I have enjoyed Auckland FC’s debuts in the A-League…so far. Not because the team won on the pitch. That’s sweet but anecdotal. Football fans know that victory cannot be expected. But because I can feel something brewing. Am I already ready to get a Black Knight tattoo then? Not quite…I am still missing a Legend I could be a part of.
Supporting a football club is a misery. Even the Great real Madrid, probably the most successful football team in Europe, has a 35% loss rate in the history of La LIga. FC Barcelona’s loss record goes up to 48% .
The glorious uncertainty of sport is neither a reason why we love the sport. Of course, there will be od remontada or the victory against a German Club that makes you feel invincible when you go to bed that night. But it is a luxurious candy for the lifelong supporter. Only a handful of teams (5 or 6?) truly compete for the League title. No matter how much money other club owners throw at their team. In most countries, the national championship only has 2 or 3 true contenders. Yet, if I consider my native France, Lens has a full stadium year in and year out, and the best fans in the country, even when they don’t win anything (which is more often than none). Other clubs, better funded , have long come and gone, often after millions of dollars had evaporated on the pitches.
RC Lens, Borussia Dortmund, AZ Alkmaar, Hambourg SV, Ajax , Liverpool and Wrexham have built a community. That brotherhood feeling is passed on from fathers to sons (and daughters). And itis stronger than the strongest player in the team. One of Bill Foley’s other team, Lorient, a French fishing port, is named after the fish the players and fans used to catch when football was an amateur sport (Les Merlus). They may never win a title but their fans are still committed for life
All these teams have a Legend. Auckland FC still has a Legend to build
We have a few iconic Club players who can be the heroes of our Legend : Liam Gillion from Manurewa, signing his first professional football contract, starting in the first three games and now being called up for the All Whites! Hiroki Sakai, who, like a Phoenix, has infinite lives on the pitch, and now leads his knights as if victory was the only option. Alex Paulsen, he who dropped Welly in a heartbeat…
But hat is about it . we are (I am) still missing a plot. A story arc that will bring us together. I have started to read here and there the rich vs poor story because the new owners are…wealthy (as if you can own a football club and be poor). I am not a huge fan of the rich and the poor storyline. To be fair, I am more in the camp of the poor, just like many football fans from the Globe who now call Tamaki Makaurau home
We don’t have a home yet : once you have been to LA Bombonera in Buenos Aires, you know what home advantage means. The slide at the back of the goals will give the stadium a bit of quirky personality but we need to transform it into a cauldron of fun and tension. Still WIP that can’t be left to the Port section only. In the best football stadium, the show happens in all the stands. Noone comes to the game to “just” watch the game. And a game is always much clearer on TV anyway. But we join to be part of a group. But if the Group is closed (the stands behind the port were closed on gameday 2), I can’t feel I belong. It’s as if we were Black Knights from the same army fighting different wars…it will surely help to know why the team called the Black Knights to build that story. And I am so keen to know what the talented management team will come up with.
And , finally, we miss….a conflict. A fight to take on. Something that allows me one dayto stand in the middle of the street and shout “They said it was not possible but WE made it”. We wont be fighting Wellington forever…it cant be just a derby a year. Can we fight the Aussies instead? Settle the Pav story once and for all (imagine fi we welcome the teams with a Pavlova in their dressing rooms…I know , naff but I am a true football an. I do naff for fun).
Beyond the anecdotal marketing gimmicks (mascots sell well), all these allow hardcore fans like me to be part of the legend, create their own version of it. Buy a season ticket and a couple of shirts. The potential is there. In my two years in Auckland, I have enjoyed the diversity of the towns, met football fans all around the sprawling city with my boys’ Northern United FC. And encountered so many fan groups, Latinos, Indians, Asians, Pakeha, Pasifika, and Europeans (the dads on the sideline shouting all game long) who are now playing the beautiful game. I believe that this diversity sets us apart from the rest of the country.
One day, a team will represent that richness. And fan groups in the Port and around the stadium will sing the songs they learnt around the world. When that happens, I promise to come to the games dressed in my best Knight outfit (with a really cool flag of my native Caribbean island. Guadeloupe).
As the great Bill Shankly said “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.” Give me a legend I can be a part of and I will finally start calling this city home. My whanau will thank you
