rugby, football reveries

i tried but i can't really pinpoint who uttered this age-old adage "football is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans while rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen." i've never been to a live rugby match but i've been to live football matches. my knowledge of expletives have surely grown in all these years being bombarded by the beautiful game day and night. we are all through the news and scads of documentaries that football firms exist. in reality, it's not unreachable to stay level-headed in such chaotic surroundings. but through all the docu's and football specials i've seen about the fan rivalries in europe and south america, i could attest that the english premier league is a much safer environment.

rugby, having its name derived from the rugby school in warwickshire, the oldest public school in england, is a posh sport. i thought with all the aggression of the game, it might have a working class following but no. it's a sport of the middle class. and despite looking the other way, the great divide between the rich and the poor, truly and utterly exists. it's fair to correlate rugby with polo or equestrian, both rich man's sports.

basketball matches in RP in comparison are usually mild and serene. the police don't surround the area, there are no stewards to separate the home and away fans as there are no such things as home and away fans. the supporters of both teams can actually co-exist and cheer together. football may appear boring to the average pinoy but it's actually the most tension-filled atmosphere i've ever been subjected myself into. when you're very tiny and surrounded by inebriated, highly-partisan seven-footers and with all the screaming testosterones, it can become scary. but then football unlike most north american sports with all the timeouts alloted in the world do not go on forever and before i know it i get to go home as soon as the whistle is blown.

the match at home against fulham on boxing day was fantastic.
glory, glory tottenham hotspur.
it's nice to see ledley king back.










amongst the crowd and the police
outside the ground