Love at First Sight

Article by Azman Yusof

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It was way back in 1966 when I was just a 12 year old boy, away from home at a boarding school; the first of its kind formed in 1905 based on the English Public School System. The country was Malaysia which had gained independence from Britain just 9 years earlier in 1957.

Saturday night was 'film show' night for this all boys school and was definitely one of the highlights of the week for us 'poor' boys, who, before coming here, could probably afford to go to the movies only four or five times a year. It was sheer heaven to be able to watch your favourite movie stars once a week!

Before the main movie, operated by our own Cinema Club members, there would normally be some trailers; mostly short cartoons and/or some news highlights from Pathe (wonder if it is still in existence) News.

On that particular night in March 1966, the trailer shown was the highlights from the 1962 FA Cup Final. It did not matter that the clip was almost 4 years old. (Very seldom did we get current clips probably due to the cost factor.)

It was only 8 minutes in length but the effect on one 12 year old boy was to last a lifetime. It was the first time in my life that I had seen a football match on the big screen. Television too was just introduced to the country in 1963 and only the super rich could afford to have one.

Burnley versus SPURS. Yes the same SPURS that I have been following since…for almost 50 years now! I did not know the result then but somehow I rooted for the boys in white. (Yes..it was shown in colour!) Perhaps it was because my house colour was white (the other three being black, yellow and red). Whatever the reason was, I knew instantly this was going to be my team. Come on you Spurs! It was love at first sight, and you know what?….We won!

Before I went to this school, I had read about the English Football League from the newspapers since I was about 9 years old. I remember reading about how unlucky Leeds were during that time. There were also regular news on Arsenal and Liverpool. I guess I had a soft spot for Liverpool then, although I had not seen them in action before. It was just through reading. But once I had seen Blanchflower, Greaves, Smith and of course Brown (my favourite position), there could only be one team for me.

You readers in the UK probably support a team because it is your hometown team. That sense of belonging is something that comes natural to you. But for us thousands of miles away (or kilometres as it is known now) a team must strike a chord in you to make you a lifelong supporter.

As the country progressed, we had more matches shown on TV. At first it was once a week and in black and white of a selected match of the week (even then a few weeks late). Then live matches were shown for the FA Cup Finals. Colour TV was introduced in 1978. These Finals of course cemented my love for Spurs because we always seemed to do well in Cup competitions. How I loved to be in front of the TV, well stocked with coffee and cigarettes to watch my Spurs lift the Cup at the end of the day.

Nowadays all around the world, EPL matches are being shown live regularly. In Malaysia, up to 6 'big' matches are shown live every week as well as the highlights of all matches played (even for the 2nd tier league).

Unfortunately, despite this wonderful development, my Spurs have not increased their fan base in this country. Probably the youngest Spurs fan in Malaysia is at least 40 years old. Fans nowadays want success, especially overseas where they had no geographical connection to a team. I suppose we need to achieve more success to win more fans (though personally I don't have much regards for this type of fan). So let us go and win the league this year. Can we? Of course we can. We are Spurs..are we not?

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