What does kicking a ball around cause so many passions, mood changes and why does football have an impact on our day-to-day living?
If the team lost- the fan becomes barely audible or if the team won, there is usually a spring in their step and a ready smile, but usually hoarse from shouting insults at players and refs at the game.
I believe this is an embodiment of one’s own fantasies and tend to believe the team is doing it all for them and so football *does* have an impact on the fan’s day-to-day living.
So do we all have a strong subliminal urge to belong to a tribe and project this on to a football team because we need a strong emotional attachment to something?
Let’s look back into history.
Football has around since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, possibly before. The Greeks, Romans, Chinese Japan and Korea, played "ball games"
The history of football is very interesting, "Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England, because it became so rowdy and disruptive by King Edward II.
In the British "public" schools (known as private schools elsewhere) that kept the game alive. It is believed that the public schools (Eton and Harrow, in particular) took the game away from the "mob" and civilized it through an organization of rules and codes of conduct.
The game was transformed from a working-class game to an upper-class game.
The rules at this time differed, depending on where the game was played.
Often times, the football team became the outlet for the embittered passions of a populace that had no outlet for its frustrations. Rivalries became an "us" vs. "them" affair in which violence was not unknown.
Passion and emotion
Football is associated with passion, emotion, excitement and dedication. Extreme emotional experiences at football games characterized the 'pure joy' and exhilaration of being at football games. Two thirds of fans have cried at football matches — mostly through joy, but occasionally because of despair. Football provides for many fans an opportunity to let themselves go emotionally — to release the frustrations of everyday life.
What defines a fan?
To be a ‘True’ fan requires the 'living' experience of football. It is not about being a mere spectator — it is about being a participant. Match attendance is a given, of course, but there is also a duty to engage emotionally in the life of the team in order to impact positively on a team's performance. Attending away games is an important ritual for fans involving a number of psychological and logistical challenges. Away supporters are always out-numbered and mostly out-sung. The definition of a 'fair-weather supporters', are those who only attend matches occasionally or when their team is doing well. Such fans lack dedication and resilience and the detailed knowledge of team statistics, standings, players and history that is characteristic of ‘True’ fans. Football fandom is seen as a rite of passage involving a process akin to apprenticeship. It involves years of instruction, of 'practice', of dedication and of demonstrating your own knowledge in the presence of others before being accepted by 'real' fans.
The Twelfth Man
Football fans describe themselves as the 'twelfth man' — as essential to the success of the team as the players and coaching staff. It is the actions performed by fans during the game — the ritual chants, songs, banner waving, etc. — that motivates the team, intimidates the opposition players and perhaps even influences referees' decisions. The fans truly believe they must attend the game to 'help the team to win', not just to observe the event.
Rituals
In addition to the actions performed in the stadiums during the match, pre- and post-game rituals are important in creating a sense of community among fans. From meeting up with other fans for a drink before and after the game, to rituals foster a strong sense of belonging to the fan group. What might otherwise be ridiculous actions become as meaningful and important to fans as, wearing certain team’s jersey, sitting in a certain chair, tailgating at the same location and facing and setting everything up in a specific way can, wearing the same 'lucky' shirt to every game or following the same routine during the build-up — even eating certain foods just before the kick-off because that made the team win last time.
Friends and belonging
Football is an important means for people to form and maintain strong friendships that might otherwise not exist. These social bonds between fans are so strong that many describe them in familial, kinship terms — 'my brotherhood' or 'my family'. 'Football friends' are different from friends in other areas of life. Something special is shared and exchanged by them. The football team is also a 'friend' to many fans. Over half of all fans feel that being a fan of the team is like having a long-term girlfriend/boyfriend.
Family
Football plays a key role in family life, linking the shared experiences of family members across generations and creating a lasting sense of tradition and belonging. The strongest of these relationships is that of father and son. Most men become fans because their father would take them to matches as a child, and many older fans still retain strong memories of these formative experiences. As football fandom is socially inherited within the family, matches regularly comprise ritualized days out for all members — toddlers and grandmothers included — and the passion for football is a unifying event that frequently leads to animated conversations at home in front of the television or around the family dinner table. The role that football plays in this context is very important given fears about the breakdown of the traditional family unit and its values.
History & national identity
There is a strong commonality among all fans -football unites rather than divides in this sense. The specific social and cultural role that football plays, however, is heavily influenced by historical factors. These include whether a major side or national team has won an important tournament at a decisive time in the past. Similarly, historically poignant football rivalries between some teams (e.g. Packers vs. Bears or Vikings) play a role in defining specific national football characteristics.
Gender
The large majority of football fans are men. Both male and female fans acknowledge that football is a largely masculine domain in which the world of the fan is organized around typically male-oriented social spaces — pubs, bars, and large-scale sports arenas. The predominance of males, however, does not preclude the involvement of women in the world of the football fan. Women's participation in the sport has increased significantly over the past few decades.
Conclusion
Football unites people from varied backgrounds .
