Christmas for the football fan – Boxing Day 2007

Today is Boxing Day and at long last I will get my Christmas football fix. First up is Reading versus West Ham and while it wouldn’t be my first choice for a football match it will certainly do.

Yesterday, the culmination of (for some people) months of hard work shopping, spending, guessing what to buy and filling the house with all sorts of food that will be consumed with a gluttonous greed over the 3 or 4 days before and after the 25th of December, was Christmas day 2007.

I don’t mind Christmas the period, the festive season, the cold weather and the festive cheer (usually alcohol induced), but Christmas day itself is the daddy of all anti-climaxes, it’s a time when family come together and you realise why you haven’t really had much contact with most of them since last Christmas and why you will not talk much to them until next Christmas.

The saving grace for me about Christmas day is that you only have to wait until tomorrow for some football. The festive, football calendar is easily my favourite part of Christmas. No work, a fridge full of treats which can be consumed without guilt and a seemingly endless supply of alcohol, which can be consumed in the same way as the food. This year the aforementioned 1pm kick off will be followed by the majority of the day’s fixtures at 3pm (which can be watched live on the internet, although I don’t condone this flagrant law breaking!) with an evening game between Arsenal and Portsmouth. Following this the football calendar continues with games on the 27th, 29th and 30th of December as well as the 1st and 2nd of January before the normal weekend schedule resumes.


I’m not big on presents at Christmas, usually because I receive presents from family members that would be refused by Oxfam for their lack of imagination or that indicate I have a particular body odour problem. This year I told 3 of my 4 sisters that a new system of present giving would be implicated and that was that they were to buy nothing for me and I would buy nothing for them, they have kids and I don’t have the time or patience to buy a present for someone who spends less time thinking about what to buy me than they do on which turkey to buy. On hearing this I usually get given the chastising mantra of "it’s the thought that counts" and I couldn’t agree more. It is precisely the lack of thought that goes into buying a Gillette gift pack of shaving foam and shower gel that I hope to avoid in the future. I did receive some lovely presents however. Money and some nice aftershave from my mum, money and some lovely books from my dad and a Liverpool t-shirt and a leather wash bag from my one sister and her family as well as an ipod and some other lovely things from my girlfriend.


If anyone asked me what I really wanted for Christmas and we were talking fantastical or in an ideal world I would have to say 6 or 9 points from Liverpool’s festive fixtures ( 6 or 9 because I suppose it depends what you deem as the festive period). Gillette products come and go but a football team is indeed for life and not just for Christmas, those 6 or 9 points could well be the gift that keeps on giving. If they help you to win a championship, propel your team into Europe or the play offs or help you to avoid relegation then they will be remembered for ever.

Given the current spreading of live football over 2 satellite broadcasters (Sky and Setanta) an alternative Christmas present may well be a subscription to either of the two or more likely the one you don’t have, but then 6 or 9 points on the radio will always beat anything less than that live on TV.

Let’s hope that receiving a Gillette and Adidas gift pack (2 of the 3 sisters decided not to adhere to the new system) will not effect my main Christmas present of balls in the net and points on the board.