What’s the appeal of active support?

Roar Guru

10th February, 2011

1551 Reads

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dasilva

Roar Guru

10th February, 2011

1551 Reads

Whenever I go to Hindmarsh and watch Adelaide United play, I’m always appreciative at the effort that the active fans put in improving the atmosphere of the game by their chants and their singing.

I can certainly understand why the A-league needs to cultivate the active supports as it certainly adds to the spectacle of attending the game and adds to the spectacle of watching the game on TV.

However, no matter how wonderful the active support is in improving my entertainment when watching the match, I have to admit that I just don’t get why someone would actually do it.

I’m a person who just attends and sits at the sides and just watch the match. I celebrate when a goal is scored, I swear when we concede and I let out a groan when we miss a chance.

I guess I have a purely reactive approach in watching a football match and I pretty much consider attending the game to be simply a more immersive experience of watching the game at home.

However, you’ll never see me chant and you’ll never see me sing in a football match. Now don’t get me wrong, I love singing and I love the idea of singing along a group of people as a social occasion. In fact one of my ambitions is to make a career of myself as a musician.

However, if I wanted to sing, I put on a CD in my room and sing along with it. If I wanted to sing along with a group of people, I go to a gig of my favourite band and do it there and not at a football match.

However, when I watch a game of football, the only thing I want to do is just watch the game. I feel that doing all the chants and singing is a distraction of concentrating on the game itself (maybe I’m just hopeless in multitasking).

I also see football and sport itself as an entertainment and that I pay money to see the players trying to entertain me by trying to win the match. The idea that I’m expected to try and lift the players seems strange. After all is the game about the players entertaining the crowds or the crowds entertaining the players?

I know a lot of people have used some of the fantastic crowd supports in Japan as a role model in terms of active support.

The Urawa Red supporters received a lot of praise from Sydney FC supporters in the way they support their clubs and are considered the benchmark in active support throughout Asia. Now I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Urawa Red supporters in action but I have seen Kashima Antlers during the Asian Champions League.

Now my first impression was amazement in how a small batch of Kashima Antlers supporters (must be only a hundred odd) was able to be louder than the rest of the stadium. Considering that this match was a sell out, that was an impressive achievement. I pretty much hear them chanting and singing and banging the drums repeatedly for the entire match.

However when Adelaide scored a goal and the stadium erupted in cheering the goal, I notice that the Kashima Antlers fan were continuing on the chant, singing and drumming like nothing has happen. When your team concede a goal in football, it is a painfully dramatic moment especially in a game where there are so few goals scored compared to other moment and therefore that goal may well be the death of the team.

The euphoria of a team scoring a goal and the pain of conceding is an essential part of why football is a great game and to see the fans so unaffected by the goal made me question whether these fans are watching the match or even like the game of Football and are just attending the match due to the pleasures of active support itself rather than the game.

At the very least, I expected a pause and a cry of anguish before resuming the chanting. I also saw that there was an active support leader with a megaphone who was directing the fans in their chanting. Now this leader was facing the crowd with the back turned to the game. Now I understand how this could improve the quality of the support from the fans. However, why on earth would someone attend a football match and then willing to not watch the match even if it’s for a short moment?

So even though I do admire their dedication in trying to lift the club, I hope that Australia never emulates their fanaticism in terms of active support as if that becomes the standard expectation of supporters here then I would rather just stay home and watch on TV.

What’s even more baffling is hearing about the reaction to the controversy about the excess security hampering active support. Now I understand why fans would want to complain about draconian security measure and would like to be able to support the team without being hassle by security.

However I’m baffled when I hear comments that people claiming that they get bored if they aren’t involved with the active support and that people would simply stop going to matches out of protest because of this.

First, how can anyone who loves the game of football say they will be bored without active support?

Do you chant and sing when you are watching the game at home? If it is entertaining watching the match on TV at home and I’m assuming that hardcore fans watch a lot of football on TV then why would it be boring watching the game live?

It seems to me that there are elements that the chanting and singing is more important than the game itself where in mind they are simply secondary enjoyment to the game itself. If the match was boring then no crowd singing could salvage the match and if the game was an attacking spectacle then the absence of active support would never impact the entertainment of the match.

I have to admit that it is possible that I just simply “don’t get it” and maybe I will never be able to “get it”.

Nevertheless I appreciate the effort that the fans give to improving the atmosphere and I hope that they will be able to resolve this standoff with their clubs and FFA.

However even though I enjoy the product of active support, the reason why people actually do it will remain a mystery but it is a beautiful mystery to me.

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