CHAT FOOTBALL FORUM

As I was walking back to the buses from Celtic Park the week after Queen of the South, something inspired me to write this article. There was us Aberdeen fans, all 150 or so of us, being seperated by a line of police horses to the Celtic fans. People were shouting things across the line of horses, things I probably can't mention on here. As things were getting a bit tense, a woman, the only woman, on our bus, sort of sarcastically shouted 'it's only a game!'. She was right. How can 22 men chasing a spherical object with the aim of making it cross a certain point of line cause such hatred?

Last night, I was watching an episode of Seinfeld. Jerry was doing that usual pre-episode stand up and he was talking about the same thing. One minute a player can be your hero. The next minute he's wearing different colours and all of a sudden he's Satan. A traitor. He's unwelcome in your city anymore. A prime example of this is Kenny Miller's return to Rangers which is happening as I type. The Rangers supporters are disgusted, planning protests, sending letter bombs to David Murray's post box (well...). Why? Because he once played for Rangers' rivals Celtic. He could become the first Old Firm player to be hated by both sets of fans.

The season has just finished. If you are one of us, just now you will be currently renewing your season tickets, your subscription to your club's online 2 minutes of highlights service, pre-ordering the 7 new kits just released for the new season or booking flights for your team's pre-season trip to the Bermuda Triangle. But what most of us don't realise or care is, nobody cares about our loyalty. As we applaud our team off the pitch after a brave defeat to the season's relegation candidates, what do you think's really going through their mind? As they give their radio talk show interviews post-match and give the usual 'it's the fans that suffer most' rubbish, do you seriously believe them? No, what they actually mean is, what the hell are you doing? Why are you travelling the length and breadth of the country, spending thousands of pounds over the course of the season to do so, to watch us overpaid, over-rated, uneducated men?

In this week's Evening Express, Charlie Allan will undoubtedly be giving it the usual 'oh we've only sold x number of season tickets while everyone else has sold 3x'. The question Charlie, shouldn't be why aren't people buying them, it should be why are they? Why should we dish out hundreds of pounds to sit in a soulless, freezing football ground with no atmosphere as a way to spend 38/52 Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Wednesday/Thursday's of the year?

And on that note, mid-week football. Most will be aware that since Setanta and the like have joined the football industry, tens of games a season are being moved to a 7:45 kick off on a Monday or whatever...why? A family member tells me they took the idea from American sports and what they didn't understand is that, in America, there is no away support. There is nothing else on on Mondays. And that in America, everything's perfect. There is huge car parks and the like, unlike in Scotland where you end up parking your car on a double yellow line with your gran's disabled badge on the window, 4 miles from the stadium.

Us Brits always look at Spanish/Italian/German football and think, why couldn't we have it that way? Well, it's because we let it be this way. In Europe, the fans don't listen to the club, the club listens to the fans. For example, if the fans want to stand, the fans will stand, because if they aren't allowed to, they just won't go to games. Compare that to Britain, we just accept it, period. Peer pressure is part of it. If you're in a pub before the game and say to your mates 'I'm not going because I don't agree with it', you'll immediately be labelled 'not a true fan', because you aren't being loyal. Being loyal to what? See paragraph 3. In Britain, we have some sort of psychological disorder that makes us feel it is our civil duty to go to games.

Basically, football in Britain stinks, and it doesn't look like improving any time soon. In fact, it only looks like it's getting worse. I tell you, in a few years time when we're paying 40 quid for a 3rd round cup tie away to a 2nd division team, we will eventually crack. There will be a mass protest. British football fans will forget their loyalties and hatred for a while and unite for the good of the game, instead of their club. And then, when our clubs are creeping into the category of 'endangered species', they will listen to us. We will get what we want. Terracing, alcohol in grounds, non-idiot stewards, no bans on songs, cheap ticket prices, competitive leagues, and the list goes on.

I bet you're expecting me to say 'ah, we can dream'. But no, that's the stinking attitude most of us have. We have to turn this into a reality.

Aberdeen - The Idiocy Of The Football Fan

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Editor of Vital Aberdeen.

how very true you don't realise on till it us spell out to you like that .

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Well you might but i never will and its simple really. My club is bred into me, it was part and parcel of everything that went on in the old town, it was the one common thing we all had when the Tories closed the ship yards and mines, it was the last glint of hope any of us had when the glass works closed down and when the car factory decided to export from Teeside. All well and good you might say thats easy for a top flight fan......... And all this whilst we were sat wollowing in self pity in the old Third division. Football goes beyond money for me its not about what it costs or how much we hate each other its about how it makes us feel coming away from Roker Park or the SOL. One things for sure if you ask any Geordie or Mackem i'm sure they'll all say the same....... Maybe its just our way of getting on with things?

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Jonno, that's why the article finishes like:
In my opinion, your view is very short-sighted. There is a campaign in Scotland that's been going for a few years now called SOFBTRC (Show Old Firm Bias The Red Card). We all used to get decisions against us that were clearly wrong when playing the Old Firm and complain about it and then when it happened to another team we'd say it was just evening it out. But now, Scottish football supporters are uniting against Old Firm bias and slowly but surely, it seems to be working and benefitting the Scottish game as a whole.

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Editor of Vital Aberdeen.

interesting read but there are some clubs that have massive fan basses so that if some fans decide to not go the match ,give up their season ticket then they will easily be replaced by other fans .

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Wow, very well written that mate, might I say don't take match going for granted, I should know after all.

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You crack on and ask any football fan in the North East of England over the age of 25 and i'm sure you'll find that the WILL in your post Red will turn into a won't mate. Its a tad different in Scotland and the majority of England, very rarely do you see other clubs colours in the City centres of Sunderland and Newcastle every other city in the land has a multitude of clubs shirts swanning around.... are they the fans you speak of?

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What I'm saying is everyone needs to get rid of the short-sighted view British football fans have. You see it all the time in Italy for example. Fans that resort to things much greater than what goes on in the UK join up for just one game to get a single message across.

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Editor of Vital Aberdeen.

Cracking idea lets throw stones at the police and see fans killed in riots and all because some Scottish fans are disolusioned with the game. Come on Red give me a break mate. The truth is Money has always ruled the top flights of football even back in the 50s..... Look up the Bank of England club mate and see what happened to us! Swings and roundabouts pal Swings and roundabouts.

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No idea what you're talking about.

What I'm saying is there's people that have actually fought each other in the streets, people that have tried to actually physically harm one another, that for just one game, a day or a week or whatever can see past their club for the good of the game as a whole. You can't is what I'm getting the view of.

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Editor of Vital Aberdeen.