text: why does football cause sane men to  become incoherent.illogical and unable to see their team is rubbish?   usually a combination of 2 factors, ignorance and stupidity which is masked as 'blind loyalty'  people forget that football (soccer) is a sport, and fair play has to be the norm you play hard, play to win but in the end of the day, if your opponent is better than you, you have to give him that respect.  fair play also means playing by the rules and in football, there is sometimes no justice. portugal gave france a fight in euro 2000 but when abel xavier decided to bring hand to ball, in the last minute of extra-time, referee benko put whistle to mouth and gave france a penalty. zidane desptached and portugal went out but not after attacking the referee and alleging bias, which their fans had quickly imitated. the refusal to accept defeat no matter how unkind, precepitates all this. english fans are reknowned for this refusal, which they mistakenly substitute for 'pride and love of country'.   sometimes, there are moments of deceptions which we have to condemn, jurgen klinsmann, arjen robben and diego maradona, no less, have cheated and escaped. but here is where football can deliver some justice after all, what you get away with today, you will have to pay for at another time.  however moments of human error, which referees sometimes make must be accepted, because players do the same all the time.   of course it is sad when your beloved team loses, especially in controversial circumstances. however when they are poor, or lost to a better team, then we must acknowledge our opponents, for just like us, they want to win, their fans want to win.   in controversy, we must shake our head curse our luck, because in life that happens and football, is the game of life.