Há muito tempo que não escrevo aqui. Afastai-me um pouco do futebol. Mas, voltei e hoje vou escrever em inglês porque ... o meu português já não é como era antes, e deve haver visitantes que sabem ler inglês.


There is only one thing that brings soccer fans to the same stadium. The love for the sport. This isn't a difficult concept to grasp, at all. However, people or perhaps I should say, soccer fans, make it seem as quite the opposite. It is very sad that we now see fans go to stadiums with the second purpose of insulting other fans. Perhaps I find this quite absurd because I don't generally see this occurring here in the States. There is always a form of mutual respect shown. It's mind-blowing for me indeed. Nevertheless, I think people refuse to understand that what makes a good team is not how many games they have won or how many trophies they have collected. Goals don't necessarily justify anything besides skill and luck. It is the way a team proceeds that initiates them. People no longer see this as a way of having quality. What is even more pathetic and quite sad, is the way coaches treat each other. Insults and distended egos have filled the air between coaches with anger and resentment. Then, there are team officials such as club presidents and members of the SAD that use the same form of insults. Rivalry between soccer fans continues to grow immensely. Now, the same is happening with club officials and it is visible to the public. Why is this becoming a trend?
You see this kind of behavior primarily with Benfica and FC Porto. It is not me being a Sporting fan that I don't mention Sporting, but you hear the least insults and ego inflation coming from the SCP team players as well as the club officials. You have Benfica continuously assuming they are the best, period! You have FC Porto assume they are the best because of their previous accomplishments. It's not to say that they aren't, however, there isn't any need to repeatedly announce it. They are opinions and not facts. Do people understand that? No. Cockiness is not flattering.

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have soccer players against soccer players, soccer fans against soccer fans, soccer club officials against soccer club officials all in, according to them, "good terms," showing us examples of what people shouldn't be like but are and practice being so.

There is a mutual love in every soccer fan, we all share one thing in common, the love for the sport. If people do not want to show respect for each other, at least show it for the sake of the sport. It's all a business that one day can turn corrupted.