The World Cup is finally upon us and Nepal like the rest of the world – irrespective of whether they are playing or not – is going to be transfixed by this quadrennial showpiece of the beautiful game. For those of us who cannot make it (I was surprised at the numbers of Nepalis actually traveling to watch the World Cup) to Russia, the conversation in schools, colleges and workplaces over the next month or so is going to be dominated by events taking place there. 

As far as being a truly global spectacle goes, nothing really beats the football World Cup. In fact, nothing even comes remotely close – not the Olympics or any other event. Its appeal has endured despite the often desperately cheesy ‘we are the world’ themed official world cup songs and the recent bribery scandals plaguing FIFA. You may not remember where you were when many other prestigious sporting tournaments were won, records broken at the Olympics or earth shattering events transpired in the world of any other sport or tournament but you will remember the minutiae of the World Cup final – where you were, who you were with, and who scored the all-important goal or goals.  

This event tends to make a football fan out of everybody and every four years we get to witness a different breed of football fan – those that get swept up in the craze and religiously follow all the action only to go back to hibernation once it’s all over. Even the sports channels that you usually ignore foar the better part of four years and relegate to the back end of your list of channels suddenly find a place at the top of your favorites settings. In years gone by, it would be a struggle even to find the usually obscure channels televising this event. 

But for our part of the world this year, the timings are a real blessing. For regular football fans in Asia, indulging in their love of the game has always taken a huge toll – from following the many leagues of Europe to the late night and early morning timings of European games, aka the Champions or Europa Leagues games.

The last few editions of the World Cup tournaments were a huge struggle in terms of staying up and watching the matches even for someone as cup obsessed as me who hasn’t missed all but two of the knockout matches of every edition since France 98. This tournament, however, will ensure a bumper season for bars and restaurants in our part of the world. In Kathmandu, with almost every venue worth its salt preparing to put up giant screens and viewing areas, it promises to be a good month for football lovers.  

In countries like ours – that haven’t qualified as yet and, to be honest, don’t hold hope of qualifying any time soon – there is this odd ritual that fans often follow. We tend to adopt a team, sometimes at random, and then dive right in with jerseys, flags, social media profiles and the entire kitchen sink to become thoroughly invested in their ups and downs throughout the tournament. A canny sports channel in India (one of those aforementioned countries) has even latched onto this phenomenon and is promoting the World Cup as a tournament of ‘your second team’.

Often these adopted countries are not really chosen at random – it’s mostly to do with the players themselves, the Messi’s and Ronaldo’s of the world bringing their loyal fan bases to root for their respective countries.  Forget second countries, in many cases, folks have a list of countries they would prefer to win the World Cup in descending order. Once a team gets knocked out, you move on to the next one on your list.

The usual suspects are always there – Brazil, Argentina and England along with the dark horses for every tournament – this year it’s Belgium, or so the experts say. This love of ours for different teams is usually inherited at a young age – from friends or elder family members and many folks are keen to pass on their love for their teams and for the game in general to their children or to the next generation.

For this reason and others, it’s not uncommon to find generations of a family watching matches together. It’s a lot like parents in European countries taking their kids to their first football game and blooding them to be fans for life – except that over here we get to pick and choose our allegiances and forge our passions in front of the television. 

Anyway, it’s time to dust off my evergreen Argentinian jersey (a one-time investment for life), update my profile picture on social media, and get ready to cheer for Messi and Co. A lot of you are undoubtedly preparing to do the same, so here’s hoping that the best adopted team wins. A happy World Cup to you all! Cheers!  

 
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