Can you divorce a club?

Last night, I enjoyed watching the club I started follow and support when I was about six years old make its way to the third qualifying round in the UEFA Europa League. But even before the final whistle was heard in the arena, I started to shift my attention to my smartphone, where live results from tonight´s late games started to come up. Faraway, another team faced the same challenge, and I was just as interested in that game.
I admit, there's some serious doubt concerning my sympathies. Am I a cheating bastard? A despicable adulterer? Can you love more than one club? Can you divorce a club? Most football fans would probably answer with a somewhat annoyed "NO!", as would I a few years ago. But think about it again. Most of us have probably at least once changed favourite rock group. Wives and husbands divorce, even if their vows were taken in front of their god. Sometimes people actually change god as well. Or become atheists.

That Other Club has its home where my own has been for seventeen years. It is the club where my daughter and my son are learning the art of football. It is the club whose colours I wear while training and coaching my son and his friends. I like the club´s football philosophy. There´s a picture of a friendly handshake in its crest.
Is it any wonder that the attraction grows? It may come to a point when you need to end an old relationship even if, as in any divorce, it comes with a considerable amount of angst and pain.

Perhaps this question will be of no relevance for future generations. Some players change employer as often as I change socks (well, not really but you know what I mean......). Kids tend to follow superstars rather than clubs. They´ll buy a Neymar or Balotelli jersey of any colour. You can find a player whose skills and playing style you admire and follow him or her, wherever the hat is laid. That´s not totally a bad idea.
However I don´t want my kids to ever forget that football is a team sport. It's the teams that win championships and build the structure of the football family. You can worship individual stars in sports like boxing or tennis.
Find a club that deserves your love and devotion, but accept that your relationship might not be life-long.

In a way it was a sad sight in Tele2 Arena on Thursday night. One of Stockholm´s two top modern stadiums was filled to something like 2-3% of its 30,000 capacity, for a game in the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League. The host team IF Brommapojkarna normally plays its home games at Grimsta IP, a much smaller ground some 15 km west of the centre of Stockholm. Grimsta seldom sees more than a couple of thousand spectators, and is not a UEFA approved venue. The opponents Crusaders FC from Belfast is not what you would call a Big Club either, playing at Seaview, with a capacity of about 3,000. The cheers and applause echoed like in a near-empty cathedral, as did the sounds of feet hitting the ball.
Let me try another perspective.
In a way it was a beautiful sight in Tele2 Arena on Thursday night. Although being the biggest youth club in Europe, known for supplying other teams with a lot of talented players through the years (e. g. Anders Limpar, John Guidetti, Albin Ekdal), Brommapojkarna has only in recent years reached the Swedish top tier Allsvenskan and is this summer struggling in the very bottom. The place in the Europa League was earned through UEFA:s Fair Play Competition and is the club´s first international appearance.
The Europa League gives small clubs, often in less successful national leagues, the chance to compete internationally, against legendary teams in famous arenas. The winners of the clash between Crusaders and Brommapojkarna will face Torino FC in the next round, which promises to be a great experience, not only for the players, but also for the rest of the club including youth players, employees and supporters.
I wish the gargantuan amount of money circulating in Champions League and the top European Clubs won´t kill the Europa League. I wish more small teams could enter Champions League. Football feeds on dreams and teams like Brommapojkarna, Crusaders, Sligo Rovers, Diósgyőri VTK and Shakhtyor Soligorsk deserve the chance to make their dreams come true.

Crusaders FC
IF Brommapojkarna
A piece on a visit to Grimsta, the home ground of Brommapojkarna

I have decided to be in a positive mood today.
There is a good amount of reporting from the Women's Under-19 European Championship on UEFA's webpage. Even if they are a bit lesser exposed than the draw results for the qualifying rounds of CL and EL, some Philip Lahm nostalgia and an old Maradona video, you can read good reports from all the matches.
In their first game on Tuesday Sweden beat England with 2-0 which Swedish news giant Expressen did write about, right under the result tables for the daily horse races and a nice picture of a happy David Lafata in Sparta Praha on page 13 of the sports pages.
I am sure that once the last qualifiers for Canada 2015 are closing in, we will be able to read about them on webpages without scrolling too much, and perhaps on page 7 or 8 in national newspapers.
You can see I am in a positive mood today.
The ladies aside, David Lafata was really worth some attention. It´s not every day someone scores five times in Champions League.