Soccer fans cheer before the start of the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup at Harbour City. Edmond Tang / China Daily

Soccer fans watch the World Cup match at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong. Edmond Tang / China Daily

Some Hong Kong soccer 'funatics' caught up in the 2010 games offer glimpses of their passion and of the extremes to which it has swept them away. Ming Yeung reports.

They are treated like, even when they do not themselves imagine they are, gods, these World Cup 2010 soccer players. The frenzies of their faithful followers; the global pilgrimages; the plethora of rites, rituals and symbolism and hair-splitting attention to the minutiae of devotion (e.g., scoring statistics, like counting the number of angels on the head of a pin) suggest a preoccupation and passion during this World Cup 2010 season matched only by religion.

Confirming soccer's status as a rival "religion" and "opiate of the masses", one group's Facebook page called "If soccer is religion, then Cristiano Ronaldo is the God!" has attracted countless fans worldwide.

Even though she says she is not religious, Evelyn Yeung, a 26-year-old Hong Kong accountant, revealed that she's been praying for the Brazil team.

"My support for the Brazil team perhaps is a manifestation of my attachment to my dad," she said. Yeung remembers vividly the joyful moments spent watching the World Cup since 1994. "He supported Brazil his entire life. After he passed away in 2001, I felt like I had to follow in his footsteps," she added.

Well aware that she could not concentrate on work as she planned to stay up till dawn to watch the games, Yeung applied for one-month no-pay leave. "Call me crazy, I don't care," she laughed. One will find it hard to believe this petite number- cruncher loves soccer no less than the brawny hunks in sports bars.

Reminiscent of the religious practice of tithing and in order to watch every game, Yeung pays more than HK$280 a month for a two-year package to iCable - the television network that owns all broadcasting rights to the entire tournament.

"It is unfair that our two free-to-air stations do not have the right to screen any matches. But what can I do? I cannot give up watching the games just because of the unfairness," she sighed. "If the games could be aired for free for everyone, I am sure the atmosphere would be much better."

Also caught up in this frenzied once-in-every-four-years cycle, Carmi Bergmann, 27, decided to pay South Africa a visit just for the 2010 World Cup in the middle of a tedious business meeting with his boss one day last year. "I looked out of the window and suddenly made up my mind I had to watch the World Cup live, sooner better than later. God knows if I would die young, before I'd ever get the chance to watch my favorite game live."

So he checked the tickets and booked it as soon as he got home.

The American-born Israeli came to Hong Kong three years ago to be a manager for an internationally renowned handbag company. Being a soccer enthusiastic himself, he acts as if it was perfectly sane for him to spend around HK$50,000 - the equivalent of two months' salary - for a 7-day trip to South Africa.

Substantiating the analogies between the World Cup and religious pilgrimages and worship, he declared, "It is very special to go to South Africa equivalent of Muslims' Mecca; it can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said, with a beatific smile.

Bergmann's fan fanaticism is shared with other local soccer fans, like Mike Fok, 35. Even though he can scarcely afford a trip to South Africa, Fok intends to watch every game in Hong Kong. Fok was smoking a cigar and drinking beer, cheering and swearing with a dozen other fans in Tsim Sha Tsui during the first match: the host South Africa vs Mexico.

Fok started playing soccer when he was ten and offered an unexpected reason for zeroing in on the World Cup. "The World Cup gathers the soccer elites of the time to compete and they represent their countries, not clubs, so it is unlikely that we'll be seeing players throw the game - I hope," he said.

Jim Syme from Scotland, marketing manager for a telecom company in Shenzhen, voiced his disappointment over Scotland's failure to qualify for the game this year. Syme is a director for a small soccer club back home and his family members are all soccer fans. "I think soccer is the best sport for bringing people together as no other sports can," he said. Yet, Syme was not too shy to proclaim his stance: "A.B.E - Anybody But England".

The tribal, territorial solidarity and "sectarianism" leave no doubt that World Cup soccer fever is somehow a part of a secular, civil "religion", even if the behavior of fans isn't always civil.

"The special thing about the World Cup is that you can live through your patriotism. You know, when we're watching the European League, we support only one team and the team has players from different countries. But when the World Cup starts, we stand by our own nation. People can really go for their own countries," said Stefan Wirtz, 23, a German intern currently working in Hong Kong.

On the third night of the game, Wirtz was out wearing the prescribed vestments - a black jersey representing his home - Germany - while joining friends to watch Germany vs Australia at 2:30 am in Wan Chai.

Obviously, Wirtz is hoping Germany will ultimately win and return home with the coveted trophy. But clashing with fans from other countries, in a friendly way, is something inevitable. "Watching the game with other fans is so cool. Like tonight, I am sure there're lots of Australian fans here; we're gonna have a lot of fun, even if Germany wins," Wirtz said, suggesting one cheerful disanalogy with gloomy religious rivalry.

Addressing the possibility that the World Cup hoopla gives fans an excuse to go wild or go AWOL from work, Wirtz claimed that the World Cup would not give him excuses to do something he rarely does, because he is old enough to go drinking on a boys' night out.

He added that his colleagues would understand if he looked tired or fell asleep at work. "I have to be at work at 8 am and the game tonight will be finished at 4:15 am. So pretty much I will have two hours of sleep ... I told them I will be there," he winked.

As an additional display or test of fervor and endurance, some devoted soccer fans, like Yeung, will not hesitate to spend the whole month doing nothing but watching every contest for the World Cup - soccer's Holy Grail and symbol of the meaning of fun, if not of life itself.

Fans gather at a local shopping mall to watch the match. Edmond Tang / China Daily

(HK Edition 06/19/2010 page2)