VIEWING CENTER

Those who know me personally will attest to my disinterest in the whole concept of being soccer fanatic, probably because of the annoying endless arguments, the unrewarding devotion shown by my friends or just because I love to defy the ideology that seems to dictate that as a man I should have an unrelenting support for a football club, well count me out of that.  But, Last weekend I decided to do something different, to go against my own principles, and defy my own norm… yes, i can do that… even though I was pressured by the epileptic power supply in my neighborhood, that seemed to have left my gadgets dead and  left the residents thirsty for power. Suddenly, we hear from a distance the generating set of *gtview*, a local viewing centre. The aroma of electricity was in the air and like vampires thirsty for blood, all the residents in my area could smell it and like zombies we all gathered our gadgets, laptops, mobile phones, chargers and extension boxes as we traced the scent of electricity to gtview.

Now my drained battery had forced me to sit humbly in this hall full of chairs, there were sockets at the corners of the room. There, two large flat screen TV was hanged in front with cinematic sound system, the lighting was mild and the ventilation was not so good, the air in the room was still and the crowd continued to increase as each person on entering, located an empty space to plug their extension boxes and a place to seat as the match began. The match was a premier league duel between the Red Devils Manchester united and Liverpool FC, the men that never walks alone. Quickly everyone took a convenient position and we all stared at the large screens as we watch the match begin. Even though many of the people in the hall came to see who would go home with the highly coveted 3 points for that week, my attention was drawn to something entirely different yet all the same relative to this heated match.

In this hall I discovered the different types of people you’ll find in a viewing centre, so next time you go to see a match in your local viewing centers, you might want to keep your eyes and ears out for some of these characters

THE QUIET OBSERVER: these are the men in the hall, they sit quietly unnoticed in the hall while they give their undivided attention to the screen, occasionally you see them lean forward in reaction to a goal or a missed goal and sometimes you see an expression of disappointment on their face, but you rarely see them speak, they might at intervals listen to some of the in house analysts who feel they can do a better job than the manager of the club, but in all, they remain calm and quiet throughout the match.

THE RESTLESS ACTORS: they are the first to get up at the event of a goal, a foul, a corner kick, even a throw in, at every opportunity, they stand up, jump up, clap their hands, even curse at the players should they miss a shot, they will never stay in their seat, they keep reacting to every action on the pitch and these guys usually show their anger in the event of a loss and their excitement in the event of a victory.

THE DOWNGRADING PESSIMIST: they would not shut up, they think every other football club can play better, they think highly of other clubs and very little of theirs,  every little mistake is believed to cost them the game, every move made by the manager is wrong and the players are just a time bomb waiting to happen, they keep showing regrets in the moves made by the players and changes made, they believe every shot missed by their striker is an easy shot for every other player in the world even their mother can easily make that shot, they scream at the top of their voice downgrading every pass, they usually keep quiet when their team eventually wins and their voice increases when their team loses.

THE BELIEVING OPTIMIST: these guys are the true fans who keep clapping and rooting for their team even when the odds are against them, they keep on seeing the bright side of every move and they are the balance to the downgrading pessimists, they believe every shot is a goal and you can hear them yell “goal” even before the striker shoots, they keep shouting “up man u” and they refuse to be disappointed, they are usually emotional as far as their team is concerned and they would argue about their team’s performance.

THE NOISY MANAGER: they are never quiet, they keep giving directions to the players even though they are aware that the players cannot hear them, they give instructions on which wing, which angle, which pass and which form of attack and defense should be used, they keep yelling at the screen and you can see their passion for this sport when the players refuse to heed to their instructions.

THE ACCOUNTANTS: have the facts and figures, they know which player was transferred for how much, how many goals, how many shots, how many cards were given, they know the figures of their team and they always bring the figures forward to every argument, these figures are what they base their judgment on and how they calculate their chances of winning.

The SURFERS: are never satisfied with what they see on screen, so they turn to their phones to keep up with the match following the match along with other matches, they stay online monitoring the score line of other games, reading reviews of analysts and following the match closely minute by minute.

The PEEPING TOM: these guys will never enter the hall, they stand at the door while they check the score line, they keep coming back at intervals to see who is winning and who is losing, their interest is not really in the details of the game but who won and by how many goals.

The CLUELESS: these ones are usually quiet not because they want to be like the quiet observers, but they have no idea who’s playing or what they are playing for, they are just their because a friends asked them to come or they followed the buzzing scent of electricity to the viewing center. They are seen looking around and watching who came and who didn’t, trying to see how many known faces are seated. Like me?

THE BORED: these guys are hard to please and they easily lose interest in the game once their expectations of the game are not met, they do other things like chat, call, or even argue about how terrible the players are and they back up their arguments with replays of missed goals shown on the screen.

All these categories share one thing, the love for football and the spirit of togetherness, these men and women come from all works of life, seated in one room, defying the comforts of their home and staying true to their devotion for this game, eyes glued to the screen and for the next two hours or thereabout, they forget about all other things and focus on the one thing that brought millions around the world together, FOOTBALL.

Celebration filled the hall when the red devils finally put one behind the net, the tension was eased and a relieving smile was seen on many faces, even though the goal was just an equalizer making the score line a draw, the fans of Manchester united could only see this draw as a victory as it meant that they get one point and they can continue their unbeaten streak. As far as they were concerned a draw was much better than a loss. And at the final whistle the hall went in disarray, each man back to their charging station, taking apart their extension boxes and making their way to the door with the satisfaction of a fully charged or almost fully charged phone, and a victory for their team.

*Please note that charges may apply for viewing at various centers, please consult a viewing center near you for the standard prices in your area.*

Do you think I have it all covered or there’s another category I missed out, or I probably didn’t do enough justice to some? Are you in any of the aforementioned category or you are even in more than one? Let me know your views, so I can update my categories and if it’s really interesting, I just might add it to mine {you will definitely get the credit}.

Till you read from me again, EAT, PRAY, LOVE, LAUGH, LEARN, SHARE and GROW.

I am theDANIEL