Here's a question for sports fans you won't get in a pub quiz: is it possible to watch a sports match or event as a neutral? I ask the question after going through a roller coaster of emotion in Sunday's men's singles final at Wimbledon.

I'm not a tennis fan (I actually don't like the sport) but I like the big-occasion events so put the old feet up with a San Miguel and joined proceedings halfway through the second set. Even a tennis layperson like myself could appreciate what a fine encounter this was but I found myself rooting first for Roger Federer (wouldn't it be great if he won five in a row), and then, when the Swiss maestro was about to wrap it up, for Rafael Nadal (what a great fighter and I am drinking San Miguel).

I've experienced the same quandary countless other times; the West Indies-Pakistan opening game in the cricket World Cup - I love Brian Lara and Inzamam ul-Haq  equally; Australia-All Blacks in the Tri-Nations last week - an exciting game but who to back? The list does indeed go on.

'Fans can appreciate a great goal or save from opposing players, but they can't enjoy them. That's the human-nature factor of being a fan'


But it is in football that the heat is turned on. Of course, I've got my club Leeds United (first game 1961, born and bred), second team Leyton Orient (live three kilometres from the ground and have a season ticket, and as fate would have it the teams will meet in League One this season), third team Wolves (like the colours) and on the international front, England. I am not one of those 'patriotic' fans who necessarily roots for English teams in Europe; if I want Chelsea or Arsenal to win it's because I like the club, not the fact they are in the English Premiership.

Of course, there are plenty of games to choose from where I am not 'involved'. For instance, when Manchester United play Arsenal, can I sit back with a beer and enjoy the game on TV as a neutral?

The answer is a resounding 'no'. I reckon we sports fans have a Pavlovian reaction to wanting to back a winner, even as a so-called neutral. It might take a few minutes of sizing up the options, maybe a brilliant Ryan Giggs run, a subtle Robin van Persie through-ball or getting angry with Jans Lehmann or Wayne Rooney for petulance, but you can be sure that I'm with one or the other teams for at least 80 minutes of a game.

Of course, most fans at most games just want to see, in order of importance to the enjoyment of the spectacle, their team play well and win, their team play badly and win, their team not lose no matter how well or badly they play, their team to give 110 per cent. Yes, fans can appreciate a great goal or save from opposing players, but they can't enjoy them. That's the human-nature factor of being a fan.

Having a team or player to back increases the enjoyment of a game, in my view.  In football, it is surely not possible to savour that same Giggs run at a defence and then hope that William Gallas is going to come in with a superbly-timed challenge to even-out the neutrality of the spectacle. It is only natural, if you are not a fan of either club, to hope that this great attack will turn into a great goal or that this great tackle will lead to a counter attack.

That said, it is also possible to be a switch hitter (to borrow a baseball term), as happened to me on Sunday watching Wimbledon. This change of allegiance during a game also happened in a bizarre encounter at the Maracana Stadium in 1981.

Being a football fanatic, I made a 'pilgrimage' to the giant concrete bowl while backpacking round South America. Flamengo were playing Olympia of Paraguay in the South American equivalent of the then European Cup. I was rooting for the home team of course, until they scored - when the gentleman with no teeth behind me poured a full cup of Coca Cola all over my head in celebration. Not wishing to question this rather unusual cultural nicety, I switch hit, silently willing Olympia on,  and they levelled.

Sport is passion and to have that passion you have to be involved in the contest. You can't be involved unless you have some kind of affinity with one of the participants. So if you are a neutral on the fence, get off; it will only give you a sore bum. Or just follow Partisan Belgrade.