warning: epidemic of high fever

a new type of specie has just crept out from the woodworks, fresh from the oven. piping hot too. they are making more of it with every ticking of the clock. NFFBFF they call it. a lot of F's. neff-beff, that's how it's pronounced. stands for 'not football fan but fifa fever'. you see them all around you. could be your mother, your aunty, your brother or even your wife. they know nuts about football. they never watch a single match in their lives but suddenly, with the fifa bug going round, they talk ball, eat ball, breathe ball, sleep ball and of course watch football.

who's your favourite team? england, most probably. why? that's the only team they know. who's in the team? with beckham missing in action, most NFFBFFs are at a loss. wayne rooney! okayyyy, that's one. yes, of course now they will remember robert green as well.

hey, did you watch yesterday's game? portugal scored 7 goals against korea! yes, the defence was weak whilst the offense was not aggressive enough. *silence ensued, followed by the buzzing of a mosquito entering the scene flying past from left to right* not knowing how to talk ball, she turns quietly back to her work. when the ball's back in her court (pun intended), she drops it. that's the problem. they don't really know ball. they know it's 7-0 and it's big story, but that's all they know about it.

that's why i don't get it. people who doesn't normally follow football from any country, be it england premier league, spanish primera liga, argentinian football or even malaysian football, they wouldn't even blink an eye if chelsea's winning the cup this year or the red devil was just one point short of the winner. suddenly, they are interested to know if england will enter into the round of 16 and every other damn country. who watches korea football normally?! besides korean, that is. it's still the same black and white round football. now that the whole world is in on it, and it's THE hottest topic, they are suddenly very interested to spend hours after hours in front of the tv, watching the ball being kicked left, right and center. what's the deal? is it because it's only on every once in four years? so, something rare must be something good? i'm rare! there's only one of me in the whole world. *smirk*

i don't watch football, fifa or no fifa. i don't try to talk football, even if it's the most heated topic of the day. to write this post, i had to do research. an ton of research (translated to mean: a pure football fan grumbled in my ear). ok, so i'm blogging about it but i'm actually blogging about the 'neffbeffs' rather than fifa. two months ago, i don't sit in front of the tv to catch 22 men running back and forth 105 metres of grass. today, i don't either. hey, i've got principles. :-p