My obsession with football has killed off all my relationships – will I still be with my girlfriend by the end of the Euros? England kick off their Euro 2024 campaign tonight, but can Sachin Kureishi’s relationship survive his passion for football? By Sachin Kureishi For You Magazine Published: 07:01 EDT, 15 June 2024 | Updated: 07:01 EDT, 15 June 2024 e-mail View comments What I hadn’t told my first girlfriend was that I was in a committed relationship already. It didn’t occur to me that this was what being a proper football fan amounted to. But Emma was more experienced in love than me.
Rigorous and prudent, she quickly became attuned to my divided affections. When she called asking to meet at Wagamama one spring afternoon, I was too preoccupied with World Cup party planning to register the unsteadiness in her voice, or to question why I was the only one who turned up with an appetite. As the waiter set down my yaki soba, and I was splitting my chopsticks, it dawned on me that I was being dumped.
Four weeks later, England kicked off the 2018 World Cup campaign in Russia , narrowly defeating Tunisia 2-1, igniting a love affair with football which swept the country that wildly hot summer. Football was my reprieve, but I had to acknowledge, in my break-up despair punctuated by moments of beer-soaked delirium, that it was also partly the reason I found myself in this mess. I had prioritised football over my partner, a common mistake, since fandom can feel almost as prof.
