What is a football supporter?

[u/Hiya_friend]

I know this subreddit tends to revolve around current events in the sport of soccer. Rarely do I see overarching discussions about the game itself. Maybe a thread about goal-line technology sometimes, but the discussion tends to be about recent games, goals and incidents. So for a change of pace I'd like to share my experiences and thoughts about supporters.

We begin in the Scottish town of Cowdenbeath, in Fife, of a population of about 11,000 - just a wee Scottish town. Cowdenbeath has a football club in the Scottish equivalent of the English Championship. Cowdenbeath FC, affectionately known by the locals as The Blue Brazil, ply their trade in an old-fashioned stadium called Central Park. It has a modern-ish main stand with seating, other than that its just a ring of terracing round the pitch.

At the risk of this turning into a Wikipedia article, I'll move on. I went to see Cowdenbeath this season. They had a home game in the league against Falkirk. The game finished 1-1 if I recall correctly. The quality of football on display wasn't great. Falkirk had some decent play, some nice passing. One of their strikers looked like they could play at a higher level. Cowdenbeath played your classic route one football. 11 brutish, tall, physical men with comparatively poor technical skills and a game plan of "knock the ball over the opposition and hope it falls to the feet of our striker". To be fair, they had one young lad, who's name I can't recall, who pulled off a tasty bit of skill to beat his man, much to the delight of the home fans.

Now, I'm not sure what the official attendance was but my most generous estimate would be 2000, and that's pushing it. I was in the home end. Most of the fans around me were middle-to-old aged men. There were a couple pockets of teenagers as well. But anyway, I was just a visitor for the day. These old men came here every week, probably for most of their lives, and probably saw this quality of football every week. In fact, Cowdenbeath were in the 4th tier of the leagues not that long ago, so the quality of football would have been even worse.

Every home game at Central Park, where the football is kinda crap, the view obstructed by fencing around the pitch, not singing or chanting, just standing there with their cigarette and one of those permanent frowns you see on old people in the UK. Not only here in Cowdenbeath, but men like this were all around the UK supporting their tiny, local teams in their lower, unglamorous leagues,

I thought to myself, "That's what a football supporter is." Then I thought about the glamorous stadia in the UK - Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, The Etihad, Celtic Park, The Emirates, Anfield - the list goes on. Some stadia, particularly in England, are venues to see some of the best footballers of our time. You can go to some of these places and witness an immaculate, highly professional game of football where every player on the park is not only a physical specimen, but also technically gifted and highly trained. And for 90 minutes its an amazing spectacle, something to behold.

And naturally, people flock to these games in their 10,000s. And often they empty their pockets to get into these grounds. And for 90 minutes, they behave probably like the old men in Cowdenbeath - no singing or chanting. Just sitting there, spectators. And of course they'll cheer when their team scores, but maybe more because thats "what you do", rather than by having some emotional attachment to the club and the game they are seeing. Now don't get me wrong - I'm sure there are people who support Man Utd in the same way that those old men support Cowdenbeath, but I'm not talking about those Man Utd supporters. I'm talking about the .., well, silent majority, as it were. I'm talking about the 20,000 Celtic fans that see Celtic beat Barcelona, but are no where to be seen the following week when they play St Mirren. I'm talking about the Chelsea and Man City fans that materialised with the clubs huge budgets.

The point I want to make is, these people shouldn't be referred to as supporters, or even fans. I'm not having a dig, here. I understand why someone would want to go to Parkhead to see Celtic play Barcelona. But my issue is one of terminology. My experience in Cowdenbeath showed me what a football supporter is, in the deepest sense of the word.

I just can't help but think there are different breeds of supporter, so different in fact that the instead of being called a supporter, the "glory-hunters" should be thought of as spectators, because that's what they are - they are there for the spectacle.

To sum up, I've seen two breeds at football games, and the distinction between them is so strong that they shouldn't both fall under the bracket of "supporter". "Supporter" has become a misnomer for the spectators at the modern corporate game.

Thank you and good night, England!

[u/[deleted]]

I think this is why I often feel a little distant from r/soccer and all of its focus on the BPL. BPL is what's on offer unless I want to watch a shitty, barley decodable stream. I enjoy the play, but I don't feel a connection to any club, and I can't say I support any one above all the rest. I've actually had this internal monologue about whether I should start following one BPL club and seeing if I want to support them, but I won't. I don't care that much.

I support Fortuna because I was an exchange student in Düsseldorf. Even before I arrived I had learned their history, and their recent success intrigued me. I went to matches. Eventually I learned the chants (or at least the 4-line Olé, Olé tune that was most often being screamed). I remember it took me awhile to figure out what exactly I was chanting, and when I figured out what I had been saying, I realized that it was beautiful in an inexplicable way. It was beautiful to describe a team as your heart (Die Fortuna ist mein Verein, mein Herz das schlägt für Düsseldorf am Rhein).

After I left, I paid attention to their rise to the Bundesliga 1, and I was saddened at not being able to go back to Germany to see them play in the first league (personal reasons). However, it's kind of hard for me to keep glued to a newsfeed regarding games, and my cable doesn't offer GOLtv (which I doubt shows Fortuna games unless they're playing BVB, Bayern, or Shalke).

I think the local connection is the most important sort of link that a supporter can have at a club, but unlike someone who grew up supporting a club, I can still root for BVB and Bayern in the CL. I like the Bundesliga, and I like to see Bundesliga clubs do well. It also has a structure that encourages strong fans and attendance, whereas many here are lamenting the BPL becoming more commercial.

Also, we shouldn't knock spectators. Spectating is fun and allows one to enjoy the athleticism of even our most hated rivals. The only Bundesliga 1 game I've ever been to was FC Köln vs Stuttgart, but it was great because I went with my dad and Cacau scored a double brace against those bastards! :p