Rob Forbes - A superfit football fan
There are people all over the world who love the game of football so much that they will do just about anything to go and see a match. This isn’t only to do with football, some people are so passionate about sports in general that they will take days off from work or not go to the doctor if a game is on. One intrepid individual, whose love for football borders on madness, took this whole concept to a different level recently by travelling to South Africa from the UK on a bicycle.
The story which appears on the Newslite website said this about the guy’s journey, “A superfit football fan has travelled to South Africa for the World Cup -- after cycling, swimming and running all the way from Cirencester. Rob Forbes set off on the mammoth 11,800-mile journey last October and has just arrived ready to watch England play” What is amazing about this story is that there were two purposes to this guy’s mission; firstly he loves football and is a diehard fan of the World Cup, the other is that he was trying to raise awareness and money for a charity which ships second hand bicycles to Africa.
Now that is a noble venture, to do something that gruelling like taking part in the trek which the website says is the ‘world’s longest triathlon’ at 11,800 miles, to raise money for charity. What a great charity it is too, providing disused and discarded second hand bicycles to people that need them in Africa. Completing the arduous journey probably helped because of the fact that Rob is also a massive fan of the game of football. People do all kinds of crazy things for the game they love but Rob was able to merge two passions in his life and do something very worthwhile in the process and he should be applauded for that. This posed a question; have other people done crazy things for the love of the game of football?
One crazy thing that people do all the time when it comes to sports is streaking. This odd phenomenon is sure to gain attention but unlike our brave triathlete mentioned above these usually gain the wrong kind of attention for people and gets them in a lot of trouble. It just shows though that people are willing to take off all their clothes and disrupt a match that is probably being shown on television because of a desire to be included in the game somehow. Their love of the game doesn’t rest solely on enjoying the game from the sidelines; they need to get involved anyway they can.
Another stunt done for the love of the game was done by a major corporation, a conglomerate actually. Hyundai Motors UK had two cars built to promote the World Cup about to start in South Africa. “Hyundai football-themed cars were built by Hyundai UK to promote the upcoming World Cup. The Hyundai football-themed cars are covered in artificial football turf, and their rooftops are adorned with a 1.5-meter football”
The last example to be given is about an Italian footballer who decided to live in a department store as a publicity stunt to promote himself and his team, of course the department store as well. “Italian footballer Andrea Vasa, who plays for Brera Calcio, will be the first tenant in a ... department store. The footballer will live in Piazza Cavour, Milan, in a store that includes 15 windows and 1300 square metres of space across three floors.”
What is interesting is that people go to all sorts of lengths to satiate their love of sports and sometimes it can border on the fanatical and sometimes on the hilarious. But all of them do it because they feel so strongly about it that they want to show others exactly how they feel. A possible reason to why this happens is probably to do with competition and showing off. Most sports fans are competitive and want to get one up on their rival fans and so this is one way in which they can do it; by doing stunts and showing their rivals just how much more they love the game than they do.
Whatever the reasons, people will continue to do crazy stunts in honour of their chosen sport and this trend won’t be going anywhere for a long time to come.
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