Fanatics guide .. This is what they did not tell you about, scolding your players and insulting your opponent

"A few years ago, I was on a visit to South London when I passed by my friend Alan. All his life, Alan was a fan of the Plymouth Argyle team, who is in the third degree in England. We chatted until we reached that moment when I asked him about when to take him For his son to the Plymouth Stadium for the first time, to shock me with his answer, Alan revealed his strange desire that his son not follow his steps in encouraging the team himself, but that he would urge him to encourage Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool or any other team that is easy to follow on TV. (1)

Although encouraging a sports team is considered a minor activity on which the fan’s life does not depend, it consumes a significant amount of his thoughts, feelings, mood, and even his money. The previous position that "Damon Green" narrated in his article in the British Guardian newspaper illustrates a father's desire for a better encouragement future for his son, so that he does not experience the same tragedies and difficulties. The father's thinking may stem from his desire for the best for his son, but he tells us that the encouragement and its effects are greater than you think.

I am the club

The relationship between the cheerleader and the club has always been the subject of many studies and research, especially at the psychological level. To name a few, psychologist Arthur Aaron tells us that the response that you might see when drawing a sports fan’s brain as he looks at his team or favorite player is similar to that that appears when a wife looks at her husband’s picture. (2) Hence, the relationship extends beyond buying the club's shirt and cheering for it, to reach a more complex stage that Eric Simons explains to us in his book, "The Secret Lives of Sports Fans: The Science of Sports Obsession"; it is certain that encouraging the team is an expression of the fan On his own, through many research papers and interviews, he found that the effect of encouragement extends to include the general taste of the fan, his favorite color, family relations, the people around him, and even the political orientation as is the case with Barcelona fans for example.

"Eric" continued to list his logical exaggerations from his point of view, to the point that we are all accustomed to from seeing too much, which is the expression of the fan about his team with the pronoun "we", whether with or without intent, most of us do this in his discussions, and Facebook hassles is the best witness. But "Eric" says that this puts the brain in a confused position unable to distinguish between "the same person" and "the team." (3)

That confused situation may lead us to many unimpeachable behaviors and emotions, which the fan performs with the phrase "I am the club". The club's success is from its personal success, and therefore he will not hesitate to try to disperse the opponent's players, even if he is forced to launch a barrage of racist, offensive chants that could expose him to legal accountability. By the same token, if he finds a substandard player who hinders his victory, he will not hesitate to pour out his anger at him, just as it happened between Granite Chaka and Arsenal fans. (4)

The theory of healthy reprimand

The booing not only expresses fans' dissatisfaction with their players, but it also represents a desperate attempt to improve their performance, something like stimulation by reprimand. This theory is explained by Dr. Josephine Berry, a specialist in sports psychiatry, as: “This effect is completely unclear, as it depends on the player’s mentality and personal characteristics. Some athletes may use the shouting as a fuel to improve their performance, as if they defy those shouts by seeking to prove that they are not correct.” Others will worry about their place on the team, and hostile chants will take them out of the match. " (5)

Then she explains that the highest level or elite players fall under the first type, while the majority are affected by the negative because we are human and this is our nature, and it will become difficult for them to live with the feeling of hatred of fans whenever their feet cross the field. Hence an endless repetitive cycle begins, beginning with the anger of the masses, then booing whistles to improve the results, which do not improve in most cases, but rather events begin to escalate.

A few angry numbers begin to affect non-participants in booing, by what is called an "infection effect". (5) Yes, it is what I imagined, a fan angry just like you, but he would not have started chanting, had it not been for the encouragement of those around him, so the numbers increase and start to spin out of control, just as happened with Granite Chaka.

One of the fans convinced others that he is the spoiled son of the bad coach "Unai Emery", and with every lackluster performance of the Swiss player, the fans become more angry, and if they chase him with offensive comments on social media and then follow them with booing whistles at the Emirates Stadium, the matter ends up exploding the player, and his departure approaches after His agent announced the approval of Hertha Berlin's offer. (6)

The player’s departure and exclusion from the next meeting may be a good solution for calm, but it establishes another principle in the very worst, which is "the customer is always right", and the customer has obtained what he wants even if he requested it in an inappropriate manner. And with full recognition that the fans are the nerve of football and other sports, the professional relationship between the game’s institutions and their employees requires more control over the response to the fans, because if this is their case with their players, what will be the case with the opponent’s players?

Unconscious discrimination

According to the philosopher "Julian Baggeni", going to the soccer field represents a license to override the rules of society, where good behavior is suspended temporarily, and you get your license to express your hatred for this or that. (5) Of course, the opponents of your team are the biggest victims of this rule, and once the chants begin until we suddenly find ourselves on the threshold of the issue of racism.

In Italy, for example, Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku was subjected to racist chants from the Cagliari fans, for Inter's Interras Association to issue a statement to justify the chants of Cagliari fans, and to try to explain to Lukaku that the matter was not racist but rather an attempt to harass the opponent's players. Even their countryman, Mario Balotelli, had not escaped their sterile principle, and was subjected to similar chants from the Verona fans, and even after the match he declared his willingness to accept all insults, apart from racism. (7)

"If the fans want to disperse the players, they can do it in thousands of ways, not including racism."

(Mario Balotelli. (8))

We can go to England, specifically the Etihad Stadium, where Manchester City fans did towards Manchester United, "Fred". The funny thing is that these racist chants and monkey movements took place on the same day that the slogans of the Primerliga clubs and the captain's insignia are painted in rainbow colors to support gays. Imagine supporting gay people while not accepting blacks, the pinnacle of ridicule! (9)

The practice of racism is the practice of racism, whether inside or outside the stadium, there is no need to beautify it or justify it with trivial justifications, but we must think about its implications. The fact that the player with a brown skin has fallen into a mockery of him, this means that they see something different in him. David Williams, a public health and sociology professor, interpreted this pattern under the name "unconscious bias". (10) (11)

For decades, social psychologists have researched this phenomenon and found that if you carry a negative stereotype in your subconscious mind of a group of people, and then you meet one of them, you will automatically practice racism against it, or you will treat it differently, even if you are well-intentioned. This different treatment includes service in restaurants, shops, and even medical care. In his lecture on the TED platform, Dr. David Williams presented what indicates this happening in the United States of America, the effect of racism on health and average ages, and its association with a number of diseases including blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, and even death Early.

And before you get carried away by these terrifying facts, we must all remember the phrase "no smoke without fire", and therefore football should not be that smoke, which reflects the image of fire or rather the obvious deficiency in most of our societies, but rather it should be a facade of awareness and reform It is not that the Italian league's awareness against racism puts pictures of colored monkeys, but with a simpler and more sophisticated awareness, in the end do not scold your opponent will save your team, nor insulting your opponent will make you a winner. (11)