[Football] In life and death, a football club is an anchor..

[The Clamp]

Interesting article, I thought..

In life and death, a football club is an anchor, a conduit for connections | Jason Stockwood

There is something uniquely powerful about football – a fact brought home to me when my mother died this summer

www.theguardian.com

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Excellent.. he puts it more eloquently than I could, but football and our shared love of this club helps to get one through the darker times of life.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

He's right in that a football club is a community. It's what got us through the war years (post Bellotti), and Withdean.
I was proud of the fact we were the American Express Community stadium with Albion in the Community. I feel a great deal of unease now the word Community has been dropped.

I still see faces I know at the game, and when my other half couldn't make the Europa draw last Friday, I felt quite happy to say, I'll still go because I'm bound to know someone. We may have over 30,000 attending nowadays but we must keep that sense of community.

 

[Live by the sea]

If the club has aims to become more of a global attraction it probably felt the community wording made it sound too provincial.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If the club has aims to become more of a global attraction it probably felt the community wording made it sound too provincial.

Using the word community didn't stop us from signing a Japanese international, South American internationals and European players, some of whom play for their respective countries.
A community isn't necessarily a geographical area.

 

[hart's shirt]

One of the things I appreciate most about football is that when I hear the football results of other teams, it brings to mind those people that I know and love who support these teams, and specifically how they'll be feeling right then.

Happiness, disappointment, relief or frustration if VAR's got anything to do with it.

When my own mother passed away in April and the predictable yet still unplanned for waves of grief crashed over, it was more than reassuring to have things to hold to, the constants in life like football in general and specifically the Albion that you know will still be there tomorrow even if people won't be.

 

[fly high]

One of the things I appreciate most about football is that when I hear the football results of other teams, it brings to mind those people that I know and love who support these teams, and specifically how they'll be feeling right then.

Happiness, disappointment, relief or frustration if VAR's got anything to do with it.

When my own mother passed away in April and the predictable yet still unplanned for waves of grief crashed over, it was more than reassuring to have things to hold to, the constants in life like football in general and specifically the Albion that you know will still be there tomorrow even if people won't be.

Sorry to hear of your lose. Lost my Dad 13 years ago and my eldest brother nearly 3 years ago. Afraid those waves of grief never leave, maybe just less frequent. Pops up unexpectedly over silly little things, have to swallow hard and remember happy things about them and time spent with them.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

If the club has aims to become more of a global attraction it probably felt the community wording made it sound too provincial.

Let's hope the club never has to come running cap-in-hand to the community for support ever again then...

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Let's hope the club never has to come running cap-in-hand to the community for support ever again then...

I can remember John Prescott going to Australia, and a woman coming up to him asking him about permission for our new stadium. He commented Brighton fans get everywhere. We were global then, obviously not to all countries but still far reaching.

 

[Grizz]

I shall have to go back and read the article again at some stage. When I read the line, my kids were starting to develop a cockney accent, so I just had to get them back home to the north, I thought, ok, not in the mood for this.

 

[kevo]

Sorry to hear of your lose. Lost my Dad 13 years ago and my eldest brother nearly 3 years ago. Afraid those waves of grief never leave, maybe just less frequent. Pops up unexpectedly over silly little things, have to swallow hard and remember happy things about them and time spent with them.

One of these things for me is being at the Amex if we've had a good win.

When she was already quite ill, my mum rang me excitedly as I was leaving the stadium after our epic 3-2 v Man City to tell me she'd listened to the whole match on the radio. She went into hospital a week or so later and within two months she was gone. She was 84.

I will always remember that phone call and how happy she sounded - mainly because she knew how happy I would be.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

One of these things for me is being at the Amex if we've had a good win.

When she was already quite ill, my mum rang me excitedly as I was leaving the stadium after our epic 3-2 v Man City to tell me she'd listened to the whole match on the radio. She went into hospital a week or so later and within two months she was gone. She was 84.

I will always remember that phone call and how happy she sounded - mainly because she knew how happy I would be.

It makes such a difference to a relationship when you have shared interests. My Dad died in 1998 but we could always talk about cricket and football. Memories are made of this (so the song goes)

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I started to go to the Goldstone when my Uncle used to take me around 1967. He’s nearly 90 now, so it’s my turn to take him on the rare occasions that he can make it. Life goes on as far as me, him and the Albion are concerned.

 

[BNthree]

I shall have to go back and read the article again at some stage. When I read the line, my kids were starting to develop a cockney accent, so I just had to get them back home to the north, I thought, ok, not in the mood for this.

Actually felt sorry for his kids. Moved them from cosmopolitan London to Grimsby. That must have been a shock for them.

 

[Brian Fantana]

It was my grandfather who got me into following the Albion. He first went to watch at the Goldstone in the 1920s.

He lived to be 100 (his final birthday near enough coinciding with our promotion to the PL).

His funeral was the day we beat West Ham 3-0 away in our first PL season. It was a beautifully poignant evening after his wake on that day, sitting and watching us properly announce our arrival as a PL club. He’d have absolutely loved it. And the performance made the whole day a lot easier to deal with and provided a much needed anchor, as the article so perfectly described it.

Even 7 years later, I miss giving him a ring and his first words being ‘now, what about the Albion?’ - it was our usual conversation starter that could be the prelude to an ecstatic reminiscence of a brilliant win or else a post-mortem for a 1-0 defeat to 9-man Walsall or a midweek 7-1 defeat at Hudds.

Football is bloody brilliant anyway, but even more so when it binds families even closer to together.

 

[Zeberdi]

Football certainly helped me get through some major health challenges the past year, not least nearly dying twice. There is something inspiring and having a somewhat vicarious quality to watching your own team fight battles on the pitch while you fight your own off the pitch.