Being a Rover Abroad

In the cold dark days that are the close season I was asked to write for the Raith Rovers web site about being a Raith Rover Abroad, and I suppose about being a football supporter of a wee team away from home.

Hope you enjoy.

I am filling in the dark days with Euro 2012's. Can Spain make it a triple, 2 euros and a world cup!?!

It is actually quite an achievement that a wee bit of plain white stitched leather can affect the world so much, but it does.  This wee ball can be bouncing around amongst millions or covered in mud and being chased by a dog in your local park.  I am, of course, talking about the beloved game of football.

I have been living in the absolutely crazy city of Barcelona for nearly six years now.  Before moving out here, I was a Stark’s Park regular (work permitting, of course) and I have to admit as far as the pros and cons of moving out here are concerned, not seeing Raith was a big con.  It was going to be hard enough learning a new language but changing my football routine?  Now come on, this is serious!

Nearly every football supporter has a routine, a ritual, little things they do on a Saturday. Reading the pre-match build up in the newspapers and on the websites for the latest news on your team and this week’s opponents, listening to the radio on the way to the match, having a wee lemonade before the game. . . I knew I was going to miss that “style” of supporting.  As a Raith fan living in Barcelona, my ritual has become a little different and not just because the sun is normally shining on a Saturday afternoon.  I have to tell you I am not the football supporter I was.

When I first moved out here I used to call my mum, send texts to mates to beg them to give me the scores and any information at all.  But now, with the wonder of technology, I can save the money I spent on calls for something more productive. For me, Saturday now starts with a cup of tea and acquiring the other half’s iPad to read the papers online.  Next, there’s a visit to the Rovers’ website for a last wee check.  Once fully informed, it’s then time to sit back and relax (depending on the point in the season) and wait for 3.50 local time – this is the time I get to catch up with the “others”.

No, not some horror movie characters, but the great group of fans that have created and regularly use the Raith Rovers Abroad website.  You can take the fan out of Stark’s Park but not Stark’s Park out of the fan and, short of flying home every weekend, it’s the closest I can get.  I have my wee group of fellow fans who, after exchanging weather details for our locations, start the football banter.  It gets bounced back and forth from America to Australia to Canada and, of course, to those in Stark’s Park – a far cry from a phone booth next to the Sagrada Familia at sometime on a Saturday evening, shouting down a phone line.

Sometimes, I  even have a scalding cup of tea at half-time. The only things missing are the macaroni pie and the rain ……… and I could be back in Kirkcaldy.

Devotion did not go unnoticed in the Daily Mail, Feb 27th '12