The delight of anticipation!

This time tomorrow the Champions League final between Manchester Utd and Barcelona will nearly be over...but in my experience the anticipation of a big sporting event, like a cup final or the Superbowl, is often far more enjoyable than the game itself...unless you're a neutral.

When I was a kid, the biggest football game of the year was undoubtedly the FA Cup Final. Every year on the first or second Saturday in May, the two competing TV stations would start their programmes earlier and earlier. Looking back, they were obviously hoping to catch the early audience who, in a time before remote controls, would switch on and then not (get up to!) change the channel all day!

The earliest start I can recall was about 9am, when fully 6 hours before kick off, the BBC would have a collection of specially produced FA cup themed shows, like Question of Sport or Superstars. And I would sit there...glued to the teams leaving the hotel...following the coach journeys from the air...the arrival at Wembley Stadium...the walk out to inspect the pitch in (often) dreadful cup final suits, like the 1996 'Spice Boys' of Liverpool in those awful white suits! The game was often an anti-climax, but still the next year I would tune in again...even earlier!

But now as we look forward to tomorrow's clash between the two best teams in Europe, I can't help but think that the feeling of excitement will soon disappear once kick-off comes. When you are a fan, and your team is involved in a game of such magnitude, I don't think you can enjoy the match - you suffer through it hoping for the right result. Even if your team is 2-0 up, there is still that nagging doubt that it only takes a second to score a goal...then we'll be back on the edge of our seat.

It's not just football; think back to that nail-biting Rugby World Cup Final between England and Australia in 2003...Extra time...last minute drop goals...the bloody Aussies never knowing when they're beaten! That's not fun, it was torture. I'd take waterboarding every time over being forced through a tight, tense game that I'm passionate about!

The problem is that with anticipation comes hope. The hope of Evertonians that their team will overcome the odds and beat Chelsea in this year's Cup Final. The hope from the fans of newly promoted teams like Burnley or Wolves, that they will do well in next year's Premier League, because eveyone starts at zero. Anything is possible!

That's why, unless you are a neutral and you don't much care who wins, it is the delight of anticipation that makes big sports occasions so much fun!

So tomorrow or Saturday, enjoy the build up, if not the games!!