This Saturday presents us with a unique opportunity to choose between club and country. For, at three o’clock, England play Sweden at Old Trafford. Meanwhile, not many miles away, Burnley will be kicking off at home to Portsmouth in the hunt for three more First Division points. This leaves us on the horns of an intriguing dilemma. You can’t watch both. So, is it club or country for you on Saturday?
Except, of course, this is no dilemma at all. One of the cornerstones of English football is that club is, and always will be, more important than country. This Saturday merely provides an opportunity to demonstrate this.
Barry Kilby should be congratulated for giving us this chance to declare what is most important, and for affirming the supremacy of Burnley’s fixtures over any lesser entertainment. We’ve been here before, of course, so there’s no need to re-hash old arguments in detail. Suffice to say that the FA exposes itself as an arrogant and elitist institution every time it schedules an England match at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Of course, there’s no Premier League football, so why should they concern themselves with the mere three professional divisions which propose to stage a full programme of matches at the same time? We’re the small fry. We’re supposed to move. Well, bollocks to them. Barry’s stood firm – because we don’t have enough Saturday matches anyway, and because some of us (and thanks for thinking of us!) have a hell of a trek to get to games at the best of times. And the best of times for football is, as we all know, three o’clock on Saturday. The club, which we reserve the right to criticise when we feel criticism is due, has done precisely the right thing here.
Now it’s over to you to get behind the decision in the only way you can: by turning up on Saturday and going through those turnstiles. Really, what’s the alternative? To sit in a pub in the company of people who never go to football matches and watch a load of Man Utd and Liverpool players run around in a game that doesn’t matter? To see yet another one of the approximately 5,000,000 games that are televised each year?
Of course, in this respect at least it’s a free country. You have the right to spurn Burnley if you wish. But if you choose to do so, know and understand this: anyone who watches the England match when they could get to Turf Moor on Saturday hereby forfeits the right to call themself a Claret. You have a choice. You’re either with us or against us. You’re either a Claret, in which case you’ll take your place with the faithful cheering on the lads, or you’re a dilettante who dabbles in football a bit. You can’t have a portfolio of support. You’ve got to choose.
I think the choice is bloody easy, and I’m grateful to the club for giving me this opportunity to renew my pledge of allegiance to the Burnley cause, and to give support and thanks for a manager who really has worked miracles. It’s the easiest decision I’ve made in years. See you on the Turf this Saturday.
