Why football bets often end in embarrassment

Dhe worst is football betting. I’m not just saying that because Bayern are always at home against Bielefeld – was it Bielefeld? – lose if I bet on them as a favorite, bad odds or not. No, I say that because soccer bets end up being embarrassing even for an expert like me, for example before the Champions League final: Who will bet? Five euros bet! The winner takes it all!

Of course, as a connoisseur of British and Spanish football, I’ll say: three to zero for Liverpool. Now we watched the final this year in Novi Sad, Serbia, where friends invited us. Wonderful friends and a wonderful city by the way, a sort of insider tip for your next city trip.

Neutralization at the highest level

We had booked into a restaurant on the Danube with other friends for seven and at my insistence we said goodbye so as not to miss the highlight of the football season. I felt mild doubts, but eventually we sat in front of the TV in the living room and listened to the Serbian commentator, whose explanations I thought I understood, because don’t commentators always say the same thing?

Even Boris came along. Boris, who thinks football is complete nonsense, who is only interested in sport when someone does it like his father-in-law, who died young and was one of the best in three sports in old Yugoslavia: tennis, handball and ice hockey. It was both joy and mystery for everyone present that Boris had gathered at the table to watch football. What can I say, he was not disappointed.

A disaster, he judged after an appropriate observation phase, so this ball attachment is the pinnacle of the football game? What a waste of time! My defense was as expected, probably the Serbian commentator said nothing else: neutralization at the highest level, a goal would do the game good. I was largely unheard, although I have to admit that other viewers showed solidarity with Boris and gradually said goodbye, not without mentioning that it was a shame about the dessert that we missed by leaving the restaurant early.

There’s no need to beat around the bush: I have to rate this final as a personal defeat. As a friend of football and unfortunately also in terms of the result. Liverpool narrowly missed the 3-0 that the experts rated as safe and lost 1-0, but as always I lost my sports bet. By the way, our hostess won. She is about as interested in football as Boris is.