Even if they cost us sometimes.
The beauty of football lies in its romance.
Obviously, it’s hard to see that beauty when it negatively impacts your bets and robs you of your winnings. But that romance is even sweeter when the game goes your way, hits your bet it, and boosts your earnings.
Just think of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations final between Zambia and Ivory Coast. On the one side you have the most talented generation of Ivorian footballers in the nation’s history and maybe even the rest of the continent. The Elephants’ 23-man squad was made up of players plying their trade in top leagues in Europe. You had the Touré brothers, Kolo and Yaya, who were on the books of Manchester City, the wall that is Boubacar Barry, the industrious Didier Zokora, the force of nature that is Didier Drogba and the mercurial Salomon Kalou among others.
On the Zambian side, you had a team made up of just two players who were based in Europe. And this is not the fancy, football-institutions-Europe, but rather Young Boys of Switzerland and Ural Yekaterinburg of Russia. The core of the players were based in Africa, and some were plying their trade in the first division in South Africa. Common sense, football knowledge and their run in the tournament meant that Ivory Coast were clear favourites.
But the romantic side of football showed up.
Zambia didn’t just stun one of the most talented teams of the last few decades, but they also ensured that the Chipolopolo generation that perished on the coast of Gabon in 1993 rested in peace. Zambia’s golden generation died in a plane crash shortly after taking off in Libreville after a refueling stop en-route to Senegal for a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier against the Lions of Teranga in Dakar.
Kalusha Bwalya survived that crash because he was going to meet the team in Senegal from the Netherlands where he was based with PSV Eindhoven. It was a tragic loss. Chipolopolo’s class of 2012 wiped away the tears the country shared following that plane crash with a storming run in the Nations Cup which culminated with them lifting the title in Libreville. Before the final, the team had laid wreaths on the coast of Libreville to honour their fallen countrymen. The Zambians were playing with the spirit of their fallen comrades, that’s the only rational explanation of how Drogba missed a decisive penalty in regulation play.
Zambia’s win is one of the most remarkable fairytales in football. It’s high up there along with Leicester City’s dramatic 2016 Premier League win and Greece’s 2014 heroic UEFA European Championship triumph.
There is something uplifting about an underdog succeeding against the odds. It’s even more special now with how money drives the game. The Champions League semifinals are almost predictable, with the teams who are regulars there also among the wealthiest in the world. Sorry PSG, there are just some things that money can’t buy. But for everything else, money can move mountains and transform teams from no hopers to English champions. Did anyone say Manchester City?
Money dominates football so much that almost every fan wants a rich emir, sheikh, or American billionaire to buy their team so that they can also get trophies. For all the romance around Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal, spending wisely and being able to build the Emirates while consistently playing in the Champions League and not breaking the bank, there are fans who weren’t happy with the French coach, and it led to his sacking. You really can’t show off the Emirates Stadium when Chelsea fans show off their Champions League trophies that were bankrolled by the deep pockets of Roman Abramovich.
Sure, Johan Cruyff quipped he has never seen a bag of money score a goal in response to why you can’t beat a rich club. The bag of money might not score a goal, but it can buy every good player around which leads to situations where clubs like PSG and Bayern
Munich have a monopoly over Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga respectively.
One of football’s selling points is that it’s cheap. You don’t need much to start. You can make a ball with plastics and paper, and play in almost every field - heck, it doesn’t even need to be straight. That simplicity is why football is the beautiful game.
But that simplicity is being eroded with money dictating terms. The Super League didn’t come because of greed, it was born as a logical next step with the rich teams looking to be even richer and protect their interests. And with money the key driver of the game, the Super League will eventually materialise. You can even argue that the Champions League is a version of the Super League. You have wealthy nations with more teams and their places protected while the small nations are sidelined and fed scraps.
It’s for that reason that we love to cheer for the underdog. The odds are stacked so heavily against them that they aren’t supposed to win. It’s for this reason that in 2019 we cheered for the Ajax Amsterdam squad that cost the Dutch giants €50 million to assemble, beating a Juventus side that spent €100 million to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
With more money being pumped into the sport, upsets are going to be few and far between, which makes them remarkable. It’s also why the Nations Cup is such a special tournament. Right now, people who saw Morocco become the first African side to reach the semifinals of the World Cup think that they will be African champions in 2025. That couldn’t be further from the truth – because the Nations Cup is filled with upsets. Don’t be shocked to see Morocco being eliminated by a team made up of part-time footballers and no stable league back home, like Madagascar did in the 2019 Nations Cup when they stunned Nigeria in the group stage during a remarkable run.
We love upsets because, in a world where the big shot always wins, it’s nice to see the little man have the last laugh. It’s even nicer when you predict that win and get to laugh too, laugh all the way to the bank.