Are You a Glory Hunter?

Imagine a world where every Sunday morning, you wake up with a smile on your face. 

No.

Make that everyday, you wake up with a smile on your face, because your team is winning and winning again. 

Is this Utopia? 

No, again. 

How many times have we, as faithfuls to our chosen club, wish that we will live to finally see the day where we will not be facing the prospect of ever losing?

The simple truth is, that day is not going to come. 

What we are rewarded with for our loyalty to our club are days full of anguish, pain, and mockery by rival fans. 

Manchester United fans, you must have had a rough season eh? Not only did your team lose to Liverpool, the latest sting you got was when the Red Devils crashed 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium to Arsenal. 

You see what I mean?

In this modern and globalised world, everyone is looking for success. As a result of satellite football broadcasting nearly every game every week, we have a huge array of football on the menu to choose from. 

Sick of watching Arsenal play? Flick. Let's watch Newcastle. 

Oh wait. Newcastle is crap. Flick. Let's watch Liverpool. 

No wonder the world is breeding fans who switch allegiance in similar way to how they flick that remote.

These fans simply have no patience to watch a team screw up anymore. I mean, who can blame them? After all, by switching to a different channel, they can watch another team who can pass the ball better, score more goals and win more trophies.

And this problem has been exacerbated in the last decade or so by the pre-eminence of Manchester United. After their trophy-laden seasons, you would suddenly see many "born again" football fans supporting them.

When Arsene Wenger took over at Arsenal and transformed them into a side capable of effectively challenging Manchester United week-in and week-out, you could suddenly see the tide of Manchester United fans burning effigies and pledging their alliance to that swanky club in North London.

Also stemming from the prevalence of satellite football, many English Premier League football fans are now based overseas. Many of these fans have never stepped foot into England, let alone places like Yorkshire and Sir Matt Busby Way.

And some in places like Japan and China, they don't even speak the English language at all.

Yet, like all those English fans that throng the stadiums every week, they have the opportunity to watch English football.

And this is where the root of the problem lies.

We all know that the reason why many fans, especially English ones, remain loyal to their clubs because they originate from the area in which their club is playing. Hence, for example, if you come from Sheffield, you will most likely root for a team in Sheffield.

For these overseas based fans, they have no affinity or roots linking back to these areas and hence they don't feel compelled to stick by their first chosen clubs through thick and thin.

And hence now, more than ever before, there is a rise in fans chasing just successful clubs. And they even have a term for it.

Glory Hunters. 

A search on Google will even bring you to a page on Wikipedia explaining to you the existence of Glory Hunters in various parts of the world. 

In the UK, there is even a television programme named "I Am a Glory Hunter" on ITV. It is a show about this bloke who is a Spurs fan but decides that he should give his season ticket to his friend and embark on a journey of Glory Hunting.

His way of glory hunting will start with randomly picking a club from a hat and following that team till it eventually loses, before going on to support the team that won that match. This will go on and according to the programme, it is supposed to cure those disappointing nights attached to you loyally supporting your club.

It is ridiculous really.

Not only is there now a prevalence of Glory Hunters, the media is also not helping by actually promoting it.

It seems that by staunchly supporting one club for the rest of your life is now a traditional and backward idea, which should be consigned to the dustbin.

The "in thing" is now to switch clubs at will and chase successful clubs. 

I know there are still many fans out there who will still cry out foul play over such a modernistic "idea" of switching clubs at will. 

But I have to admit that I have increasingly seen more and more people adopt a more successful second team. And this worries me. It signifies that fans now believe that it is okay to move beyond their first chosen team and actually consider another one. Sure, they may not have switched clubs entirely but they are still sharing their allegiance between football clubs. 

And indeed, in my opinion, this makes a mockery out of good old traditional fan support for a club.

As Roy Keane once famously said, and I paraphrase, fans at Old Trafford are now more interested in eating their prawn sandwiches than cheering their team on. 

I wonder if this has got anything to do with the idea that it is okay not to remain a diehard after all? 

The trend is now shifting towards supporting Chelsea. After their run of success in the last few years, more and more people are taking up the Blues as their favourite team.

With that said, I don't envision this trend ending any time soon.

The easy availability of satellite football and the promotion of glory hunting in the media is not going to aid things.

My last wish now is for this world to still contain a core group of loyal fans for their chosen clubs, regardless of the type of sport.