't stress how unimportant a game it was. The stadium was nowhere near full. We were playing Leeds who were never going to beat us at the time. But it didn't matter. I got it again. Football is so much more than just … football. It's the investment, the stories, the culture, the journeys, the colours, the music and the entire phenomenon that comes from supporting your team.

All the meaning that I had sought in life in as I had moved away from football, that I had looked for in art and literature, in language and in movies, suddenly found their biggest platform in St James’ Park.

Newcastle were not the team they are now back then, as we all know. It isn't a need to have a constantly-winning team that fuels my passion, it's the passion itself.

In Italian, they have a word for it, 'Tifo’ (which incidentally also refers to the displays in such countries, that Wor Flags have recently been doing a decent Geordie version of recently). We don't have such a word in English it would seem, though, but we do have the below quote from football manager Sir Bobby Robson:

I wish I could tell my younger self this. And I am thankful of my Grandad for re-opening my eyes to that change in my own life. He passed away long before I thought he would, and though I will certainly never be able to score a winning goal to honour him, I might be caught on TV at Wembley one day cheering the loudest when we win a cup.

But that’s just my story, one of millions of football fans in the UK. From all different backgrounds, abilities and walks of life. Like I say, what makes football isn’t the sport itself, or the owners, or the business of the sport, it’s the fans. And both the big clubs in the football-rich North East, Sunderland and Newcastle, have faced both financial success and hardship in recent years, but their fans have remained strong. And I wanted to explore that. So, in many ways this is a project that tries to get under the skin of the changing face of football, but it’s one that does so from the face of football that never changes, the fans. More to come.