Best fans in the world

RoryMac

There has been a bit of discussion on here tonight about the Irish fans in Poland and if they can claim the title of best fans in the world.

I'd like to see peoples opinions on who are the best fans and why, what makes one set of fans stand out etc

Rhys Essien

But the competition was for football/soccer.:(

Fenian Army

I find the label condescending tbh

kitakyushu

Best? No. Drunkest? Probably.

RoryMac

Rhys Essien wrote: »

But the competition was for football/soccer.:(

Of course but the claim has been made and argued against that tonight the Irish fans showed they were the best fans in the world.

I just ask if people agree and if not who or what makes fans make a claim for this title.

There won't be a trophy handed out to the winner.

Jesus Wept

RoryMac wrote: »

Of course but the claim has been made and argued against that tonight the Irish fans showed they were the best fans in the world.

I just ask if people agree and if not who or what makes fans make a claim for this title.

There won't be a trophy handed out to the winner.

Well you can only really win it if your team is a bag of bollox, we have a head start there.

NufcNavan

The best fans in the world would support their own league.

kitakyushu

NufcNavan wrote: »

The best fans in the world would support their own league.

Their own league is the Premiership and the majority of the rest are season ticket holders at Bandwagon United.

Yakult

NufcNavan wrote: »

The best fans in the world would support their own league.

NufcNavan

Yakult wrote: »

Hold on, the OP asked for opinions on that statement and I have given mine.

CiaranC

Id say the best fans in the world are those who contribute most to their team - seems fairly simple. The Socios of Barcelona come easily to mind. The Ultras of the likes of Fenerbache or River Plate with their giant displays and never ending support from the terraces. Supporters clubs which arrange transport to matches for thousands of fans. Fans who own or sit on the boards of their football clubs. Fans who volunteer for their clubs. Fans who work for the FSF or Supporters Direct for free. People who give up their time running underage football, who stand in the pissing rain every week supporting the kids on the team. Or just any group of season ticket holding, match going fans who number from a few hundred to many thousands, who pump money into their team week in, week out - win, lose or draw because its what they do.

It seems silly to put a group of fans who sang for ten minutes even though they were losing ahead of any or all of the above.

event

Leeds fans tbh

monkey9

They've been the best fans in the tournament without question!!! If only a quarter of them went to a LOI match, we'd be laughing!!!!

Richard Hillman

I think self proclaiming yourself as the best fans in the world automatically rules yourself out.

Anyone ever been to lansdowne road? Its a morgue apart from the singing section and all they do is rip off Celtic songs.

wonderboysam

NufcNavan wrote: »

The best fans in the world would support their own league.

man I f*cking hate this response, if you're not from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain the chances are your main team is from one of the above countries which is the case for the vast majority of the world, amirite?

monkey9

wonderboysam wrote: »

man I f*cking hate this response, if you're not from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain the chances are your main team is from one of the above countries which is the case for the vast majority of the world, amirite?

Em maybe. But what's the point of your response to the post you quoted??

Adolf Hipster

CiaranC wrote: »

Id say the best fans in the world are those who contribute most to their team - seems fairly simple. The Socios of Barcelona come easily to mind. The Ultras of the likes of Fenerbache or River Plate with their giant displays and never ending support from the terraces. Supporters clubs which arrange transport to matches for thousands of fans. Fans who own or sit on the boards of their football clubs. Fans who volunteer for their clubs. Fans who work for the FSF or Supporters Direct for free. People who give up their time running underage football, who stand in the pissing rain every week supporting the kids on the team. Or just any group of season ticket holding, match going fans who number from a few hundred to many thousands, who pump money into their team week in, week out - win, lose or draw because its what they do.

It seems silly to put a group of fans who sang for ten minutes even though they were losing ahead of any or all of the above.

You should aim to post like this in future, most of the time it's utter tripe, bitter and cringeworthy

average_runner

monkey9 wrote: »

They've been the best fans in the tournament without question!!! If only a quarter of them went to a LOI match, we'd be laughing!!!!

reason no one goes to loi is because there is no heart or soul on it. need to install the gaa heart into it.

wonderboysam

monkey9 wrote: »

wonderboysam wrote: »

man I f*cking hate this response, if you're not from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain the chances are your main team is from one of the above countries which is the case for the vast majority of the world, amirite?

Em maybe. But what's the point of your response to the post you quoted??

Is he then implying the best fans HAVE to be from one of said countries? which is clearly boll*cks!

monkey9

average_runner wrote: »

reason no one goes to loi is because there is no heart or soul on it. need to install the gaa heart into it.

Complete and utter horse****! Take a bow for being one hundred percent wrong!

monkey9

wonderboysam wrote: »

Is he then implying the best fans HAVE to be from one of said countries? which is clearly boll*cks!

Ahaha!! Well yeah, that would be a starting point alright!!!

average_runner

monkey9 wrote: »

average_runner wrote: »

reason no one goes to loi is because there is no heart or soul on it. need to install the gaa heart into it.

Complete and utter horse****! Take a bow for being one hundred percent wrong!

well attendences say otherwise. been at few games and to say the crowd was dead is an understatement. we need a county pride thing and maybe teams should be the county thing

CiaranC

Bagsie Rovers being Countee Dublin, maybe we could switch to blue shirts too

monkey9

average_runner wrote: »

well attendences say otherwise. been at few games and to say the crowd was dead is an understatement. we need a county pride thing and maybe teams should be the county thing

"Maybe teams should be the county thing". I just wanted to quote that one again, just for posterity!! In fact i'll do it again!! "maybe teams should be the county thing"

This time, i'll tag it!!

"maybe teams should be the county thing"

Irish football fan. 2012

stovelid

average_runner wrote: »

reason no one goes to loi is because there is no heart or soul on it. need to install the gaa heart into it.

Is it any wonder that a thread started to poll genuine opinions will just end in farce...

CIaran summed it up. Great display last night but the best in the world crack and back slapping takes from it. Listening to the radio this morning you would swear we invented chanting and crowd displays.

average_runner

stovelid wrote: »

Is it any wonder that a thread started to poll genuine opinions will just end in farce...

CIaran summed it up. Great display last night but the best in the world crack and back slapping takes from it. Listening to the radio this morning you would swear we invented chanting and crowd displays.

I wasnt slatting last night performance at all, i was just talking about someone said in reference to league of Ireland.

We did well to qualify for our first major tuornament, we got a bad group also and Spain are euro/world champs and also boast a league with madrid and Barca.

CSF

CiaranC wrote: »

Bagsie Rovers being Countee Dublin, maybe we could switch to blue shirts too

Wickla Krakow.

Max Powers

Best fans...who gives a $hit. Im more concerned about a dismal performance, sad, embarrassing and humilitating feelings. (players gave 100%, fair play to them but everything from the way kids play football up needs to change, we need to find our own effective style, some cross between the fighting spirit of the English game, German organisation and continental keep ball)

CSF

I don't think a best fans in the world exists by the way. But Ireland are a mile off anyway, sunshine fans to the max.

Xavi6

CSF wrote: »

Wickla Krakow.

Sporting Fingal

Wait, what?

CiaranC

We could call ourselves Dublin City. This plan surely cant fail.

barone

fcuk all of ye begrudgers because drunk or not, we were being hammerd of the park and our fans still owned the fcking stadium..

fair fcuks to them for giving it their all and lets not forget..spending money to go there and do it !!

no fighting,singing and dancing and giving our own countrys football and good reputation even if we are actually pretty bad at the game right now.

long may it coninue

stovelid

average_runner wrote: »

We did well to qualify for our first major tuornament,.

Sweet divine Jaysus.

average_runner

monkey9 wrote: »

"Maybe teams should be the county thing". I just wanted to quote that one again, just for posterity!! In fact i'll do it again!! "maybe teams should be the county thing"

This time, i'll tag it!!

"maybe teams should be the county thing"

Irish football fan. 2012

Well the current format is not working!!

How many teams went into adminstration lately? To make LOI successful you need to get the fans behind it big time. Moving league to summer time and Friday nights was a good move.. But thats only a start, now they need to get the people behind him, make them feel a part of it. This is waht the league has failed to do big.

Some clubs are trying to it, like Rovers, Wexford Youths and Cork City.

CSF

average_runner wrote: »

stovelid wrote: »

Is it any wonder that a thread started to poll genuine opinions will just end in farce...

CIaran summed it up. Great display last night but the best in the world crack and back slapping takes from it. Listening to the radio this morning you would swear we invented chanting and crowd displays.

I wasnt slatting last night performance at all, i was just talking about someone said in reference to league of Ireland.

We did well to qualify for our first major tuornament, we got a bad group also and Spain are euro/world champs and also boast a league with madrid and Barca.

Somebody get this chap off the internet.

monkey9

average_runner wrote: »

Well the current format is not working!!

How many teams went into adminstration lately? To make LOI successful you need to get the fans behind it big time. Moving league to summer time and Friday nights was a good move.. But thats only a start, now they need to get the people behind him, make them feel a part of it. This is waht the league has failed to do big.

Some clubs are trying to it, like Rovers, Wexford Youths and Cork City.

So your suggestion is to do away with Pat's, Bohs, Shels etc form them into a county thing and play them off against Wexford, Kerry etc?? Are you a yank??

jack presley

I really really hope that was a typo in average runner's post and he left out "in 10 years" by mistake. Otherwise there is no hope for the country

super_furry

Irish supporters are great for the big occasions, but how many will be there for the less glamourous World Cup qualifiers?

Kiwi_knock

I think one of the primary tasks of a fan is to not only support the club but to create and provide a positive image of the club or country. I think we can debate the merits of our fans last night, very valid points raised in this forum about our fans from LOI followers, but you can not deny that they left a positive impression on the European Championships. Our support earned us plaudits last night which reflected well on the country. So therefore the Irish fans did their job. I am in no way arguing Ireland fans are the best in the world only that they presented a positive image of Ireland and our fans to world viewers, which I believe is one of the primary responsibilities of a fan.

gosplan

The best fans in the world are obsessive lunatics. Was reading a blog the other day by a member of the AST who spends 20% of his income going to every single arsenal match.

And every club has those, people who have shoehorned their income, family and work commitments to fit around life's no 1 priority, being a supporter.

Most of the fans last night don't necessarily fit this bill but I think it's hugely unfair that people would have a go at them for this.

I mean, we've a travelling support 30k strong who mix really well with opposition fans, cause no trouble and sing their hearts out no matter what.

People would prefer what exactly?

jack presley

So which would you prefer, a sh1t team but fans that are praised for their behaviour or a team that contends in every tournament but who's fans are hooligans?

speedboatchase

The best fans in the world would demand more from their team - if you're losing 4-0 and the crowd are cheering like you're 4-0 up then where is the incentive to push yourself on the pitch as a player? We're too "happy to be there" and pissed out of our minds to care what happens and that small-minded mentality will never change.

average_runner

jack presley wrote: »

I really really hope that was a typo in average runner's post and he left out "in 10 years" by mistake. Otherwise there is no hope for the country

Yes it was a typo.

monkey9

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

I think one of the primary tasks of a fan is to not only support the club but to create and provide a positive image of the club or country. I think we can debate the merits of our fans last night, very valid points raised in this forum about our fans from LOI followers, but you can not deny that they left a positive impression on the European Championships. Our support earned us plaudits last night which reflected well on the country. So therefore the Irish fans did their job. I am in no way arguing Ireland fans are the best in the world only that they presented a positive image of Ireland and our fans to world viewers, which I believe is one of the primary responsibilities of a fan.

I do agree with this. They've promoted the country brilliantly and left a positive image upon the tournament. Best fans in the world though? It's a redundant phrase!!

average_runner

monkey9 wrote: »

So your suggestion is to do away with Pat's, Bohs, Shels etc form them into a county thing and play them off against Wexford, Kerry etc?? Are you a yank??

Well what do you suggest they do to make the league work?

monkey9

speedboatchase wrote: »

The best fans in the world would demand more from their team - if you're losing 4-0 and the crowd are cheering like you're 4-0 up then where is the incentive to push yourself on the pitch as a player? We're too "happy to be there" and pissed out of our minds to care what happens and that small-minded mentality will never change.

It's a tournament!! That booing stuff actually happens at Lansdowne!! Why would you boo a defeat against Spain??

monkey9

average_runner wrote: »

Well what do you suggest they do to make the league work?

There's been plenty of threads about this and the one place it has no place in is a thread about the fans of the national team!

speedboatchase

monkey9 wrote: »

It's a tournament!! That booing stuff actually happens at Lansdowne!! Why would you boo a defeat against Spain??

It was a humiliation, more than a defeat. Sure last night I actually saw people trying to get a "homecoming for the fans" trending on Twitter - our ability to try and squeeze any positives from being far and away the worst team at this tournament is cringeworthy. We should demand better but we won't and as I said, this "just happy to be there" mentality will constantly be our undoing.

average_runner

super_furry wrote: »

Irish supporters are great for the big occasions, but how many will be there for the less glamouress World Cup qualifiers?

In the past Irish fans had sold out smaller games. Alot of the attendance is to with the style of football we play and current financial climate.

The trip to Poland was alot of peoples holiday for the year!!

average_runner

stovelid wrote: »

Sweet divine Jaysus.

It was a typo, ment to say first major since 2002.

average_runner

monkey9 wrote: »

There's been plenty of threads about this and the one place it has no place in is a thread about the fans of the national team!

I wasnt the one who mentioned it first. I just gave a response to someone else post.