If you are a man involved in a relationship with a woman who understands and tolerates football, consider yourself lucky.
The number of women who can actually sit down with their men to sip a beer while watching a football match is at an all time low, that by a mere and unguided estimation.
Even though some girls from the younger generations have made an effort to grin and bear it in order to keep their men happy, a majority is not interested in even learning the concept behind it.
Even if one was to dig deeper into the lives of some of those women who do enjoy watching football, one would find that they probably grew up living with their fathers only, or they had strong ties with their fathers.
Some had an armful of men as siblings or grew up as tomboys.
In fact, magazines all over are always offering advise to women as to how best to handle his infatuation with the sport.
Women, it seems, are sometimes always complaining about the amount of time their partners waste by hanging out at pubs with their mates watching football, instead of spending quality time with their loved ones.
The trend, it seems, affects a lot of women who just don’t understand what it is about men chasing a ball across the field for a full 90 minutes that keeps their men on the edge of their seats.
Is it really a men’s sport?
It seems over a gazillion African men are infatuated with sitting back and watching football rather than family outings initiated by the forever caring woman.
Nowadays, more and more girls are learning to accept the fact that football is closer to a man’s heart than anything else.
Football is central to a man’s existence or so they say, it’s the only time men can get together and act like men.
It’s the one thing that can put them on a natural high when their teams have won; it’s also the one thing that can depress them greatly once their sides lose a match.
Most women never know how to handle their men at the depression stages because to them it’s just a game.
“I don’t understand how he could cry just because Manchester United lost the championships; that was the first time I saw my husband cry. I mean, he didn’t even cry at his mother’s funeral,” said a confused woman.
Asked to comment on the issue of men and their football, Franco Teme, a 22-year-old student says football and men come from a long time back. He says football is the only thing a man is allowed to get emotional over because it’s a game that’s close to heart.
According to him, no other sport can display true strength and special acquired skills like football.
“Now for me, it’s better because my girlfriend is like one of the boys; she is always with me and the guys watching football, whether at home or at the pub, she is just great, although she is an Arsenal fan, I am proudly a Man-U fan. She is like my dream woman,” says Teme.
Another boy, Warren Kemo, who has been living with his girlfriend of six months, says a woman who complains about football is just not attractive in his eyes. He claims his ex-girlfriend used to nag him about spending quality time with her all the time and it turned him off.
Kemo says the issue of hiding the remote control had become big in their relationship; he claims he would switch channels to Supersport and have to hide the remote so that his girlfriend wouldn’t change to watch some of her “stupid” soaps.
“Sometimes, I would even change the new batteries in the remote and put old ones just so she couldn’t change. She was suffocating me; football is close to my heart and it’s the only time I felt masculine in that house, what with the pink things she bought around the house? Would you believe I have moved back to my place just so I can be allowed to watch my football in peace,” said Kemo.
Seneo Latoya, a 29-year-old woman, hates football with a passion but claims her ex boyfriend, whom she dated for nearly a year, was in love with it.
Leeto says that once her ex sat watching Liverpool play, there was nothing anybody could do to disturb him.
“I could probably get naked in front of him and he would ask me to shift because I am obstructing his view,” says Leeto.
According to Leeto, her ex had different jerseys, scarfs, bennies and everything else you could find dedicated to Liverpool, even had their pictures on his screen savers and desktop backgrounds.
“For his 29th birthday, he flew to England to watch Liverpool play, with all his savings, and guess what? Liverpool lost that day,” says Leeto.
Another woman, who dislikes football, is married Neo Thomas. Neo says the worst times are during the endless premier leagues, especially the English leagues and the World Cup, the international friendlies and basically all the sport channels on DSTV.
“My husband works hard and often comes home late, but when it’s time for the leagues, he makes it a point to come home early and that would be the same as not seeing him at all because he brings home his beer and stares at the screen for hours till late,” said Thomas.
