Why we like backing losers

NO pressure Tim but the hopes of a nation are resting on you - oh, and to add to your burden, it's jubilee year. When England's football squad was knocked out of the World Cup last week, the country's pent up sporting aspirations were immediately transferred to one man, Tim Henman.

And, when the number four seed takes to the court today to start the long slog to the Wimbledon final, his fans will expect him to win, and will claim to have been robbed if he doesn't. That's the nature of British fans, so optimistic, so resilient, they bounce back like a tennis ball during a gruelling rally.

It's a feat more impressive than the prowess of the country's sports stars. A look at the statistics reveals the harsh reality. Firstly the football. Why were aspirations running so high when the last time England won the World Cup was in 1966? That's nine successive failures for any fan who's counting.

"Well, a lot of this is media generated," says John Williams, director of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research at Leicester University. "The possibility, the expectation, it's something for us all to focus on. It's probably worse now than ever before as there is so much space to fill in terms of airtime and newsprint. It's also connected with ideas that we are originators of sport and we have a tradition for producing winners."

Fans just aren't able to accept that Britain has failed to modernise its practices and has been overtaken by countries that have. It's a reality not helped by the British sense of fair play that emphasises the taking part over the winning in sport.

From one sport of knocking a ball around a bit of grass to another and the reading is grimmer still. It has to be hoped Henman hasn't read the tennis statistics, which are even more disheartening. The last British Men's Champion at Wimbledon was Fred Perry who won three years in a row from 1934-36. Believe it or not, the last men's finalist was Bunny Austin in 1938. After that, you have to look to Roger Taylor, who managed to fight his way to the semis in 1972, and the great white hope, Henman himself, who reached the same position last year.

The ladies could be more optimistic as Virginia Wade took the title during the last jubilee year, in front of the Queen in 1977, and made the semis the following year. The only problem this year is that there are no English ladies even in with a shout.

So the burden falls on Henman alone. Over the next two weeks, almost half a million spectators will break off from drinking 335,000 cups of tea and eating two tonnes of strawberries a day to watch the tennis at the 35,000-seater Wimbledon ground. When Henman lost to Goran Ivanisevic in the semi final last year, he was watched by 12 million television viewers in this country alone and countless more abroad. With national fervour running so high, he can expect even more this year, but the player himself may find he is burdened, not buoyed, by the support he receives.

"Jimmy Connors used to say he was inspired when the crowd got behind him," says sports psychologist Sandy Wolfson. "But I think we sometimes forget sportsmen are individuals and react differently. During a critical game there can also be a negative effect with the sportsman becoming too self-conscious. Some benefit from the crowd, others find it distracting."

It is perhaps just as well that the fans' view seems to be unrelated to the success of the team or individual sportsman, a major factor in helping them overcome disappointment. "They also suffer from illusory superiority," says Dr Wolfson. "This is attached to themselves, their friends and their favourite players. During the World Cup, everyone was acting as if they expected England to win, which is amazing when you consider Brazil's reputation and the fact that England didn't play very well. It is totally bizarre and counter to logic, but it's part of the fervour fans experience as they get so involved."

It's also why every fan talks like a team coach, analysing, criticising and finding excuses for the poor results.

Whatever the result, the fans will come bouncing back - it's in their nature. "They are resilient in general because there are so many rewards to being a fan and that makes them robust," adds Dr Wolfson, the head of psychology at Northumbria University.

"There is social interaction, there are always a lot of people to talk to and, for the shy, a ready-made topic to comment upon. Then there is group identity, people enjoy being one of thousands and it can lift their self-esteem. Friendships are forged through sport and I've even known it lead to marriage."

According to Dr Williams, the World Cup was an open and inclusive form of public celebration, part of a festival seldom seen in the country today. The jubilee celebrations showed that people were capable of a huge demonstration of public emotion, breaking free from modern society's closed-door mentality. The football provided another opportunity to be part of something big and powerful with heroes and villains, and to share in a feeling of togetherness in otherwise individualist times.

The proliferation of St George's flags showed renewed interest in English identity, a reaction to the devolutionary process which has seen Wales and Scotland secure their own assemblies. But this time there was no associated racism or violence, and certainly the English fans abroad enjoyed new-found respect and friendship from the Japanese in particular. "So where the football team lost, the fans won because they were actually liked for the first time," says Dr Williams.

And, just as the disappointment of the World Cup is forgotten, so will the result of Wimbledon, whether that is good or bad. Thoughts will move on to the Commonwealth Games, the start of the football season and qualifying for Euro 2004. There's always more sport around the corner, always something else to look forward too, so perhaps Tim shouldn't be worried after all - there really is no pressure.