Uncle Buck
Ghost Writer
- Jul 7, 2003
- 28,077
Having got in this morning after a few days of culture in Vienna (well a couple of hundred euro's worth of local beer), I have been reading with interest all this bickering about good fans, bad fans and what makes people a supporter (why was I not invited into this one, it is a favourite of mine). Within the Albion support there are some very different groups, those that like to wear colours, those that do not, those that like to drink a small brewery, those that seem to want to watch football with a clear head, those that want to chant, those that do not etc etc. All these sections have there place, but, and probably thanks to mediums like this there is more contact between them and so at times some sniping. Classic case was the game at Ashton Gate last season, when people were going on that the entire away turn out should wear colours and a few of us pointed out this was something we did not do at games and got shouted down. For the record I never wear them and this is originally to do with when we were at Gillingham and the fact that you could not get a beer around Victoria after the game if you were in football shirts.
However with football is part of the problem that things have got too PC and thanks to Sky, the Premiership, all seater grounds etc, has the game become sanitized? The atmopshere is different, more families and other ethnic groups are watching the game which is great, but with this has this brought a new dimension where people are too scared to say something that may cause offence and so this then leads to less atmosphere and either a more sterial rah, rah, rah, clap, clap, clap, isn't everything great atmosphere. Now I am not saying for one minute I want a return to the bad old days of black players having banana's thrown at them and being refered to as darkies etc as that is evil, but have we gone too far the other way.
An example from this weekend at the game in Vienna was to do with the 10 German Bomber song. Now personally I cannot stand chants such as 'No Surrender or I would rather be a Paki than a Turk' and feel these have no place in modern football or society. However the bomber song is refering to a period of history is not refering to another race in derogatory terms and is not refering to millions dying. I agree it is Nationalistic, but to be honest it got the crowd going on Saturday. Now I can see people seeing it as being a tad borderline, however reading the Englandfans message board, a couple of newer England Supporters are up in arms calling everyone scum and generally thinking that on their high horse they are better than most. As I say I can understand some objections to the chant but it is not overtly racist and although shooting down planes was not fun for either the British or Germans involved, but it is refering to a part of our history.
Just my view.
However with football is part of the problem that things have got too PC and thanks to Sky, the Premiership, all seater grounds etc, has the game become sanitized? The atmopshere is different, more families and other ethnic groups are watching the game which is great, but with this has this brought a new dimension where people are too scared to say something that may cause offence and so this then leads to less atmosphere and either a more sterial rah, rah, rah, clap, clap, clap, isn't everything great atmosphere. Now I am not saying for one minute I want a return to the bad old days of black players having banana's thrown at them and being refered to as darkies etc as that is evil, but have we gone too far the other way.
An example from this weekend at the game in Vienna was to do with the 10 German Bomber song. Now personally I cannot stand chants such as 'No Surrender or I would rather be a Paki than a Turk' and feel these have no place in modern football or society. However the bomber song is refering to a period of history is not refering to another race in derogatory terms and is not refering to millions dying. I agree it is Nationalistic, but to be honest it got the crowd going on Saturday. Now I can see people seeing it as being a tad borderline, however reading the Englandfans message board, a couple of newer England Supporters are up in arms calling everyone scum and generally thinking that on their high horse they are better than most. As I say I can understand some objections to the chant but it is not overtly racist and although shooting down planes was not fun for either the British or Germans involved, but it is refering to a part of our history.
Just my view.
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