What are football fans and how do they differ from each other.
Probably everyone knows the phrase: "Football - for the audience". But at the same time you can say otherwise: "Spectators - for football". Every fan who comes to the stadium pursues his goals. One simply wants to see some legendary arena, the other tries not to miss matches because he was brought to the stadium by his beloved grandfather at the age of five, and since then it has become a part of his life. Someone can not live without a special atmosphere of a football match, and someone is absolutely sure that without his support to his native team can not see the desired result. So what is he, "12th player"?.
Tourists A special category of visitors to stadiums that are not fans of any of the playing teams, and sometimes even to football itself, as to the phenomenon, are completely indifferent. This category is divided into two large and practically infinite set of small parts, depending on the purpose of visiting the stadium. The first - those travelers who, for example, in Barcelona, ??decide to visit the legendary Camp Nou because one of the friends said it was cool.
An example of a second, more numerous and much more emotional group can serve people who want to look at the game of a certain player, while they do not care which club colors he defends. This kind of football tourism is especially popular with the Japanese, who travel a great distance to look at the game of their compatriots. By the way, sometimes football clubs use such a passion of Asians, signing Japanese (or Koreans), significantly inferior to the level of skill Nakata or Kagawa, but still attracting fellow countrymen.
Kuzmichi Perhaps the most numerous part of the fans. Basically, these people are much older than twenty years old, who support a certain team from childhood (usually from their hometown), but rarely express emotionally their feelings during the match. Often their attributes are sunflower seeds (or other similar food, adjusted for geography and national traditions), a displeased expression and a phrase: "Well, who so plays!". The latter is explained by the fact that they, according to their own conviction, are well versed in tactics and all the modern trends in football, and without any particular effort could lead to the success of any team, from the national team's home court at the microdistrict championship to the national team in the final tournament of the World Cup.
As a rule, are well acquainted with the history of the native team and football in general. They like to discuss before, during and after the match about the chances of different clubs in different tournaments, and among them there sometimes come across "mathematicians" who absolutely convincingly prove that the chances of the Swedish national team to win the world championship will increase to 67% if Columbia and England can to reveal the strongest only in a series of post-match penalties, in Mexico there will be an earthquake, and in Belgium - a revolution ... "Kuzmichi" quite actively participate in the "wave" in the stands, are included in the moments when the stadium begins to chant the speeches in support of the native Manda or against an opponent, as well as informs the world about the sexual orientation of an arbitrator, and the origin of his immediate family, and, of course, enthusiastically welcomed the success of their teams. In general, quite peaceful people, but sometimes the degree of tension in the stadium can lead to the fact that they are included in a fierce battle with fans of another team or law enforcers.
Also there are so-called "slippers" - those who prefer to watch football at home on TV (monitor, tablet, smartphone - it's necessary to emphasize), very rarely - in a bar with friends, and even less often go to the stadium.
Fans These guys know very clearly that without their help their native team will be very hard, so they are ready to actively support it and react violently to any event that takes place on the field. Participate in any performance, which is arranged in the stands, they know all (or almost all) necessary songs and language and their knowledge is used in practice.
Their efforts are sometimes very impressive, especially in those countries where fan clubs actively work with clubs. Then their organization and level of action in the stands is simply amazing. In our region, you will see this infrequently, but somewhere in Liverpool, Dortmund or Rotterdam (the list can be continued for a long time), the stadium singing throughout almost the entire match and completely painted in "home" colors - a picture that makes an indelible impression.
However, these are just amateurs who, by the level of organization and coherence of actions, are far from "ultras".
Ultras A more organized and more active part of the fan movement. Ultras, as a rule, are intensively preparing for each match of the team. Moreover, this preparation concerns not only the development of new ways of carrying to the territory of the stadium all kinds of prohibited pyrotechnics and other items that can be launched at a suitable moment on the field or into the air.
Everything is much more complicated: it is the preparation of giant (and not very) banners related to some events related to the history or the present day of the club, as well as its next rival. As for the "fine arts", then in this considerable heights reached the fans of the two Milanese grandees - Milan and Inter. Banners and transponder, especially during the city derby, sometimes close the stands completely, constantly changing each other from time to time.
Also ultras (naturally, with the support of other active fans) are trying to create an atmosphere that will spur your favorite team and crush the morale of an opponent. Special fans of this case are ardent fans of Greek, Balkan and Turkish teams, arranging in their stadiums a fiery hell in which the opponents are simply lost (who saw home matches of the conditional Galatasaray, Olympiakos or Partizan, will not forget this atmosphere ever).
One can not but mention another distinctive feature of the ultras: with rare exceptions they spend the whole match on their feet and practically do not stop. At the same time, the coherence of their actions and how everyone knows their "maneuver" is very impressive, especially if one looks at the filled sectors of the ultras from a certain distance in order to evaluate the entire picture as a whole.
Yes, the movement of the ultras creates a serious headache for the security services, who are ready to take tough measures for any reason, but often the reason for such clashes is the inadequate behavior of individual representatives on either side, or even the elementary provocations of "sent Cossacks".
Try not only to visit home, but also away matches of your favorite teams. Football clubs often organize arrivals of groups of their fans, but ultras prefer to move between cities and countries independently.
Hulz The extreme form of ultras are the special "brigade" of football hooligans. However, quite often the "Hoolz" football is not particularly interested in football. Their main goal - the battle with "colleagues" from the opposing clubs. As a rule, brigades include experienced fighters with sports training and a certain code. "Civilized Hults" do not take part in the riots in the stands and do not enter into disassembly with "ordinary" fans (except in emergency situations).
About battles with "colleagues" are agreed, as a rule, in advance, the place is chosen relatively unpopulated and there they already determine the relationship and determine which of them is stronger. Usually, everything is limited to a fist fight on the wall to the wall until the last fighter of one of the sides that remains in the upright position, but sometimes improvised means, including cold and firearms, especially if there are old scores and blood feud between brigades.
Of course, there are also "scumbags" who simply can not just poke a knife in the crowd of a fan of another team, or arrange his beating, as it happened more recently in Liverpool, when the "fans" of Roma just scored half to death the fan of the "red".
Hulz leaders generally have connections in the criminal world, and sometimes brigades perform tasks that are not directly related to football. There are cases when such groups receive orders for "creating tension" in other cities and even countries during the exits (as was the case during Euro-2016 in France, where the Russians "frolic"), but these are still atypical moments.
These five categories of football fans are not the only ones existing in nature. If desired, it is possible to select many more according to various criteria - political, racial, religious and other.
There are also unique personalities among the fans of various teams, which in themselves deserve a special category. But this is a completely different story.
To find out which type of football fans you are referring to, we suggest that you take a test.