My affiliation with Arsenal was a lot weaker when I was a kid. We were privileged in Sweden I guess since we had pretty extensive coverage of the top Italian teams from early on. Meant I could watch almost every Milan game of the Gullit/van Basten/Rijlaard era. I was madly fond of them, and Gullit was my fave for years.
We have had English top flight gamea since the seventies too. The guy who made that possible is a fucking legend. Basically, he worked in television in Sweden, but on a random trip to England he went to a game. He was completely captivated by the atmosphere and wanted to bring that to Sweden. He came home, talked to his bosses, and they were dead against the idea. They didn't see how anyone here would want to watch ENGLISH football. He didn't give up though, and after a massive nagging campaign they gave in and said that if he could set it up they would try it (they never thought he could pull it off). He went to England and met with the FA and the tv company. They didn't believe in the idea either really, and couldn't understand why on earth Swedes would want to watch their footy. It was possible though, with how far broadcasting had got, and he bought the rights to broadcast live the game they themselves would show on Saturdays at 3 for almost nothing at all. The rest is history, and Saturdays at 3 (4 in Sweden) has become synonymous with English football. What a man! That was the beginning of selling broadcasting rights btw, and that has somewhat taken off...
