Let’s clear the abbreviations first of all. Footie means football of course, wags means the wives and girlfriends of footballers, who are raising much more of a storm in Germany than the players in many instances with their diva like behaviour, incredible good looks (and, dare I say it, over grooming), their marathon shopping and their immense love of the camera!
Their love or infatuation with their partners is definitely of secondary importance during this World Cup at least...
Do we, like the wags, love our football teams or is it just infatuation?
More to the point, is infatuation a hell of a lot more satisfying than love anyway, hence explaining why so many otherwise intelligent and sorted people opt for infatuation anytime, or persist in relationships that are totally one-sided, while seemingly enjoying the intensity and pain that unrequited love can bring?
Is infatuation bad for you but enjoyable after all?
Is infatuation with, or the much deeper and much more common love of a particular footie team (like infatuation with someone who is clearly not right for you or good to you?) What makes the World Cup so much more fun anyway, while we persist in glorifying some teams that have honestly looked well past their sell by date, and I include both England and Italy in this assessment so far at least. (Of course, if the Italians shone brilliantly against the Aussies yesterday afternoon I sincerely withdraw any hint of anything less than infatuation in that last remark).
A recent US census found that marriages (unlike our marriages to a football team which are normally life long affairs with sometimes one neat switch in our teenage years to our lifetime love)!) last, on average, around seven years.
Nothing new in that, we’ve heard about the seven-year itch before, when most marriages or relationships start to fade unless there is true love on both sides and financial reasons to stay put, or amazingly, after seven years continued sexual interest and compatibility which keeps the couple happy together.
What was more interesting from this census were the three most common reasons for break ups. The first is that you chose badly in the first place. Second, that people change, and third that the partner either had psychological problems or they developed over time (Source: Cassandra in the Style Section of the UK’s Sunday Times).
Let’s look at these three in detail.
Choosing badly in the first place. This is normally down to infatuation, or being in lust rather than in love.
Putting someone on a pedestal, and refusing to see the reality of how they treat you, how unhappy you actually feel with them most of the time, and yet staying in this quagmire of problems ruins lives, and yet these sorts of characters can only love someone very deeply if that love is not returned, or if they are hurt by them. Truly you shouldn’t love if you don’t love yourself first. Love of self is clearly not a problem with many of the wags, who are often the world’s leading beauties and models and who clearly are deeply in love with themselves, albeit just the beauty bit.
People change.
Yes and so do footie teams. The star teams of 20 years ago are clearly not invincible anymore, and this has made all the games so much more fun to watch. Italy against the United States should have been a dead cert huge win for the Italians, but wasn’t. England struggled even against Ecuador. Nothing, as in love, is totally predictable.
The third reason is having psychological problems which can develop over time. I don’t believe people change. I think you are just so blinded by lust, love or infatuation that you refuse to see the glaringly obvious to everyone but yourself.
In this respect footie love is much safer. Even if the team you love play badly, or only win the World Cup once, you are not as devastated as you can be after a relationship breaks up, or broke up or worse. Footie love must be the safest love of all. No wonder wiser men put so much in it!