It's a funny thing, loyalty. Sometimes it's the easiest thing in the world to commit to something and stick to it come what may but other times the world just doesn't make it that easy. Particularly if that world is based on competition.
Tonight I am going to watch a football match. A rare treat I don't get to enjoy very often, I'm off to the home of Bristol City FC with my mate Jon to watch them play Crystal Palace in the second leg of their Premiership promotion play-off semi-final (sorry, bit of a mouthful, that). If you're not interested then it won't mean anything but if you do vaguely follow English football, and the Championship (what used to be the second division) in particular, then you are probably aware that the gulf between the top 20 teams in this country (collectively known as the Premiership, what used to be the first division) and the rest of the ball-kicking population is pretty huge, so getting promoted to the Premiership is a pretty big deal. And it's all down to money.
You see, millions of people all over the world watch Premiership matches on TV and the money which that earns for the clubs is huge. We're talking millions. Lots and lots of millions. Millions of millions. Of pounds. It is estimated that the extra income from TV rights alone if a team gets promoted to the Premiership is worth about £40 million a year, which is enough to buy a whole team. And a pretty decent one at that. So, every year the top teams spend loads of dosh improving their squads with the pick of the finest players the world has to offer whilst everyone else has to choose between decorating the gents toilets or resurfacing the car park. Or maybe buying the odd player if they are feeling really flush.
It's just the way it is, free market capitalism at work, and as such not something to be too surprised about. It's the same mechanism whereby Madanna gets to ponce about on huge stages wearing solid platinum bras surrounded by a cast of 800,000 professional belly-dancers whilst some undiscovered genius with an accoustic guitar has to make do playing in the corner of an empty pub for half a pint of shandy (if he's lucky). The more commercially sucessful you are the more money you are given to go and be even more sucessful, etc, etc...
So back to City vs Palace and my opening comments about loyalty. Well, you see when I was a kid I lived in South London and the team I supported was... yep, Crystal Palace. A few years back they managed to work their way into the Premiership and have a year (or it might even have been two, I can't quite remember) of being beaten by vastly superior, and hugely more expensive, teams before being relegated back down to the Championship again. And I must admit I got rather fond of them again, having not really thought about them since I was 14.
These days I am fond of Bristol City thanks to my occasional visits with the aformentioned Jon to see them play and this year they have been very rude and gone from being promoted into the Championship at the start of the season to trying to get promoted out of the Championship at the end of the season without even hanging around for a few years proving they're good enough. Palace have at least had the decency to pay their dues for a few years before now aiming for the big time again and as luck would have it these are the two teams battling for a place in the play-off final (which will be against another team who are also trying to get promoted, but we don't need to worry about that for now).
So, my dilemma: will I be pleased whoever wins, or equally will I be a bit disappointed whoever wins? I would honestly like to see both teams win and be promoted but that can't happen. In the grand tradition of competitive enterprise for there to be a winner there has to be a loser, no way round it unless you change the basic principles of the game and reward teams for helping the other side help them put the ball in the back of a neutral goal, which frankly would be both dull and daft. So for this to have any meaning there has to be a winner and a loser, and it's what both sides signed up for and what they are there for so I have no problem with that. (Unlike a few other competitive exercises I can think of but let's not go there today).
One team will ultimately win, one will lose, and I'm in the fortunate position that I really don't mind which is which. On this occasion my split loyalties are a blessing. Really.
As long as City win. (Well, I haven't lived in London for a very long time...)
