10 signs your mate is just pretending to be a football fan

#9 He talks too much about off-the-ball encounters when watching games together

A true football fan appreciates the fact that when a professional footballer has taken the pitch, he is under a fairly high amount of performance pressure. Consequently, he understands that if a player reacts adversely to a referee’s call, a teammate’s mistake or an interruption in play, it is because of the pressure he is already under.

If you are watching live games with a mate who criticises a player’s on-field reactions too much, you can deduce with a fair amount of certainty that your mate is just unable to ‘get’ football and footballers. Empathy is what drives the world and glues people together – if your friend can’t empathise with a footballer on the pitch, he is not a football fan.