London Loves It's Football

In America we call the sport soccer but here in London it is known as Football. London is the place to go if you are a football fan. With the top footballing clubs and one of the most popular national teams in the world, England especially London is where many fans dream to be. I am in that dream right now. I had the extraordinary opportunity to see England play their long time rivals, the French, in one of the top footballing venues in the world, Wembley Stadium. 86,000 people watched on as these two nations battled before our eyes for 90 minutes. It's one thing to watch a game on the tele but its a totally different game when you see it for yourself. The fever of the crowd was so intoxicating. The two national anthems started to play. First to play was the French national anthem. It was followed by several boos from the crowd but immediately after the English national anthem came on. When you see and hear 86,000 people sing the English national anthem you get butterflies in your stomach. It was definitely something special. For the entire 90 minutes all I could hear was cheering and swearing. The English take their football very seriously. I heard an Englishmen behind me when France scored call the English goalkeeper "You useless git!" Even the slightest mistake would get ridiculed.

Football is like life or death in London. Millions will tune into their teles and radios every game. I love being here in London because it's so easy to strike up a conversation with anyone. All you have to do is talk about football and you are considered family to them. Several times now I have been to pubs where I started cheering for Manchester United when they were playing Chelsea or another London based team and I have been booed and sworn at. Sometimes I have to be careful because I feel like I might get mugged. They take football that seriously over here.

I used this experience to also further my knowledge about sport management. Since I want to get into the soccer world after college, I thought it might be a good idea to take mental notes of things at Wembley Stadium which I might have to deal with in the future. I noticed all the ad boards, security, media and even how the concessions were priced. I do this every time I go to a sporting venue. I have been to many soccer stadiums but none have been as impressive as Wembley. As a sport management major Wembley Stadium as about as good as it gets. I hope someday I will come back to London to work here. London really does love it's football.