Kill The Dog - Why the British don't watch Real Mallorca

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon? Any time between, say, three and six? In the UK, you may settle down on the sofa to watch the football, or you may be in a bar, watching the football. In Mallorca, you may settle down on the sofa to watch the football, or you may be in a bar, watching football. Wherever you are, what in all likelihood you are watching is the Premier League, unless you're German, in which case you'll be taking in the Bundesliga. If you're more of a nerdy football fan, you may eschew your home leagues, the leagues from where you come, in favour of some other league - La Liga, for example. If you're even more of a nerdy football fan, you may eschew those home leagues in favour of Real Mallorca; you might even go, if you happen to be in Mallorca.

I may be wrong, but before Paul Davidson came depth-plumbing and blowing his pipes full of what turned out to be fool's gold I don't recall "The Bulletin" devoting particular attention to the club or team. Prior to this, I didn't pay much attention to Real either. It was the Davidson farce that made the club worthy of anything other than indifference, so the British angle can be said to have stimulated attention. The paper's only regular column on current matters Mallorcan is about Real, and it is now - in association with the club - offering a package to the remaining home games. There is more than just a touch of desperation about this appeal to the British football fan to come and put his bum on one of the thousands of empty seats at the ONO. Look at the games coming up and you might wonder why there has to be such an appeal. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia have all yet to play in Palma this season. If these games can't be sold out well in advance, you do have to ask whether Mallorca deserves a La Liga side. The stadium does, after all, have a capacity of no more than 25,000.

There are several reasons why the expat would not take up the offer. Take one - telly. What do you do on a Sunday afternoon? This coming Sunday afternoon, Liverpool will be playing Blackburn, Bayern Munich will be up against Hamburg in a top-four clash in the Bundesliga. Mallorca may be away, but even were the team to be at home - against Vallodolid - the result would be the same. Premier League, Bundesliga take precedence. It matters not that one's own team may not be playing. The home leagues are as much a part of the expat football fan's make-up as the team he actually supports, as are the cultures of those leagues - styles of play and even the language; the language of the terrace transported to the bar. Sing when you're winning? You wouldn't know what to sing at Real Mallorca, even if the fans did actually sing.

Going to a Mallorca game is at best an occasional thing, if at all. It falls into the category of being one of those things that should be done at some stage. A home match against Barça might well be that "stage". One against Gijon or Getafe? Your expat football fan would be hard pushed to have ever heard of either of them, let alone be able to locate them on a map of the mainland or even pronounce them. There is arguably greater interest among tourists than residents where Mallorca games are concerned, but this interest is part of the holiday experience and stems from a not insignificant motivation on behalf of the football fan to be able to say that he has been to such and such a ground. I once stood among a couple of thousand grumpy-looking Swiss all chomping on Wurst und Kartoffelchips during a God-awful pre-season friendly between Grasshopper Zürich and some other team whose name escapes me. And all because I could say I'd been, and to the ground of a team with a mad name, to boot.

Adopting another team is one thing. Many football fans are prone to this. But to swap allegiance from the original team, from the original league is quite another. It would be like giving up a desire for curry and bacon and eggs in favour of Mallorcan sobrasada sausage and the ensaimada. It just doesn't happen like this. Football, football teams, football leagues are too ingrained into the fan's footballing psyche. Which makes me wonder as to those who go native in support of a local team, Real in this case. La Liga may well be one of the two or three "best" leagues in world football, but it's not your expat football fan's league; it's someone else's, something to perhaps be admired, but not to get fanatical about.

Yes of course, take in the odd Real Mallorca match. God knows they need all the support and money they can lay their hands on, but don't let's believe that your average expat footy fans are about to abandon the Premier League or Bundesliga bar in their droves, because they're not. Perhaps the stronger message coming from Real Mallorca should be - if you don't come this season, you might never come if the club goes the way of all Portsmouths, ejected from the Premier mother ship without even a parachute payment. This would be along the lines of "if you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog". A threat in other words. Now then, threats. That's the language your football fan understands.


QUIZ - Who threatened to kill the dog? Famous magazine cover. (I'm sure it was also an album cover by the same "group", but maybe I imagined this.)

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.