Beware of ‘Fifa fakes’

Hyderabad: With the Fifa World Cup 2014 barely hours away, we are suddenly surrounded by know-it-alls who are ready to deluge us with facts about players and teams, whether we want to know them or not.

And then there are those who land up to watch a match wearing a club jersey! We talk to die-hard fans of the game who help us spot that ‘Fifa fool’ in every group and things that annoy them the most.

Coach and confusion
During an intense match, imagine a person constantly chattering about the performance of each player without even knowing his name. Student and football fan Y. Sai Vignesh, says, “They would not know which country the player plays for yet they will always talk about how well he performed. And how can one forget about the confusion where they mix the club with a national football team?”
Another fan, Umair Hasan, talks about the “online” coach: “There are a few who judge a player’s capability by their skills on the Fifa video game. They act as if that’s their textbook reference. That’s stupid.”

The name droppers
Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney. Who doesn’t know them? But if you are a football fan, the game is more than these stars and when someone only talks about these star players, it can get to your nerves. Varun Mallapragada, a working professional, says, “Just knowing the most known names of football doesn’t count. It’s ridiculous when a match is almost over and someone says that Ronaldo — even though he is on the losing side –— can save the day.”

Those late Lateefs
Annoyance reaches another level, when in a match, where you can’t afford to miss even a second, you are expected to talk to someone. Football fan Nishanth Mahankali says, “Somebody will walk in late and expect us to give a recap of the match. That just spoils the ongoing match because you are not able to concentrate.”

The TV fight
This is eternal! Even with the matches being aired at night, many face the trouble of their siblings changing the channel; and then the ire of their parents. “The matches can go on till the wee hours and parents come in, asking us to go to sleep. And then someone just walks in front of the TV right at the time of a crucial goal,” says another fan Vijay Saireddy.

Girls, please wait!
The boys reach a consensus on this one. Sure, there are 22 “hot” men on the field but that’s not what the match is about. And while you can wait for Ronaldo to take off his shirt after scoring a goal, what’s important is that he scored one. Richard cites an example, “I have a friend who finds Frank Lampard hot. She retweets all his tweets. So it goes without saying that she will be supporting England for him.”