Why do people support Manchester United?

A tiny proportion of Manchester United followers – fewer than 0.1% – come from the city.

‘Support’ – It’s a very powerful word. Does it mean you love the club with all your heart? I don’t entirely believe so. Love is an emotion that comes with attachment.

It’s something that matures over time. Love is like whiskey in a barrel. Attachment is an entirely different matter. The right question to ask is, how does one get attached to something he isn’t directly connected to?

Performance. Consistency.

It’s natural for a kid living in India to pick a team like Manchester United as his favourite. They win more. They win more often. I’m merely talking about the very birth of a kid’s selection here. I was born in the nineties.

All my friends maul out their football arguments over the existence of four clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. When we started watching football, these four were the cream on top of the table. They all had moments of glory.

It’s after selection, that loyalty kicks in. When you’re sure you’re with the candidate, you root for them no matter what happens. We don’t want to be wrong. We find excuses to cover their flaws. We find flaws in rivals which we use as excuses.

Liverpool supporters that had their birth in the early 2000s still give it all for their club. They know they’ve been fighting a lost cause for the past half-a-decade, but they won’t ever accept it.

Unlike the English, who find their loyalty on the basis of geography, we find ours based on performance. What would incentivise a fifth grader to cheer Reading? Nothing. No one around him does it. No one cares about the club. Let’s pick Manchester City. They’re new, they’re fresh, they’re loaded. Thirty fellow batch mates became die-hard fans in 2012 – All hail City.

Our IPL works on a mixture of geography and performance. No person living in Mumbai would dream of supporting Delhi, till he pops in some LSD. But a kid in Goa who follows cricket, he could support any city in India, the probability of him supporting Chennai is more because they’re consistent performers.

The human brain is beautiful. It needs reassurance that its choice in selection is the right one. I will support an institution either because a) It has existing power, b) It is the best current performer/ It is close to being the best or c) Because everyone around me is doing it.

Do I love my club or player because of the way they play? Yes, and no. I’m a red-blooded Roger Federer fan. I’ve adored his game since I was 12. Looking back now, I realise I don’t support him in 2013 not because of his game entirely. It’s mainly loyalty.

There are players out there who have been playing far better than him. But I’ve outgrown the original feeling of technical admiration to love Federer more now as an institution, than as a player. I realise I hate Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal because they’re bricks forming an obstacle in my hero’s path, though I have no reason to dislike them. Nadal’s possibly the nicest, most humble player on the tour. Yet, somehow my brain has conditioned me to dislike him.

We’re so clouded by our desire to form a protective cocoon around the things we like, that we lose our objectivity by doing so. At this age, I can have a little objectivity about what I like and dislike. But for those who don’t think, I don’t blame them. That’s the problem about attachment, it forces the feeling of love for an object that lingers longer than what a person would like.

Why did I feel betrayed when Woods cheated on his wife? It’s because in many ways, I found his spotless demeanor till then a part of my own success. We enjoy triumph and failure together with our role models.

We laugh with them and cry with them when they win and lose. Woods enjoying the company of several women didn’t affect the way I saw him on the golf course, but it shook the reputation of the halo he had built.

One day, I know I’ll have an argument with my son, about how the XYZ player of his time is far better than how Federer is now, exactly like how I had innumerable arguments with my father about how Federer was far better than Borg, exactly like he fought about how Borg was far greater than Laver with his father.

I also know that in the end, I’ll smile and let him have his way.

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