When and why did football become so tribal?

[IrishBlueSince92]

Its become relentless and tiresome since the invention of Twitter

 

[davyhulme blue]

Can only speak for myself as my dad would tell stories of like you say people going to watch both City and the rags. My old next door neighbour did.

One person Ferguson

He changed it for the worst. He belittled our club. Our club that in the past had helped the rags so many times. The twats didnt have floodlights so played at our place is just one example. Plus the noise neighbours, of course we are noisy we are Manchester a big City.

Now we have the press/media turning up the hatred because they are basically fanzines for the dippers and rags.
The bent use of VAR to help them.

The dippers getting away with the coach attack.

The older I get the more tribal I have become because of the way City seen in the press/media. I tell anyone who will listen the rags arent from Manchester. How the rags treated the survivors of Munich.

Manchester has one club and is ours. Our council should demand that the rags stop using our name ! Certainly shouldnt be using our coat of arms. What's wrong with Traffords ?

Way off the mark , regularly saw loads of stuff at derby games late 60s 70s . Leeds scouse etc

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Some clubs were more tribal than others. Millwall for instance had their ground closed for disorder several times in the 1920's, 1930's and early 1950's. Rangers and Celtic have been at each others throats for over 100 years. Preston had a bad reputation in Edwardian times....

http://thedabbler.co.uk/2011/02/row-z-the-edwardian-football-hooligans/

In one Scottish Cup final, Celtic and Rangers fans teamed up and fought against the Police and firemen.

The Cup final was a draw and then the replay was also a draw. Both sets of fans had heard that both games were fixed to keep bringing in ticket money from replays so fans demanded extra time to decide the winner. The referee and authorities decided against that so both sets of fans rioted.

100s of people were injured including 54 policemen and the referee.

Neither team were awarded the Cup.

 

[crazyg]

Match of the day.
Kenneth Wolstenholme.

"And it's Bobby to George to Denis.
Oh, Bell has taken it off him, passed to Summerbee, who passes it to Lee, who (unfortunately) scores."
That Kenneth Wolstenholme?

To me, the tribalism started after the World Cup in 1966. Prior to that, fans could mix at derby matches etc, with no large scale rioting amongst fans. Yes, there were the odd territorial "disputes", but that's all. After that, we had the Kippax, the rags the Stretford End, the Dippers the Kop, Leeds the Scratching Shed, etc, where away fans just didn't go unless they had a death wish. It got worse, although a scrap was just that - no knives, just fists, but that changed as time went on - at that point, I moved away from the trouble areas as I was more concerned for for my own safety.
I think I made the right decision at the time - you have to grow up sooner or later.
Now, as an FOC, I look back and say "why, just why?"

 

[KentBlue]

*One person, the Govan pisscan.

He changed it for the worst. He belittled our club.

Before he turned up I didn't take a lot of notice of the rags. They were our enemy, but to me they were an irrelevance. A club from outside Manchester that stole their name from a rugby club in order to make it seem they came from the city. They were plastic then, and they are plastic now.

But when that dictatorial alcoholic started making all those comments about us, my indifference to them turned almost overnight into a seething, pulsating mass of pure hatred.

I hold nothing but contempt for him, the club, the players and the supporters - in fact anyone or anything associated with the club.

SCUM

 

[Sky Blue]

We hated Utd long before Ferguson

(and Liverpool, Leeds, Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, etc etc)

I remember as a 7yr old watching utd v Benfica on a black and white tv and wanting the team in white to win. My hatred for them must have started that night.

 

[FightLikeAGirl]

Hasn’t it been like this for years? Hooliganism was a huge problem before I was born. I got bullied at school by rags and kopites over being an Everton fan. I think social media and coke have exacerbated it now. The Derby I went to was pretty chill but I wouldn’t be seen dead at one now.

 

[give it to gordon]

Way off the mark , regularly saw loads of stuff at derby games late 60s 70s . Leeds scouse etc

Yes I agree with that but as a young manc living in kent it's not something I saw with only one trip per season to Maine Road.
It wasnt till the mid 80's i started to see more trouble and pisscan liked to stir the shit.
I saw my old mans hatred saw when pisscan was there, he really hated pisscan and the rags. My old man always had time for Busby.

Once pisscan took over the gobby plastic cockney rags started to follow suit. Would mouth of in pubs coping what pisscan had said. These rags didnt know the history of the rags didnt want to know it was about winning.

They couldnt understand why I still supported City when the best club in Manchester was utd. Didnt matter how many times I would tell them you arent in Manchester, I'm a manc so support a manc team.

So for me i knew of the trouble with leeds, millwall, rags, dippers but I only started to see the trouble in kent once pisscan started stirring it.

Since we have started winning the verbal abuse has increased lol

I wore my Tevez welcome to Manchester for years it literally fell apart but it was my reply to all the plastic rags around here.

 

[mexico1970]

We hated Utd long before Ferguson

(and Liverpool, Leeds, Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, etc etc)

This and only this, football IS rivalry its very pumping heart.

There used to be a direct link between Protestant and Catholic clubs in cities, the rags were Catholic and we were protestant many many moons ago, if you look across the border at the two teams that still haven't evolved you can see the wrong side of tribal rivalry right there.

 

[manclad]

The best work I have read about football rivalry is " The Soccer Tribe" by the well known anthropologist Desmond Morris.
In fact I have just bought the latest edition for my pals 65th birthday (I have the earlier edition from about 40 years ago).
It describes how football became a truly global sport,loved by people of many nationalities,races and religions.
And it's all down to how humans loved hunting and killing as food for survival.
And when we turned to farming animals,we didn't need to hunt anymore,so we did it for pleasure.
And when we started to live in cities, there wasn't space to hunt anymore,so we brought the animals to the cities,and hunted them in vast arenas.
And when that became unacceptable in the late 19th century,we adopted football as a substitute for hunting,with scoring a goal being the equivalent of a kill, whereby everyone rejoices and celebrates the goal/kill.
An absolutely fascinating book, and one I highly recommend to everyone on BM.
(The latest edition is about £15 on eBay,and the original edition is as little as £5).