Allow me a football rant. It's not World Cup related, but it is football.
I was following BBC live updates online yesterday, keeping up with Aston Villa's latest win. It was hard with all those goals they were scoring, but more of that in a few months. Too soon to get even remotely excited. As Villa scored, Sunderland conceded again and again and continued their plummet to the bottom three in the standings. BBC published a text from a fan (a viewer? a reader?) who lamented how sad it was to see what is happening to a "great club like Sunderland".
A great club? Great? Just because they were relegated from the Premier League last season after a few, mostly mediocre, years there that makes them great? They spent most of my living memory yo-yoing between the old first and second divisions, and later the Premier League. In 2000 and 2001 they did their equivalent of a Leicester, finishing 7th in the Premier League. Two years later they were relegated, again.
Between 1892 and 1895 they were Champions of England three times, and again in 1902, 1912 and 1936. After that, there wasn't much greatness.
Their 1973 FA Cup final win over Leeds is still talked about as one of the memorable Cup upsets. Great teams are not underdogs. They are the ones upset by the not-great teams.
My other recent memory of Sunderland is watching them play at home in front of numerous empty seats. Hardly the sign of a greatly supported team. When I pointed this out online one Saturday morning, and the boring-ness of watching them play and how the Premier League would not miss them, I got into a n expected social media argument with fans about what a great (there we go again) club it was and what amazing atmosphere there was at the Stadium of Light. Could have fooled me, those pesky TV cameras and their inability to not show the rows of empty seats.
I get the illusion of greatness because the club is based in the North East of England, a passionate hotbed of English football. But let's not get all romantic.
Next we'll be hearing about the uber-greatness of Newcastle United.
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