Football fans

[Jackmoves]

Well having read the topic about "soccer riots" and it being locked before I could respond I thought I'd make a topic about the good and fun stuff. Football fans are very passionate, there is no comparison in the world of sports as far as numbers of passionate supporters go, it's the biggest sport by far and every team will have some people who are fanatics, but rarely are we, the passionate supporters prone to violance, "aggressive chanters" yes and people not used to that would probably find it intimidating but violance is rare and hooligans is a tiny minority of a teams supporters.

That being said, I was going through youtube videos and came across this, this was done by the supporters of a rival team to mine in my city against my team, I remember it quite clearly, I thought it was pretty awesome tbh, though I'm not exactly found of their team I still appriciate the effort.



Media tends to focus on the negative things about football fans and not the good things, imagine going to a game without there being passionated fans.

[Pann]

Several years ago, I used to work in and run a couple of pubs near a Premier League ground and for the most part match days were great fun. Of course we had a fair share of idiots but 99% of fans were normal people looking to have a good day out, recent events show that football still has a long way to go to rid itself of unwanted elements, but it is far too easy to focus on the negatives and ignore the fact that millions of fans watch games at grounds and in pubs and clubs each week without incident.

[Clevername]

Yeah I never got the violence thing from you football (soccer) fans, I mean we Americans are supposed to be the ultra violent brutes yet I can't remember going to a sporting event and ever seeing fans beat each other... guess we just take our aggression out in different ways.

[Northern Goblin]

Here's the thing, there are thousands of football games globally each week with millions in attendance.

You're going to get a few idiots in there and incidents can and will happen. It's not the status quo, and it's not the average fan. You only hear about it because no one tells a news story about how well behaved those supporters were this week.


Edit: Also it's not just football, some of the worst examples of sport hooliganism I've found are in F1. There's been some absolute nutjob German and Italian gangs of fans in the past couple of decades.

[Deleted]

Media tends to focus on the negative things about football fans and not the good things, imagine going to a game without there being passionated fans.

I occasionally watch the Premier League on TV and I'm always surprised by who quiet the stadiums are, such a stark contrast to the atmosphere we have here in Germany. No matter if it's a derby, a cup final or ordinary match between mid-table teams the stadiums are always full of singing and chanting, raised flags and scarfs, that's what I call real passion, not the hooliganism that we occasionally see.

[Northern Goblin]

I occasionally watch the Premier League on TV and I'm always surprised by who quiet the stadiums are, such a stark contrast to the atmosphere we have here in Germany. No matter if it's a derby, a cup final or ordinary match between mid-table teams the stadiums are always full of singing and chanting, raised flags and scarfs, that's what I call real passion, not the hooliganism that we occasionally see.

TV is terrible at reflecting the actual atmosphere in most stadiums. It's mostly due to microphone placement.

[koodledrum]

I actually have a lot of fun with the opposing fans at footie, especially at European games. A couple of years ago Rangers were drawn against PSV Eindhoven, it happened that there was a "rough" Old Firm match about a week before the tie and some of the Dutch guys on the train with me were chatting about it & said it was nothing, they'd bomb the shit out of the other teams fans - that kinda freaked me out a bit! But ultimately they were awesome guys and needed showing where to go, so off i went to Ibrox with litterally 500 crazy Dutchies in tow, the cops thinking i was in a bit of trouble asked if i was alright and i just said i was taking them round to Ibrox since they'd have got lost otherwise!

Similarly i've watched as Italian, French & German fans all laughed with the Subway Loyal as they sing their way to the match, the really like it when some of the boys forget they're on an underground train & smash their heads off the ceiling - usually raises a laugh or two. The only real problems i've ever experienced at the football come from Celtic fans - even then, it's usually involving a lot of booze & some pondlife on both sides, generally speaking that's the only trouble you'll get up here but that's people looking for fights, the real fans will rip each other to pieces for 90 minutes then shake hands & get on with life. The winners get a week of bragging rights & the losers can't say jack about it, that's just how it works with the sane among us - the scumbags ofcourse can't say the same thing.

[Jackmoves]

What I find funny with firms is how they actually sort of know eachother, they keep in contact, it's very well organized, it cracks me up. There is a forum where all swedish firms post and organise things, it closed for the public and you need an invite from somone who is "involved" to see the content but then at game day they will kick the shit out of one another o_O

Usually the ones that cause trouble at the stadiums here are not the firms, though some individuals might, but rather the ones we refer to as category B, the firms are category C and they are often too organised/smart to not attack normal fans when there is truckloads of riot coppers around, the fanatics(the ones that are batshit crazy) are category D.


Cat-C supporters, pre-planed fights far away from the stadiums. I don't really mind these guys because they wont attack or toss bottles into crowds of innocent Cat-A supporters.

[Clevername]

Holy shit, I'm not even a fan of football but I have to go see the spectacle sometime... I mean where are the cops during all this?

[Jackmoves]

Holy shit, I'm not even a fan of football but I have to go see the spectacle sometime... I mean where are the cops during all this?

Well they try to avoid the police for obvious reasons, so they don't fight close to the stadiums, we do have special supporter police attached to the teams, usually dressed like normal people but it's not easy for them to get the intel on where they will fight since it's a closed "community", part of a good firm is to be arrive unspotted by the police. These guys are quite wacko, but they usually don't beat up normal fans. You have all types of people in the firms as well, I "know" one of the guys in white, he's a family father, 2 little girls, graduated lawschool and works at a law firm(no joke), quite a normal guy if you didn't know what he enjoys doing on his sparetime.

I wouldn't mind them fighting if it wasn't for the fact that it's bad press for our team and football fans in general, the good thing is that they don't kick the shit out of people who don't want to be part of the violance.

[Deleted]

Football has always been plagued with violence. Thankfully I have grown up in a time where it has decreased. However, I still have gotten into violence unwillingly. It's strange, your team that you support through thick and thin and playing against your local rivals or another city and it goes tribal. You have a feeling of anguish towards them even though outside of football your a dad, son, brother or whatever. All that goes out the window in some cases. You can't really back it up, but when I see a fan of my team being beaten the crap out of by some retarded morons, I will jump in and help. All though these days, CCTV, over policing and bans have pretty much wiped out any organised violence or firms. At my club there are over 120 bans from fans who have been involved in violence and they can't be anywhere near the stadium before kick off for the rest of their life.

[Clevername]

It is ironic to me how nonviolent a sport it is in comparison American Football and Rugby yet the fans are like 10 times more brutal (obviously not all football fans but the die hard ones in the video).

[Jackmoves]

It is ironic to me how nonviolent a sport it is in comparison American Football and Rugby yet the fans are like 10 times more brutal (obviously not all football fans but the die hard ones in the video).

Yeah it's kind of hard to understand, football is just really important, I don't know it's not really related to the nature of the sport, it's all about local patriotism.

In my city, the local derbys are kind of chill, it's mostly friendly banter going on, competetion for braging rights, you work and study alongside the people supporting the other teams afterall(though the Cat-C supporters will meet and have a browl anyways), but I harshly dislike the clubs from the capital, they are assholes for the most part, never have I felt like beating up someone who support another local team, but man supporters of the teams from Stockholm are just assholes, last time AIK was here they even spat and called my girlfriend a dirty w*ore for no reason whatsoever, she just happend to walk past them as they were on their way to the stadium. They come here and act like c*nts.

Rivalty between the 2nd city and the capital is like that in many European cuntries, Rome - Milano, Paris - Marseille, Barcelona - Madrid etc etc

Maybe it is because political power is pretty centralised here and we do not like those assholes governing us. :P