Fans of less successful clubs are more loyal to each other. | Vital Football

Fans of less successful clubs are more loyal to each other.

Buddha

Buddha

Vital Football Hero
Anybody seen this? All very interesting. Apparently:

Football fans tend to be highly loyal to their group, just as the kin groups of our ancestral past would have been. This intense state of belonging, when a person feels as one with their group, is called identity fusion.

My new study, looking at fans of the UK’s Premier League, found supporters of the most long-suffering clubs were more “fused” to their clubs. They even considered each other more like a family compared with fans of reliably successful clubs.

I reckon us Gillingham supporters have definitely suffered quite a bit of long-term dysphoria but would we die for each other?!

Full article here:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/football-clubs-less-successful-fans-105402742.html
 
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Didn`t Desmond Morris write about this back in the seventies ? It was also written about more generally a couple of centuries ago.

TBH, all very interesting but this is only really another uplift to present, in contemporary glossary, another installment of the bleeding obvious. I`m sure it`s necessary as wheels need to be re-invented to keep the circle of life spinning. But, IMO, it`s also a LOB.

Football is tribal, is it ? Of course it is ! people are tribal, are they ? of course we are. Oooops, I feel i`m drifting into identity fusion here but, it`s good to be in a small group - knowing a group`s make-up instills more confidence, whereas failing to know everyone in a larger group might present diffidence. It`s about survival, isn`t it?

Does anyone really think that our evolution has passed the point where our most basic instinct, survival, has washed away. Survival mode has multi-manifestations, it separates, but it protects too.

Anyway, I can`t stand that Millwall mob !
 
What is the maximum size of a club where it is 'One for all and all for one'? I would suggest under 1,000 attendance. In the Premier League one stand likes to poke fun at their own supporters in another - nothing like the Gills (Gordon Road btw).
 
I've bored non football mates with this for years. They don't get the purpose of watching 22 blokes chase a ball.

I've explained its tribal, blue v red, the feeling of belonging to something bigger than you. I'm agnostic but I understand people who are religious but in all seriousness Gillingham is my religion.

I've said to these people come do an away game, the feeling when you step off the train and you see a mob of gills fans on the platform. The feeling when you walk into the pub and its full of Gills fan (its a different feeling if its full of the home fans, but its still a feeling).

The feeling of belonging when the away stand (or the Rainham End) erupts as we score a last minute winner. Total strangers - as one.

At this point they are just laughing but they really don't know what they are missing, do they ?!!!

I miss live football.
 
I find there is more solidarity between fans of "crap" clubs. I work with a Exeter City season ticket holder, a Forest Green one and a couple of Bristol Rovers fans. One of my other mates is a season ticket holder at Wycombe. I find there is a mutual respect amongdt us that you would never find amongst a group of fans of "bigger" clubs.
 
'Fans' I know of Premiership clubs seem to get almost as excited about rival teams dropping points as they do about their own winning. They carp about the number of penalties one club gets or the VAR decisions of another, or even the wealth of an owner. There is little or no camaraderie as the top teams fans are rarely bonded by actually being local to the grounds.
Give me the good old 'us against the world' attitude of Gills fans any day!
 
mick745 said:
I find there is more solidarity between fans of "crap" clubs. I work with a Exeter City season ticket holder, a Forest Green one and a couple of Bristol Rovers fans. One of my other mates is a season ticket holder at Wycombe. I find there is a mutual respect amongdt us that you would never find amongst a group of fans of "bigger" clubs.
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Except of course: Swindon; Millwall; Charlton!!
 
markinkent said:
I've bored non football mates with this for years. They don't get the purpose of watching 22 blokes chase a ball.

I've explained its tribal, blue v red, the feeling of belonging to something bigger than you. I'm agnostic but I understand people who are religious but in all seriousness Gillingham is my religion.

I've said to these people come do an away game, the feeling when you step off the train and you see a mob of gills fans on the platform. The feeling when you walk into the pub and its full of Gills fan (its a different feeling if its full of the home fans, but its still a feeling).

The feeling of belonging when the away stand (or the Rainham End) erupts as we score a last minute winner. Total strangers - as one.

At this point they are just laughing but they really don't know what they are missing, do they ?!!!

I miss live football.
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Martin, as your only religion is the Gills perhaps I can suggest a few "legends" who should be canonised:

Saint Terry
Saint Alan (Wilks)
Saint Brian
Saint Johnny
Saint Dave (Shearer)

And for the second coming, Arch Angel Andy.
 
Agree with this. Lower league fans are just more loyal than those “fans” of Prem teams and moreover those right at the top. We have a sense of affinity with the club and 90% of our fellow fans that say Man Utd or Liverpool fans won’t. Nearly all of us are local, know all the local areas, roads, pubs etc - of course, locals do go and see Man Utd and Liverpool etc but large percentage don’t and can never have the same affinity.

It’s also no surprise that the loyalty of lower league clubs also extends to the international the team and most lower league fans back the England team almost like their own - despite none of the players having anything to do with their England. Having been to loads of England games - including a few abroad - most England fans are lower league fans or fans of the non-glory hunter Pre clubs. It’s that sense of your country is in your blood, just like your club team - you don’t choose it because you like the way they play or because they win! A lot of Prem team fans have chosen their team because they win, play well or are trendy, so it’s no surprise to hear them slate England and not support them, because we’ve won sweet FA for 55 years!
 
I genuinely feel sorry for plastics. They will never know the joy that we get from watching our team's small and rare successes.

Thrilled with a win at Accy whilst Liverpool "fans" whinge and call for Klopp to be sacked on Talksport because they haven't won for a couple of weeks. They haven't got a clue.
 
I would bet most top teams have hard cores like ours who stick with them. Families who watched down the generations, and some who can’t afford it now. Clubs like Forest, Wednesday, and Sunderland eg. Even Man City in their time of darkness suggest this is so.
 
Fans of top teams looking down their noses at "Sunday league" football and lower league fans looking down at "plastics". Nothing will ever change.

Of course the successful clubs will have nauseating glory hunters but there are loads of hardcore fans who turn up rain or shine.

If the gills won the championship or got to say the semis of the FA cup (stay with me) we'd get a lot of Johnny come lately
 
Antonwest said:
Fans of top teams looking down their noses at "Sunday league" football and lower league fans looking down at "plastics". Nothing will ever change.

Of course the successful clubs will have nauseating glory hunters but there are loads of hardcore fans who turn up rain or shine.

If the gills won the championship or got to say the semis of the FA cup (stay with me) we'd get a lot of Johnny come lately
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Nah, if we ever got to Wembley for a Play Off Final, I bet just the usual 5k would turn up...
 
jokerman said:
I would bet most top teams have hard cores like ours who stick with them. Families who watched down the generations, and some who can’t afford it now. Clubs like Forest, Wednesday, and Sunderland eg. Even Man City in their time of darkness suggest this is so.
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According to the research, Manchester City are one of the clubs whose supporters appear to be bonded in a manner similar to less successful clubs. They still have a sense of shared dysphoria and still consider themselves as the 'underdog'. To be fair to them, pretty much any City fan old enough (and a few too young) to remember that day at Wembley, will show respect to us Gillingham fans. I know because I've met quite a few.
 
Buddha said:
According to the research, Manchester City are one of the clubs whose supporters appear to be bonded in a manner similar to less successful clubs. They still have a sense of shared dysphoria and still consider themselves as the 'underdog'. To be fair to them, pretty much any City fan old enough (and a few too young) to remember that day at Wembley, will show respect to us Gillingham fans. I know because I've met quite a few.
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And even more respect for Halsey!
 
"Over 750 fans completed an online questionnaire, answering questions like how much they felt other fans were kin and how willing they would be to jump in front of a train to save the lives of five fellow fans"

If you could save 5 strangers by giving up your own life would you do it? And would the football team they support change your answer?
 
ThreeSixes said:
"Over 750 fans completed an online questionnaire, answering questions like how much they felt other fans were kin and how willing they would be to jump in front of a train to save the lives of five fellow fans"

If you could save 5 strangers by giving up your own life would you do it? And would the football team they support change your answer?
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Yeah, agreed, it's a bit stupid.

Interesting though that both the most willing and the least willing to sacrifice themselves for other fans came from London. Palace with 34.5% and Arsenal with 9.4%.
 
Buddha said:
Yeah, agreed, it's a bit stupid.

Interesting though that both the most willing and the least willing to sacrifice themselves for other fans came from London. Palace with 34.5% and Arsenal with 9.4%.
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West Ham`s Inter-City firm jumped in front of a few trains in their time; life savers, those Hammers` fans....
 
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