Football Match

I find football supporters in England quite surprising. In my opinion, British people are calm and gentle in general. Of course it depends on personality, but I’ve never been honked by cars or interrupted in queues. They have good manners. However when the football season comes, people change. They start drink beer during the daytime, sing songs and yell at each other. I wonder why people are so excited about football. I’m looking forward to going to the stadium and watching the game.

There are two football teams in Manchester. One is the worldwide famous team, Manchester United. I checked ticket information on their website. However I couldn’t find any available tickets on it. It always says “to be announced” or “sold out”. I felt that I couldn’t buy tickets from this web site.

The other foot ball team is Manchester City. Their web site is much easier for me to get ticket information. They mention the date when tickets will be available, the first priorities are for season tickets holders, next are for paid membership holders and after these, general sales start. If all tickets sell out before general sales, I have no chance of going. I may be better to join a paid membership, but I don’t and wait till the general sales start because the annual membership fee is expensive. I waited for the sales for the match Manchester City vs Liverpool FC. Surprisingly, the price is different depending on the team. Liverpool FC is a popular team so the price is more expensive than other teams. However I really want to watch Torres who is a Spanish player in Liverpool FC.

On-line tickets are available 24 hours. I access at midnight on the general sales day. In Japan, it’s possible to buy the tickets as soon as the sales day starts. However it doesn’t happen in England. The website doesn’t change at midnight. I wait till 1:00am and give up. I wake up around 7:30am and check the web site at 8:00am. Still nothing is changed. The ticket office opens from 9:00am. I may have to go to the ticket office at the stadium. I’ve passed the stadium before by train or bus. However I don’t know how to get there on foot. I check google maps, but it’s not a familiar place for me so I gave up going there on foot. After 9:00am, the web site has changed and I can buy the tickets.

On the match day, I’m really excited to watch the game. I go to the stadium two hours before the kick off time. It’s too early and I need to wait 30minutes before getting into the stadium.

The problem is I bought tickets through Manchester City web site. So I was surrounded by their supporters. I couldn’t cheer on Torres. However I’m not a huge fan of him, so I cheer with the Manchester City supporters. The weather is fine and the football match is interesting. Being at the stadium is more exciting than watching it on TV. I really have a good time there. Still I don’t understand why British people are so excited about it. If they weren’t booing or yelling, I would enjoy the game more.