Football as a networking tool

[Softnatural]

I support quite an obscure football club, it's the one thing people always remember about me.

I bumped into someone I haven't seen in 20 odd years last weekend, his first words, before he could recall my name were you support "xyz fc".

My club has made a big announcement today 3 people where contact had fizzled out a bit have been in touch to talk about it.

When I worked in sales, if you knew you were meeting a football fan, you always checked their teams results and a bit of news about them before you went.

People love to sneer about football but in a world where these little contacts make things happen, what else is there that has the same impact?

Well thought it might make an interesting discussion. 🤣

I agree, I am not in sales but work as head of a branch and always look up the head office counterpart's team's results and news before I phone him! We have nil in common apart from our job and it makes small talk go along much easier

I agree. I'm much more likely to remember someone's football team than their wife/husband/kids name. I also work in education and it is great for building relationships with students, even if our teams hate each other.
My team is no longer small/obscure but as I moved away from there, for a lot of people where I currently live I am the only person they know who supports that team and get similar msgs when there is news about them.