Life suddenly looks up for the football-mad

AS THE Barclays Premier League enters its third round this weekend, fans are settling in and shaking off the last lingering gloom of winter, with a budding spring in their step.

Life will not be the same for wives, partners and girlfriends for the next nine months. Unless she is a soccer-crazy WAG too, the discomfort is akin to the gestation period of a full term pregnancy.

The approach of springtime brings everything back to life and that includes your man’s blathering bloviating about the team he supports. And so invitations to funerals and weddings get turned down too.

There is great support of British soccer in South Africa. The renewed rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United goes far beyond revelry and ridicule. It can get pretty personal too.

Weekends are prime time and the usual winding-down Monday night becomes a humdinger if a derby is on the cards. Braais and beers, Martini lunches and boisterous evenings are the order of the day if you are on the winning side.

Weekday nights can get pretty crowded as other competitions and Champions League fixtures kick in. So it’s often bleary eyes at the office but plenty to chat about in the corridors.

But it is all not a game of winners. As the goalposts shift there will be losers too.The Barclays Premier League is the richest football league in the world and South Africans embrace it on a grand scale.