Did the North Derby benefit society? Even if you are a football fan who spent an enjoyable couple of hours watching and play out the crunchy 2-2 draw on Sunday, the question feels a bit of a stretch.
Here are some obvious benefits to get us started. You probably know a Spurs fan whose weekend was improved by the outcome, given that Arsenal have been in such better shape recently. If you’re Australian and know a Spurs fan, even better – we’ll be buying you a drink to say thanks for (below).
But apart from us lot (), there were more than 60,000 at the Emirates Stadium. The game was category A – one of the biggies – meaning 70 quid for the cheapest adult member’s ticket. People are spending lots of money on football in England. And they are devouring English football everywhere.
This year’s Icon Index names the Premier League Britain’s most successful export for a third straight time. The pollsters who wrote the survey say the impact is so great that the Premier League makes people all over the world feel more positively about the UK.
The NLD was the choice of entertainment for millions of people all over the world.
Fifa often tells us that at least half the world’s eight billion people are football fans. The Premier League announced last month that more people paid to watch English football’s opening weekend than ever before – especially in the United States, where they are finally getting on board.
So lots of people are interested, which means lots of money is being made and spent around games.
People are being paid to marshal, to sell food and drink, to beam the games into your home.
Games like these benefit Britain as a whole. And it’s clear they generate financial value. But as prosperous nations look for new ways of judging their success, using indices relating to popular happiness, where does football sit?
So many football fans are unhappy. You see them, screaming at teenagers in stadiums or shouting at managers, owners, former players, opposition fans, random TV presenters on social media. It seems to get worse the bigger the team.
When you are expecting your side to win every week, anything less is an affront. And everyone who doesn’t recognise the importance of your team is the enemy.
Bias is everywhere. . Broadcasters don’t feature your side enough. Or they do but in the wrong way.
It is not supposed to be like this. Some things in football are genuinely worth fighting; discrimination, abuse, those who exploit the game. But not your fellow travellers. Because that’s the joy on offer here – that it’s shared.
Football fans have so much in common. And that is what contributes to global happiness: relationships. And that, for developed nations, is far more important than GDP.
Albus Dumbledore, football sage, put it best: ‘We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.’
As Fulham fans contend this week with tickets rising to £160 for the visit of Manchester United, or more bleakly when Derby were facing up to what looked like their club’s demise last year, many felt this was not their issue. These things are happening to other teams, their situation is different. Many Nottingham Forest fans were even amused.
Yes, football is about winning and losing, rivalry is at its core. But it’s not a zero-sum game. Meaning – often one team loses and another wins, but the gains outside of all this are greater.
Watching Jarrod Bowen’s header or Darwin Nunez’s finish this weekend – these are gifts football gives the world every week.
And if you’re a fan, you get to keep those forever. That’s the value of football.
