Many people call me a soccer fanatic!

Ahh…the ultimate compliment!

Why would anyone even consider another so-called-sport?

Since the time I played street soccer at the age of four, no other sports activity has encumbered my agenda. In fact, I literally never skated in my life, never skied, never touched a hockey stick or a baseball glove; and until very recently, I had never even heard of several sports that apparently have been around for a while and I honestly cannot understand the attraction of some people to these silly sports!!

Real football " known in North America as soccer", for over three decades, and in four out of the six continents of the world – as I moved form one corner of the globe to the other a few times – has always been my only sport; more than a sport, a passion.

As a big brother (through the Big Brothers organization) – my little brother insisted on getting me to watch his favorite baseball team on TV for the first time ever in my life. In the minutes I spent with him, I embarrassed him twice before his friends; once when I thought that his mini-baseball sport was called "tea-ball" – thinking, maybe they associate the activity with a tea party after the game! – only to discover that a T-shaped stick is behind the title!!! The second time was when his favourite team threw the ball outside the field of play and I thought that his team would be penalized or the opponents would get a throw-in when in fact that counted as a first class goal – or what he called it a home goal –(editor’s note: the writer is referring to home-run). Well, sorry buddy!

Actually, and I am not being facetious, until now I still don’t know how they score in baseball with no goals to kick or throw or hit the ball into!

Probably my brain had developed so biased a vision over the years that the underpinnings of soccer fascination and fanaticism at this stage in my life should not have been unpredictable.

How proud I am to be the brainwashed victim of this superior athletic activity, this way of living, this great sport, and in most parts of the world .. yes .. this passionate religion.

I recall the days when I would get up early and sneak out of the house to play street soccer in my pajamas before mom woke up to prepare me for school…..

Since then, I’ve always played the game, never missed a year, even in situations in which many can’t picture a soccer game!

It breaks my heart to see politics and hard feelings in some soccer scenes; and it thrills me to see kids who play and practice soccer five nights a week, summer and winter, with no desire to waste time on other activities; kids with a promising passion for soccer. A few of them are right here in town.

A few other adult soccer nuts are also right here in town. People who have had five decades of non-stop soccer, and who have played in the T&D, N&D and other leagues back in the fifties, and have ever since been involved, year after year, pouring a great deal of energy, time, effort and emotion into the game…

In most Europe, South America, Africa or Asia, when a boy is born, the first gift is usually a soccer ball. At the age of one, the child learns walking by dribbling the ball!.. (editor’s note: Paul has just become a daddy for the first time. A baby boy who was born in Ontario during the World cup finals; and apparently while Paul’s wife (at the time) was undergoing a caesarian surgery, Paul was rushing back and forth between the delivery room and the waiting room across the hall to watch the semi-final match. Really!! Paul named his son "Pele".. really!!!)

I know someone who, in a civil war situation, organized a soccer league, playing in the backyard of a Catholic school that was used as a check-point, and the players rotated taking turns on the roof of the school as sniper – guards! A true story; I swear!

The other day, I received a lunch invitation from a long-time friend who just arrived in Montreal from Europe. As we enjoyed a long chat, re-living our soccer (football) memories together in Europe back in the early seventies, he was concerned about the recent invasion – or shall I say introduction – of the American football "rugby" to the European athletic culture.

…"an egg-shaped ball, they play it with their hands, yet they call it football, they push and hold each other…" he said…

"Yes, I know about it…" I interrupted him, "they play it over here", I said. "It makes a fun beach sport for a men vs. women’s team, but beyond that, I don’t understand accepting it as a real athletic, intelligent sport, do you? I said. I went on to explain:

The old North American generation still does not understand that soccer is not about kicking a ball! That’s why they can’t enjoy it and they won’t until they understand that soccer is played off the ball. It’s the chess-type technical movements off the ball, followed with a dazzling fraction of a second execution skill at a run or in the air, is what soccer is all about.

The same generation, which is in a position to govern and finance sports, still thinks of soccer as a foreign or even the World’s game, but not the North Americans’! The simple statistical fact is that right here in Canada as well as in USA, the number of registered soccer players is greater than the number of all other sports players combined – including hockey, baseball and American football! Fact!

Right here in our small 30,000 population town the youth soccer club consists over 2000 players and senior soccer has 350 players. Total baseball registration is 575, hockey is 680 and there is no rugby league. Fact!

I insulted some narrow-minded friends once when I said no matter how good a boxer or a rugby player is, he will never be as good (as strong) as, nor will be able to beat a donkey or a bull! .. and .. the best marathon runner will come second to a horse’ speed and stamina!!.

The new generation needs soccer as the only game with the right balance of physical conditioning and competitiveness all via a gentleman’s spirit and chess-type technical intelligence.

Soccer mania? Well, I call it passion… Ask me how often I may be playing or refereeing at midnight in an indoor facility or under lights?

Presently, my main involvement is with the local club as well as with the district Referees’ Association, all of which activities tie up four evenings a week.

That still leaves me with three evenings to play an indoor old - timers league, to participate in a weekly Referees’ fitness night, to supervise and assist with the coaching of the indoor youth program, to produce a referees and a club magazine, to referee indoor leagues, to follow up on the club and district Referees’ Association’s administrative business and, being a Referee Instructor & Assessor, I conduct pre-season referee clinics and seminars!. In the summer, I’ll be much busier, of course!

In my study, you couldn’t miss noticing a large "sentimentally valuable" scrapbook that contains dozens of clippings from newspapers and pictures over years of football memories, from officiating record of several referee appointments to special European and international prestigious games, to a player at the National Universities’ cup final, and other memorabilia kept with a great deal of pride.

... No, I am no George Best, but a memorabilia of my participation in a Universities’ cup final game of a national (inter-provincial) competition or an appointment to referee a special international match is greater than a post-doctoral diploma.

Yes, I boast; and I make no apology about it!

... It is not enough to just like soccer, to play soccer, to referee soccer or to love soccer! You must have that vital gene, the passion for soccer, and only soccer!

I admit, there maybe dozens of sports .. I’ll be reasonable here and I’ll compromise! So let us just stick to the top three real sports: soccer, then soccer and thirdly soccer!

My friends have told me that if they would get up at 3 am to relish along with a glass of wine, the choice of a large collection of soccer videos, their wives or girlfriends would be long departed; (well, each to their own priorities)!

The other day a friend of mine was telling me I should learn more about other sports!

Have I been wrong in assuming that La cross is the name of a religious Anglo-Franco organization, or that "squash" is a Spanish dish or in sympathizing for a guy called Gretzky because he couldn’t make it in Soccer?

I could never understand all the fuss and expense to build a dome to keep gum-chewing, out-of-shape baseball sissies – who play a child’s game – dry!

Why hang up a couple of baskets and spend an evening turning your head right-left-right-left with a bouncing ball, keeping record of meaningless score .. 123-121 .. 123-123 .. 125-123 !!!!

Why play soccer on an ice surface, wearing a face-mask, using a stick and a coin-shaped ball; when it can be played right?

How terrible life would be sweeping straw off the ice (editor’s note: I think Paul is referring to curling) or getting your hands soiled by carrying a pigskin!!