A love of soccer is a kind of international freemasonry, a conspiratorial club of almost unlimited numbers and a jump lead to conversation in even the most trying of circumstances. In the past soccer could even bridge the gap set by linguistic barriers, lightening the load of heavy hearts and kindling friendships even in the most unlikely of settings.
for example, an especially warming story comes from the 1980s and concerns two Scottish men who, while hiking through remote and barren areas of South America, came across a distant border crossing only to be accosted by some uncomprehending faces who patiently drew them out a diagram. Puzzled and bewildered, the pair only later learned that the border guards weren't sketching out a request for a passport, but were reconstructing Archie Gemmill's goal for Scotland in the 1978 World Cup against Holland.
Now though, modern technology has opened up even the most remote and inaccessible corners of the globe and many thousands of grown men and women are spending much of their valuable time scouring the Internet for details of their favourite side. Some, even, are devotees of Carlisle United, whose Internet group covers a kind of Cumbrian diaspora flung wide around the globe, from Thursby near Carlisle to Cape Town in South Africa and Melbourne in Australia.
The Internet has its uses then, I suppose, but for me, I would always rather be at Doncaster on a freezing February night than with a laptop and a cocktail on Bondi Beach scouring the 'net for Mervyn Day's explanation of a 4-0 hiding!
Reproduced with permission from the East Cumbrian Gazette.
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