I am sure it happens to most people but I hate it when people start talking to me on the train. It is even worse when you have been at work all day and a little tired when someone starts to read over your shoulder and comment on whatever you are doing. I am trying to come up with a topic for my column in Players Inc, the North East football magazine. It is not going well. After an hour sitting and discussing (actually it was arguing with the bloke next to me), I have my next topic.

It all started when I was asked what football team I support. As I was travelling from Newcastle and I have a Geordie accent, the assumption was Newcastle. “No” was my answer. “Sunderland?” he then asks. “No,” my reply, again, and this time hoping he will realise the tone means I am not interested in talking to him. “Hartlepool?” “No.” “You’re not a Manchester United fan are you?” “No”, I relent, “I am a Spurs fan.”

Immediately his attitude towards me changes. He, too, supports Spurs but he does not like me.

'I enjoy sitting in the comfort of my own home without having to pay stupid prices to get a drink or some food while I enjoy the action'


For the next 10 minutes I get his views that fans that do not support their local team are tantamount to scum and not true football fans. Then came the line that really annoyed me: “Unless you go to the games, you cannot be a football fan." Had this been a cartoon, my head would have gone bright red and swelled with anger. See, I take exception at this comment and I just had to fight back……..and it was another two hours to London so I had plenty of time.

It would seem in this country we have the opinion that unless you go to the game on a regular basis, you are not a football supporter. So this basically means Newcastle United have 52,287 fans. It is 52,287 exactly since that is how many can fit in the ground. Equally, Manchester United, despite their worldwide reputation, only have 76,212 fans. The logical extension to this argument is that because I do not attend games on a regular basis, I don’t support any team.

In all honesty, most of my interaction with live football comes via Sky Sports. I am an armchair fan and proud of it. I enjoy watching the game on television, I enjoy sitting in the comfort of my own home without having to pay stupid prices to get a drink or some food while I enjoy the action. I certainly do not think I deserve a tirade on the train. I do, occasionally, enjoy lives game although I am put off by the general drinking and violent culture prevalent on some grounds.

In saying that, I am proud of the fact that I am an armchair fan. I most certainly do not think anything bad about the thousands who pack into grounds across the country to roar on their team. I was watching a nondescript game on Sky last year involving Blackburn. It was a 5.15pm kick off on a Saturday and the rugby was on BBC. I am not a fan of rugby but I found myself watching the game because of the great atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium. The Blackburn game, although vaguely interesting, had a very low attendance and the atmosphere was a turn-off.

The gentleman next to me reminds me that he pays £750 a year for his season ticket, has just bought the new home shirt and bought his son a cup with the crest on. I inform him that I, too, have just bought the new home shirt, I, too, buy (overpriced) merchandise with the club crest on and I pay £660 for my Sky subscription. Equally, I remind him that the record television deal that has just started was paid for, in part, with my subscription. The Premier League would not be where it is now without television money, whatever your views on its merits.

I suddenly find myself on the set of A Question of Sport. After firing endless questions at me, hefinishes with the classic Spurs' riddle: What was special about the 1901 FA Cup Final? Answer, Spurs the first, and only, non-league team to win the FA Cup (which was the answer he was looking for) and that was the first final to wrap a ribbon of the winning team's colours around the cup. This, it transpires, he was not aware of. "Who is the real fan?” I asked.

Retreating like a defeated army general, he heads to the restaurant car, never to return. I have won this battle. I know that supporting a football team is not just about turning up every other week for 90 minutes of football. There is so much more. Some of my colleagues watch football for entertainment but would struggle to name the starting line-up of their team.

Others, like me, take a wider view of the game including the history and statistics and the take the live action from the television. The beauty of the game is there are so many ways to get involved. There is no entry ticket to being a football fan apart from a passion for the game.