| THE Champions League final approaches — and the psychiatrists could find themselves more exercised than the footballers. As proof of this, I will share a case study with you.
The Champions League is the biggest football-club competition in the world, featuring all the world’s best footballers. To reach the final is every player’s dream. “These are the games you want to play in,” they say. “This is why you become a footballer.” And you might imagine it is the same for the fans. Surely they want their team in the club final in the world?
So explain this: why were a number of Liverpool fans supporting Chelsea, when the teams were playing each other in the semi-final? There is no love lost between these clubs. But, on this crucial night, some Liverpool Reds were actually supporting the Chelsea Blues.
As the duty psychiatrist at the football ground, you sit with a Liverpool fan, unsure where to start. You feel the need to ask a question:
“So, just let me get this straight. You’re a lifelong Liverpool supporter, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you wanted Chelsea to beat you and go through to the final?”
“Yes.”
You cannot remember Freud ever tackling the whole football thing, so you have to think for yourself.
“Am I correct in saying that Liverpool have won nothing this season?”
“Correct.”
“So this was your one chance for glory?”
“Correct again,” says the Liverpool man.
“Yet you didn’t want it?”
The supporter shakes his head, staring at the floor.
“I don’t understand,” you say. “Am I missing something here?”
And then he explains:
“The other team in the final are Manchester United.”
“And that’s important?” you ask.
It is very important, apparently.
“We hate United,” he says.
“Then wouldn’t you want to beat them?” you ask, somewhat mystified.
“Of course,” he says. “But what if we lost? That’s the thing. What if we lost? The United fans would be unbearable. I couldn’t cope with that. I couldn’t cope with us losing to United in the Champions League final. I’d prefer us not to be there; prefer not to face that possibility; prefer to lose on the way. That’s why I was supporting Chelsea.”
I remember an elderly lady telling me that it was not what she had done in life that she regretted, but what she had not done — held back by the fear that cannot reach beyond itself to something on the other side.
We prefer to lose rather than risk the journey to glory — or the final. And that is enough to give anyone the blues.
www.simonparke.com
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