The world’s game, not England’s

IN THE final moments before the teams run out, giant banners drift across the Kop stand, tugged over the heads of Liverpool Football Club’s most besotted fans. It is intensely theatrical. These are not mere pennants—like the ones nearby expressing typical Merseyside sentiments, such as “Thatcher, burn in Hell!” They are stage curtains, which roll back as the Liverpool team forms up against Chelsea, to reveal thousands of grim-faced Scousers who are suddenly, in an explosion of song, the main act.

“When you walk through a storm/ Hold your head up high/And don’t be afraid of the dark…” Most English football clubs have anthems. But none is more powerful than the Rodgers and Hammerstein number “You’ll never walk alone” belted out from the Kop before a big game; and that between Liverpool and Chelsea on April 27th was the biggest of the season. Holding up their red and white scarves, like stoles for a papal blessing, the Koppites tap the vast emotion invested in a club with almost as many glories and tragedies, over its 122-year history, as the city it claims to represent. No wonder so many foreigners want a piece of this.