Fans have their day in the sun this season
Crystal Palace fans celebrate after Eberechi Eze goal in the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire
In the mercenary world of professional sport, it easy to be cynical about the game. Too often the wishes and needs of the supporter are ignored and even actively worked against by the powers behind the sport. So it’s been refreshing this season to see some fans have the kind of experience that reminds us why we fell in love with the game.
Nothing exemplified this so well as Crystal Palace’s FA Cup final triumph last Saturday. Apart from a section of Manchester, most of the world were behind underdogs Palace, but the support was more in hope than any real belief that the behemoth that is City would be vanquished.
By the end of the match the hardest of hearts could not withstand the outpouring of emotions from the Eagles’ fans. The sheer delight in laughter and tears was evident even over the airwaves. That a club of Palace’s history and size had never won a major trophy came as a surprise to many and explained why the club fanbase would witness the end of such a famine with such an outburst of relief and delight.
It’s just been one of those seasons it seems. Before Saturday’s final the romantics were washed away by the emotional release of Newcastle United’s first major trophy in 56 years, when similarly humbling the favoured giants of Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final back in March. Again, the release of built-up frustration and tension exploded with celebration on the Wembley stands and on the streets of Tyneside, when the Toon came out to parade their prize for all to see. Unbridled joy.
Liverpool’s wait for the Premier League title was only four years. But that 2020 win came after a 30-year delay and when it arrived it was in the middle of the covid lockdown, meaning that Liverpool fans wait to celebrate with the team, with each other, on the Kop, and on the streets, stretched to 35 years. And again, the release of emotion in that renowned stadium and hallowed stand was a sight to behold and as much entertainment and more as the 5-1 display from the players against Spurs.
It didn’t even need a title or cup win for some supporters to have their day. Across Stanley Park, Everton bid farewell to their 133-year-old stadium last weekend, with Ireland and Everton captain Seamus Coleman leading the side out for one last historic time. It soon became clear that the win against Southampton was irrelevant as the fans celebrated what Goodison Park meant to them and the club. Such was their fervour, that the players were soon staring at the joyous outpourings on the stands, rather than the fans looking at what the players were doing on the pitch.
Following on in that nostalgia mood. Leicester City fans said farewell to their talismanic striker with Jamie Vardy’s departure from King Power Stadium, as the Foxes drop to the Championship once again.
Vardy’s cheeky chap personality and sh*thousery character has rubbed many opposition fans the wrong way. But there is no denying the impact he made at Leicester and the fight he made up through the divisions to eventually claim the biggest prize in English football. Indeed, he will always be synonymous with Leicester’s fairytale ascent to the Premier League crown, when they were stated at odds of 5000-1 to win the title at the start of the 2015-2016 season.
That miracle was only possible with Vardy’s 24 goals and on Sunday the Leicester fans made sure that it was acknowledged in a fitting ‘thank you’ that could never be replicated by the club at a corporate function.
Spurs finished the season with the last fairytale. 17th on the Premier League table, they will still be playing Champions League football next season, thanks to their Europa League win over Man United in the final on Wednesday. Overcoming a 41-year wait for a European trophy and a 17-year delay on silverware of any kind, they overcame their ‘Spursy’ reputation and Ange Postecoglou’s indifferent management run to secure the unlikeliest of triumphs. And again, it was the Spurs fans who were the real winners, delighting in their win despite what was up till then a horrible season.
On Saturday, the Palace Ultra’s tifo of a famous club image from a celebration of a team goal back in 2011, won the emotional top prize though. The image of Palace fan Mark Wealleans, clutching his sons Nathan and Dominic writhing in glee at victory over Manchester United in a League Cup quarterfinal was recreated on the banner at Wembley on Sunday. Mark sadly passed away in 2017 due to cancer but his sons, now grown men, were there with their club family remembering that moment with their dad, 14 years earlier. Recreated to remember Mark, to include Mark, in the greatest moment of the club’s history.
How could you not love the beautiful game?
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