How Football Clubs Became Cults
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
- Football is the world's most popular sport, watched and adored by billions, but particularly in recent years, a more sinister element to football fandom and the experiences of players themselves has emerged.
From the insular lives led by footballers from childhood to their mid-30s, often resulting in dire consequences, to the willingness of some fans to forgive the unforgivable in pursuit of what they believe to be the best for the team they support, football undeniably has many cult-like aspects.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at all of the ways in which modern football resembles a cult, many pernicious elements within the game, and how this transformation has come about. - Спорт
As an Oldham fan, point #2 is very much not how I act.
If someone starts supporting us, my first question is usually "Why would you do that to yourself?" 😂
😂😂
@@mancityarabiaAn absolutely perfect profile name there
Why do you support oldham, just support man city and you have good times all year round
@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716 Unlike city owners. he might like ham.
@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716some of us arent club whores
The cult around individual players I think is bizarre. When you see comments on Instagram about Messi vs Ronaldo, or the shit Zlatan memes, from people in Bangladesh or Pakistan, I can’t help but think “what the fuck is going on”.
"You have more fun as follower, but you make more money as a leader."
Creed Bratton
Any hobby that involves community and consumerism can be described as a cult, not just football. I'd suggest that this phenomena says more about the nature of society than it does the nature football
This is not wholly true. Theres a reason football was painted as an enemy to religion. by religion, for centuries. Its almost the exact same playbook as religion. You go to a place of worship, and you worship idols to bring you happiness, chanting their names and for your club / persuasion. In contrast to religion, you can actually see these idols in the flesh, watch them breath and play the sport you love... Theres a reason Maradonna has a church where he is the figure of worship in Argentina. Football, just like religion, is a very powerful driving force when controlling a society! Not many other hobbies involving communities and consumerism are as powerful as those 2!
Yeah, but this is a football channel mate.
This is a common defense of cultlike behavior. The difference with other behaviors is the emphasis on faith/devotion to the product/team at the expense of reason (redundant, I know).
Some people will treat products in a cultlike manner. But with sports teams, the faith and devotion is the point.
@@lorenzomartinez8543 If you're actually calling football clubs cults as more than a metaphor, I think you've lost the plot. For one thing, cults do not allow criticism of their leadership. I don't know if you've ever heard football fans talk, but one of their favorite activities is complaining about how they think the coach and club leadership are doing everything wrong and what they ought to be doing. Not exactly worshipping them there. Also, look at ultra groups: Probably more devoted to their club than anyone, yet also the first to attack their club when they do something the ultras disagree with. Ultras will hold up banners against club leadership, chant against the coach, the bosses or occasionally specific players, and they will sometimes even walk out of the stadium in protest. Doesn't seem like the behavior of people brainwashed into being mindless followers.
You make an irrelevant distinction and the comparison misses the point. Football executives are seen as mere investors and are not really part of the cult. Mosy managers are seen as outsiders unless theyve achieved a certain status. The better comparison is the cult figures - i.e. the players. Greenwood. Ronaldo. Partey. Cult, cult, cult.
But moreso, the loyalty to the club outside its executives is the point. The badge is like Lord the Savior. Even the Church criticizes its Popes. Liverpool forever and what not. Club loyalty over reason. Questioning the leadership is an irrelevant distinction.
I live in Germany and still remember how our Religion teacher watched a documentary with us on "is football a religion", it must have been 12 years ago or something. I cant remember the exact name, but it followed some die hard borussia Dortmund fans who even had an altar where they would pray before matches. Ofc it had more of a german perspective on it and the culture around football here is a little bit diffrent, but they also came to the conclusion that football matches all the criterias we usually have for something to qualify as a religion or cult.
As someone who is also a fan of ice hockey after living in Canada, the fan culture with that is equally cult like but in a strangely different way. On the one side things like hooligans and fights between fans are rare, the culture is to respect the fans of the other team (like the seating is mixed between home and away fans), but on the other side multiple times fans have rioted after their team lost on a scale that I don't know has ever been seen in Europe
I respect everyone except for leafs fans
I’m curious about those circumstances, I’ve seen similar reactions from fan groups that are not quite as fanatically devoted and identified with their teams as European soccer fans, and seems to me the sore stemmed from the feeling of being ripped off of times and money that could have been spent elsewhere
Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver haha crazy people for thrashing their town over a cup loss 😂
@@itsmorbintime69relatable.
I mean I’m an oilers fan and we certainly have an ugly side of our fan base, but Leafs fans are the worst lol
I feel this is also related to the weird gatekeeping about who gets to call themselves a “real fan”. I’ve grown up going to my hometown team’s matches but I could never get with the weird sense of entitlement I perceived from the grown up people around me when I was a 10 year old girl going to the stadium.
The fact that people are protecting this virtuous idea of a “real fan” is a part of what the video talks about…mind you, “fan” is an abbreviation of “fanatic”, that should be your first clue right there. At the end of the day you’re consuming a product, you’re the audience. Creating mythical categories of “realness” around this fanaticism is really weird to me when at the end of the day you’re all just consuming these matches as a viewer, and the fact that you watch all of them in person on site (which is also a privilege by the way, both geographically and financially, one which most people fall into through no personal achievement of their own except for their place of birth and socioeconomic station- so your “real fan” status of having been “born into it” is completely unearned) doesn’t place you at an elevated station in a moral hierarchy. You have no more legitimate emotional investment than someone watching from overseas, because you’re just as much of a consumer, a viewer, you’re not participating on the pitch any more than anyone else, even if you’re watching in person. It’s embarrassing to me how people will elevate themselves and boast about having “inherited” fandom, joking about how their club winning is more important than their kids, and feeling entitled to their team winning, and even worse, feeling entitled to heavily criticize the players and often dehumanize them in the process, talking about trading them like commodities and in the same breath wax poetic about some purported “community” aspect to it. But then also expect these professionals to pledge allegiance to remaining in one place their whole lives just to satisfy that faux community requirement (meanwhile those players are actually complete strangers to you and owe you nothing because they’re just doing their job and are just as entitled to change clubs, develop and have different experiences in life beyond your club)
I wonder what exactly you lose or how it affects your life materially when a random person in Vladivostok who’s never been to a football stadium calls themselves a “fan” of your football club. It almost seems like you feel something is being “taken” from you, which then begs the question what made you feel entitled to claim it for yourself and not certain other people in the first place.
Also, if your entire identity depends on you making a product your personality that’s just basic neoliberalism, including the parasocial relationships that people have with players they will never have an irl relationship with. It’s something we make fun of in teen girls when they do it with boy bands, but grown men (for contrast because it’s still a very male-dominated sphere) doing it with athletes is somehow fully respectable
Football also cultivates immaturity in men. Seeing grown men in XXL jersey´s of their team is so embarassing.
@@GuntherSDoumson2178live and let live
No true Scotsmen fallacy
Phenomenal comment-well written and spot on imo.
I’ve been a massive sports nerd for my entire life, especially w football. I love the passion, the atmosphere, and the pure entertainment value of it.
But at the end of the day, it’s exactly that, entertainment. The tribalism aspect is supposed to be fun, nothing more. I’ll happily yell at and shit talk opposing fans, but again, it’s all supposed to be fun. The minute people start taking it seriously enough that they start gatekeeping it, the fun is gone.
At that point, it’s not respectable. It’s worse than teen girls and boy bands; those girls are literal children. I’ll happily make fun of anyone and everyone that does something like break a TV or get genuinely angry at a “fake” fan or rival supporter. Just have a pint, enjoy the couple hours, and get back to your life.
@@GuntherSDoumson2178 I don't think wearing a football jersey as an adult is immature. People wear band shirts and brand clothing too, that's not really that different.
Never stop talking about the difficult topics Alfie.
There's that old Chomsky quote:
"When I was in high school I asked myself at one point: "Why do I care if my high school's team wins the football game? I don't know anybody on the team, they have nothing to do with me... why am I here and applaud? It does not make any sense." But the point is, it does make sense: It's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority and group cohesion behind leadership elements. In fact it's training in irrational jingoism. That's also a feature of competitive sports.”
Wow. Never heard that one before, but it makes so much sense. thanks for sharing
Lots of social engineering in pro sports. Lots of corruption too, especially from gambling. Then there's the drugs... Not much to admire about it in the end imo 😔
You just explained the logic behind the "support your local team" jargon that's been baffling me all this time. I mean, i never get the logic of liking/supporting just because their homebase happened to be located near your place, at least until i read your comment
My favourite Noam Chomsky qoute is : "Stopping Genocide is bad if NATO does it "
I remember sociologists making this point in the 80s as an explanation for hooliganism
This is one I've been waiting for from you Alfie. The more bullshit I read from football fans the more I realise how important your work is to making sure the young people who could potentially fall into this cult thinking get a balanced view. Sometimes you forget when you're from a generation where the having access to the internet was for grown ups, but loads of "football twitter" is literally like 12 year olds. It's mental what garbage they're being fed
Honestly football Twitter is such a cesspit, sucks the life out of football so much aside from a couple of funny memes every now & then
Benfica's stadium is commonly called "a catedral" ("the cathedral") as well, the jerseys are the "manto sagrado" ("sacred vest") and when a legendary figure at the club who has passed is referred to its commonly said hes in the "quarto anel" ("fourth ring"), Benfica's old stadium famously having three rings of stands
Liking the (very slightly) more active editing style Alfie, keep up the great work
bro has moving images now
I'm just discovering the 'white heat of technology' that Harold Wilson talked about in 1963. Glad you liked it!
@@HITCSevensneeeeeeerd!
A great commentary. Having been a casual fan of football for the past twenty years it has always left a bad taste in my mouth the cult obsession all famous organized teams get across many sports. It plagues them all, US football, basketball, baseball and on and on. The other aspect that is just as insane now is the amount of money and adulation these talented individuals get by their obsessed fans.
At what point do the global societies of the world start questioning the priorities of idolizing sport players like gods? It's bad enough that hollywood celebs have had this treatment for close to 100 years but now the sports figures at the top are just as bad.
This is bad, like on a scale of biblically bad pertaining to the worshiping of false idols.
The Newcastle reactions just proves that sports washing is alive and well, and, what's worse, it's EFFECTIVE! 😢😤
the Amnesty International accusation of being Sunderland fans thing really made me laugh, but also worry. Spot on
Prrrreeeeaaaaaccccchhhh brother
Mate, of course it does. Look at Chelsea. Roman Abramovic, the man who recommended Putin to Yeltsin, the man who owns a large shady oil company similarly to Aramco, the man who’ll happily be Putins lapdog so as long as he benefits and a supporter of illegal Israeli settlements. But just because he had “passion” (genuine or not) and made Chelsea more competent everyone likes him? The Newcastle thing is only a shock for those living in a cave and people who casually parrot “Saudi ruining football!!” clearly do not see people having been saying the same for the sport for many decades
Really clever video idea. You've definitely proved a point. I've seen so many fans of clubs that literally act like members of a cult.
100% I had one friend who supported a rival club and it was no problem for me but he acted like any derbies between us were life and death for him. Like to the point he wouldn't talk to me for days if his team lost.
was it some kind of unknown reality? Football supporters here in Portugal will openly call themselves "fanatics"....
Cult culture in football is crazy, you're fighting another club's fan physically and digitally over balls. Crazy.
Btw Alfie, you should make a video about the Spanish FA. It looks like they are hiding some skeletons the way they are defending Luis Rubiales.
👍👍👍
Thank you for all the work that you do to make these video commentaries. You have a wonderful talent in being both informative and entertaining.
This video perfectly describes the 10 reasons why I am a part of the "Watch Anything Alfie Produces" cult.
Since relinquishing my season ticket at Birmingham City after 33 years I have finally broken free. Well not quite, I’ve moved to another country and subscribed (now paying more a year than any season ticket ever cost) to everything that will give me access to any snippet of coverage (live or highlights) or information. Not so much cultish more a love affair that has now ended and turned into a more serious affliction of stalking.
Just get a dodgy stick lol
The Suárez support was so strange. Even if the word he used isn't considered a slur in Uruguay, he still mocked Evra's skin colour.
He said "because you're black" when questioned on why he tackled him so hard, it's very clear cut lmao
Evra is black though. What's wrong with stating a fact?!
@@dimitar297 lol alright mate, guess my childhood bullies were actually just "stating a fact" when they kept shouting the word 'gay' at me for no reason other than to attack me.
@@BrianStorm742 I agree, Evra probably has the intelligence of a schoolchild if he was disturbed by Suarez pointing out the obvious.
@@dimitar297 you see no problem with using race as a motivation for kicking someone to the ground? You're acting like Suárez said "hey man, fun fact, you're black".
Honestly, now that I'm grown up this video actually gives me a new perspective on what it was like for me to be so attached as a Manchester United fan (when I was a younger kid) and be so fixated about what their weekly results were or whether they would win the title or anything like that. Passion is good but unthinking idolisation is never worth and indeed can even be a dangerous path
I agree, Harry Truman
Thank you for this footballs more and more becoming like this especially certain fanbases. Question one thing and your the enemy, blind loyalty and a you vs them mentality both within and without the fanbase.
Sounds like mask people crying about distancing.
The fact a video with a clip was of “we’re just normal men” was posted on a Monday just goes to show Alfie’s genius
I don't get it. Because it's after the normal match day weekend?
For a moment, I thought you were using a different and much stronger word
Careful 😂
Ngl, he almost had me
Content awards??????
I just think this deserves a mention!
There is a football content awards!
I voted for this channel where I could! Well worth voting for quality.
This channel is incredible. Well done.
you are such a refreshing and strong voice in football discourse its good to hear principled perspectives on the state of the sport
I know you're football channel but I would love history videos with you narrating over them
The moving text! First time I've seen that! Production value is improving!! 😂 Excellent video as always.
Was baffled by the title but after watching i have to say this is one of the best videos on sports journalism i've seen.
Great video Alfie, absolute respect to you
In scotland we're pretty open about clubs being religions haha
Babe wake up, new HITC Sevens video :D
I’m only 10 minutes into the video but the commentary on this is 10/10 and no doubt will have the right people foaming at the mouth 👌
Amazing video as always alfie!
About that at 1:30 Alfie, Milan and Inter’s shared stadium project got derailed awhile ago. They are now looking to each build their own stadiums, milan in the San Francesco area of the suburb of San Donato near linate airport, and Inter in an area known as Rozzano.
He said that about 3 videos ago
@@adampark4238which one lol
@@adampark4238yet said it wrong in this 🎉
I renew my petition for you to include international subtitles for your videos. I volunteer for Spanish, but just having them would be great for me and my football loving non-English speaking family.
Great vid as always. Also reminded me that I used to wonder whether Suárez got pissed off with being called "Louie" all the time.
Football fans do act like cult members, but I don’t think there is a world where you have the passion and the atmospheres, without the one-eyed bias.
They go hand in hand.
Sure the football tribe supporting their team. But the point is its gone too blinkered and biased due to Club Cultism.
I'm an USian who decided to start following EPL this winter after the World Cup, I was almost completely decided on Newcastle as my team. Then I looked up who owned them.
Went with Liverpool in the end. Not that Fenway Group is a paragon of business ethics or anything, but I'm pretty sure they never julienned a journalist.
HAHAHAHAHA VICTIM COMPLEX CONFIRMED
why would you support a fake club not owned by fans? anglos really are strange 😅
"USian" 🤦♂️
@@fgsaramago at first, when I saw "public investment fund" listed as the owners of Newcastle, I got my hopes up, thinking maybe the City of Newcastle owned the team or something. Alas...
I do wish we had fan ownership for teams here. One of our American football teams is owned by the city they play in, and fans can buy fake "shares" in the team (they just get a piece of paper saying they are a shareholder, no share in any profits). But that team is my favorite team's biggest rival, so I despise them.
Fair enough. Fenway Group don't behead their opponents.
Alfie shouting out the late great Christopher Hitchens! Great job, lad!
You have got to cover the recent happenings with the Spanish FA. Seriously, the president of the Spanish FA fid something totally messed up.
This was an amazing video essay. I haven't seen a video with such original thought in a long while. The Mason Greenwood saga soured me, and the recent Rubiales scandal has all but confirmed that I hate how protective the boys at the top are of each other. I can't believe no one made the cult connection before, but the way you presented it is amazing. It's hard for a billion or so people to stop watching football, so I'm not sure what happens from here on out, but the combination of blind faith, unlimited money and diverse geopolitical interests aren't exactly a health combination. That's for sure.
The boys at the top aren't as homogeneous as the women who all band together to claim victim status regardless of the details.
Another great video from Alfie.
Khasoggi wasn't murdered, he tripped and repeatedly fell on his own bonesaws
Spat out my water during the Chelsea chant
Thanks again Alfie. An instant classic! How is it that you are the only defender of reason coming from inside of the sport? Anyhow, keep it up!
very well worded video - enjoyed listening
Love this video bro
😂 I'm not even 2 minutes into the video and I'm laughing because when I play FIFA and I'm a manager mode I create my team and my stadium is literally called The Kingdom. Gold seats, black interior, unique grass design, and gold chalk lines. Plus the goalie net is two-toned to match the stadium aesthetic.
Well the Vids not against the rich. Just against abuse.
You are absolutely the BEST!!!!! Never miss you❤ Big hello from Sin City (Las Vegas) loads of cults here……lol
As an Oxford fan, i have to say i strongly disgaree with the statement around 29:50. There is nothing more damaging than supporting Wycombe. /j
Football fans and KPOP stans are very similar
Outstanding mate
another day, another hitc sevens banger
It would be an interesting Venn diagram to see which fans were unhappy with Mike Ashley but are now excusing the Saudi ownership of Newcastle.
football clubs aren’t cults. rather, football is a religion.
Good friend Alfie,three days ago,your beloved Hull City did get a draw at home by 1-1 against Bristol City to be in 8th position with seven points!!!🏋️♂️
Absolutely going off here Alfie, brilliant stuff. As a cult member, sorry, season-ticket holder of the team who's won the EFL sack race this season, I'm not saying you should mention us in a video yet, but maybe if there's a plan to make a video about bonkers EFL ownership shenanigans, or the Seven Most Cursed EFL Clubs, Charlton might be on the agenda somewhere...
As we're talking about the cultish/religious nature of football I do sometimes wonder what Charton did to so piss off the footballing Gods. I mean were they such fans of Alan Curbishley that refusing him a contract extension in 2006 led to Charton being cursed unto the 10th generation? It's a warning to the Brightons and Brentfords of this world it takes no time at all to go from 'best run club in the country' to 'basketcase club facing a perma-existential crisis'.
@@patrickwilliams6143 Appointing Iain Dowie solely in order to get one over Simon Jordan and in doing so uncorking an ancient Croydon curse that amplifies every season
@@louisjagger2177 need to get Scott Parker (or some other suitable club legend) in to piss on the corner flags. Worked for Barry Fry and the gypsy curse of St. Andrews when he was Birmingham manager.
@@patrickwilliams6143 Parker is about as far from a club legend as it gets, so he'll probably be appointed our new manager
@@louisjagger2177 honestly he was the first player from the glory years I could think of. Didn't know he wasn't kindly thought of by Addicks fans though. How about Kins and Powell? Surely now we're talking club legends.
Amnesty International are supporters of Sunderland. That genuinely made me crack up 🤣🤣🤣🤣.
Very interesting video 👏
I think the stability of marriage is something that shows up in corporate too. It may be in selective, even elitist industries and positions but not being married can be a factor in how high you can climb the ladder. Which, in all honesty, I get. Dude with a family to feed will likely be more committed to structures that help him feed them. I, have no dependents and can literally leave the country tomorrow to pursue my lifelong dream of joining the circus. So making me a key decision-maker may be a risk I wouldn't take for my firm.
Q. Re Alfies’ point about capitalisation of soccer - Do they still do those pre-season Squad photos ? In the 1970s the very successful clubs needed a maximum of 2 tiers of benches with the back row standing but with players now sporting No 76 on their shirts , how do they accommodate the increasing numbers of guys from whom these sides can pick in a single photograph ?
Usually the players with the higher numbers are recently out of the academy, or decided to keep it after getting out of the academy (e.g. TAA). I don't think many clubs have 76 players, unless they regularly rotate in youth players
thank you for highlighting greenwood. so so happy his career is over after what he did
Amazing video. This is usually the main issue with football. The fans ...
The marriage one point when you mentioned that atleast 1 high reputation manager is encouraging it im sure is arteta. The amount of players getting married at the club at the same time is insane.
I am enjoying this video immensely, as an American who was born into a culty religion (i.e. Mormonism) in the late 1970s.
This is absolutely true, I think if someone doesn't have the cult-like following of a club it's pretty unlikely to continue being a regular view. It's the same logic that leads to discussions in the USA drawing parallels between sports fans and political discussion joining same mindsets
Cults dont open themselves to the public.
Cult likr tendencies is a good shout. No one should be so divided by a ball sport
Yep, we should stick to being divided by religion, that’s much healthier….
Great video
I do think that this issue is much worse in the international game though, as football in many countries is also a channel of extremely toxic nationalism. In my country (Vietnam) for example, many fans only talked about how our players get fouled or when we are on the recieveing end of some bad refereeing decision, and find all sorts of excuses whenever we get away with those things.
Oh, and for some of you who might not be familiar with Vietnamese football, the referee thing is that when a ref makes a bad decision that goes against us, a bunch of Vietnamese "keyboard warriors" would attack his facebook account. This has been a serious issue for quite some time now, but the criticism over the years has never been adequate IMO.
Im in Vietnam now but im English and talked to a Vietnamese boy about football today. How is the leauge system here? Im in Hue right now, does it have a team and what is the standard?
@@IrishGuyForfeitEnforcer There is a club in Hue, it's called Câu lạc bộ bóng đá Huế, a mid-table team in the second tier of Vietnamese football.
Tbh I don't really follow V-League but I think the standard of the league here is improving quite well. VAR has just been introduced last month, which should alleviate some of the refereeing controversies in the league. We still have a lot to do though, and when you compare it to the Thai League, there is a remarkable difference and I think that closing this gap will take quite a lot of effort.
Fantastic video alfie! When seeing a man utd badge with a four letter word beginning with cu and ending with t it was not cult that I initially saw 😂
0:56 iconic picture.
I'm not Liverpool fan, but I speak Spanish, I also visited South America few times and because of that I believe Suarez: South American societies are very diverse (Argentina the least) and people DO call black friends "negro/negrito" and that is not consider offensive at all. This cultural aspect should have been considered, and obviously Suarez should have been let know that it's appropriate to use such a language here; plus Suarez's English is poor now and was really crap back then, so he defo thought in Spanish
That's the reason (one of many) people should learn another language, so they could understand other cultures - sadly very rare quality in England
The amount of utterly insane United fans defending Greenwood fully supports the existence of this video. Good work
Alfie, there's not a huge chance of me ever going to Hull as the city is in a different country thousands of kilometers away, but if I ever make it there, I am asking you out and I will consider it a date.
I dont know, typically cult members cannot criticise the cult which is all most football fans do.
not arguing against any point you make but the stadium in Bilbao was called "LA Catedral" because it was next to the cathedral :D
It was also named after a Christian saint
@@carltonleboss thats very common in Spain or Portugal. You have bakeries named after Christian saints, just to throw a random example. Is a random bakery a cult?
Good video. Certainly is cultish behaviour in football. And Alfie gets a lot of demented idiots replying to him on Twitter. It’s crazy 😄
Great video as usual.
Cheers!
0:55 i think ive seen 50 different badges photoshopped on to that child... Hes also probably 20 now
When the Suarez thing happened, I was a child in a mainly white small town. I trusted the club I supported.
I am sorry, I was wrong.
Slobodan Milosevic wasn’t found guilty of any war crimes despite his trial being extremely long
Joss Ackland's deadpan voice-over added to the comic effect
We're just normal men had me bloody howlin Alfie you beautiful fountain of knowledge I didn't know I needed but somehow always seem to do.
I'm a fan but so much fanatic behaviour is just insane. I support my club. No matter what. But I try to not be too crazy about it.
It's been a bad summer to be a football fan eh?
Rubialles, Greenwood, Saudi Arabia, and the end of the women's world cup.
Another great video. As regards the geordie fans. No matter how bad ashley was i dont think he has links to anyone being dismembered. Yet the majority it would seem are more than happy with the present lot. Very strange outlook
In Brazil, Marcos - 2002 WC Champion GK - is called "Saint Marcos"; and Victor - 2013 Libertadores Champion - is called "Saint Victor" hahaha
He asks who would take up pottery....Yet Alfie Potts 😂
I went over to the UK last year and went to my first ever EPL match, i noticed they separate the fans in the stands by team, what if your mate goes for another team and you want to go and watch the game together?
Im from Melbourne and follow the AFL where there are 9 different teams in Melbourne alone, and all of mates go for different teams but we go to the gamea together and sit together with our gear on and no one cares
Usually 3 of the 4 stands are available to home team's fans. The other stand would be for away/neutral fans. Otherwise there would either be no compensation for away teams, or 50% given to Luton when playing at the Etihad.
I wouldn't say football is a cult unless they're some zealots performing mental gymnastics or being an apologist to certain topics or clubs. Even I'm guilty of that sometimes when I was naive but I'll give credit when due and criticize when due.
I completely agree with everything you say here- again! As football fans we all need to be super aware of what we accept/allow directly or indirectly, primarily or secondarily
Yes we should be aware the players were all forced to stay silent after their jabs.
This just felt like a huge insult to football fans in general, wow.
I can't believe our boy Alfie turned this into an entire 30 minute video😂
This is interesting to watch as an American soccer fan. I feel that a lot of these apply to fans of other American sports, but here, since it isn’t nearly as popular a sport as in other countries, soccer fans are sort of seen as nerdy or Eurosnobs. Definitely passionate but you have to go find people to watch with, and the stadiums are smaller and often out of the way, so it’s a more insular community group if you will.
That said, before I got into soccer fairly recently I enjoyed watching other sports but I didn’t have the patience to follow any teams throughout the season, follow the team politics and the drafts and whatnot. They were just fun to watch and if “my” team lost, oh well. Soccer/football might be the first sport that I find entertaining enough to keep up with the various clubs (domestic and abroad) and actually care whether the ones I support win or lose.
Great - you just described a Fan Cult.
Reading Liverpool fans' reactions to last night's match I couldn't help but remember this video. UAE conspiracies in full force; the belief that everyone is against them; Jurgen Klopp being viewed not as a manager, but as a moral authority, basically a saint; one guy on Reddit tried to convince me that LFC never benefitted from a good goal being disallowed; the belief that they're the only one who can stop the evil (Man City, of course). All of that, to me, looked beyond the normal human behaviour and the amount of likes and upvotes on those posts was staggering to me.
I dont know why but i was waiting on Jim Can't Swim to start talking at the start.
alfie on his high horse being morally sanctimonious yet again