WHY DO WE SUPPORT THE FOOTBALL TEAMS THAT WE SUPPORT?

Have you ever wondered why there are still so many supporters in EPL mediocre teams like Fulham, Aston Villa, Everton, Wolves, and others, despite victories are rarely won, and the fact that there are so many other teams that are better than them?

On the 13^th of July 2011, Glasgow Celtic FC visited Melbourne, and had a friendly match with the local team, Melbourne Victory. The score was 1-0 to Celtic, but throughout the match, I felt something that I have never felt before.

I have always known that there are a lot of Scotts living in Melbourne. On that day, at least 15,000 of them flocked the stadium, but that was no surprise, because Celtic is a famous team.

My girlfriend and I were there as well. There were a lot of Celtic fans sitting near us, and a lot of them are mothers and grandmothers. When the stadium started playing some Celtic fan-music (before the match started), together with the males, these mothers and grandmothers started to sing, dance, and chant along. Like the males, they held their Celtic-supporters’ scarves or flags up high, and they went completely crazy when their team scored the goal. And, by the way, all 15,000 of them sang along, not just one small group, but all of them.

2 examples from that night (you'll never walk alone is also a Celtic fan-song): 

But, why is that? I understood that they support that team, but to support it until the state where even women in their 60s would jump, scream, shout and chant like the men? Then, slowly I realized that it was not just about the team Celtic FC, but it was a cultural thing. They were shouting, screaming, chanting, singing, and dancing, simply because, not only that they support Celtic FC, but it represented their culture, it represented the place which they were from, it represented they themselves.

That day, I understood that, beside the football of their team, their culture was expressed with songs and chants from the fans themselves.

Before going on, let us discuss slightly about fan chants. Chants are not just songs to motivate the team which u support, it is also a cultural expression. It is like showing off your culture proudly in chants and songs. Besides, the number of the opposition fans is usually the biggest motivation for home fans to chant more, shout more, support more, and be more passionate. It is a pride thing. It is a way to show to the opposition fans that they are proud of their own culture.

As a student in Melbourne for 2 years, I have supported Melbourne Victory all this time. I have attended most of the home matches here, and have learned a lot of the chants and songs of the fans here, although I rarely joined them in chanting. I was usually a quiet observer, only shouting when a goal is scored. Besides, the fact that Australia is such a big country geographically, the fans of the away teams rarely showed up: the main motivation was not always there for quieter fans (majority) to join in with the chants and songs of the noisier fans (minority).

A tribute video to Victory fans in 2007:

On that day though, when I saw these 15,000 Celtic fans singing their chants together, I could not help but to join in with the chants of the noisier Melbourne Victory fans. And I joined them in such an active way that even my girlfriend could not believe her eyes.

It was because I felt proud, proud of being a Melbourne Victory fan, proud of being someone who actually stays in Melbourne, even though only for a short time. Not because they play beautiful football, not because they have skillful players, but because they represented a small part of me; because I had been with them, tasted victory and defeat with them; because I was with them throughout the previous season, supporting and shouting alongside those fans; because I felt that I was a part of that team, and through singing these chants and songs, I felt that I was part of that culture. And the very fact that I knew these chants and songs made me even more proud, and it made me sang the chants more passionately than ever.

Besides, during that night, for the first time in my life here in Melbourne, there were so many away fans. And that motivated me even more. Every time they sang their chants, I felt that they were proudly showing their culture to us. In return, I felt that I should proudly sing our chants to show them our culture as well.

That friendly match changed my whole mentality about supporting a football team. I have supported Manchester United for 13 years. But, why do I support them beside the fact that they play beautiful football (not all the time) and always win? Do I actually live in Manchester? Was I born in Manchester? Have I ever attended their matches in Old Trafford? Do they actually represent me? Is my culture laid within the club? Do I know their chants and songs? Do I actually hate Manchester City like the MU fans in Manchester? My answer to all these questions is: NO.


When these teams (MU, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc) are at home in their own stadium, they will listen to their fans sing their songs, shout their chants. But when they came to Bukit Jalil, what did fans in Malaysia do? Did they shout their chants? did they sing their songs? NO! Why not? BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW THEM. BECAUSE WE NEVER SHOUTED OR SANG THEM. All we knew was to shout their last names, and that was it. We knew nothing about the culture of those teams, their traditions, and, hell, we are not even from that place.

I spent 259 Ringgit to buy their jersey, instead of spending 15 Ringgit (ticket and petrol) to attend a NEGERI SEMBILAN FA match in the stadium. I stayed up until late in the night (or early in the morning) to watch MU and could not wake up the next morning, instead of going to the stadium to watch NS in an after-dinner time (usually 8.45pm), an ideal time to watch football and sleep early. I would be so sad as if my house just collapsed when MU lost, but would still continue to watch and support them; but when I watched NS lost in the stadium, I would think that I had wasted my time, and promised myself that I will never attend their matches anymore. I would rather stayed at home and watch MU alone and feel zero atmosphere when there is no one to accompany me to go and watch in the mamak restaurant, instead of going to the stadium and feel the actual football-match-in-a-stadium atmosphere.

And so, after all those considerations, I decided that if I am to be crazy about MU, I should, the very least, be as crazy, if not more, about NS. That is because NS is the team that actually represents me, and is where my culture lies.

Although the teams are sometimes shit, and you may see the general lack of organization within the whole team, or even within FAM, I now recommend you to support your local teams. Because it is they who represent you, it is within those teams where your cultures lie.

I know. The organization and the football here in Malaysia are sometimes shit. That is a fact: no merchandise stores, inconsistent league formats, inconsistent foreign player policies, lack of promoting, inefficient allocation of teams, inefficiency due to lack of involvement of the private sector, lack of youth development programs, corruption, and a lot more. But that does not mean that we cannot support the teams that actually represent us; that does not mean that we should deny ourselves from experiencing the actual football-match-in-a-stadium atmosphere.

We can always call for change, and yet support our local teams at the same time.

Go N9! Hobin Jang Hobin!

Malaysia Boleh!

The differences between clubs and associations

As most of us know, most of the professional teams in Malaysia are called “state-teams”. A team would represent the state’s Football Association (FA) and compete in the highest level, which is also professional. In other words, they are owned, funded, and managed by the Government of our country.

Let us take my state-team for instance. The Negeri Sembilan (NS) state-team’s full name is NSFA, not NSFC (FC – Football Club). So, technically, it is a selection of players, formed into a team, and would represent the whole NSFA itself in the Malaysia Super League (SL – highest division in Malaysia). Then one may ask: “what is the problem with that?” To answer that question, we need clarify first the meaning of FA and FC. And in the next posting, we will discuss the ‘problem’.

A ‘Football Club’ is a club which, in the most basic sense, selects players to represent it to play football in competitions.

A ‘Football Association’, though, is the governing body of the affairs regarding football (e.g. – organizing competitions, organizing workshops for coaches or referees, promoting the sport in the younger and older community, etc) in a particular geographical area. In our case, the ‘area’ would be a state, or a country (FAM – Football Association of Malaysia).

And so, our NSFA is not just the governing body of affairs regarding football in Negeri Sembilan, but also forms a team to represent it.

In short, Mr. Government (Mr. G - assuming the government is a person) owns and funds the NSFA in its affairs regarding football, and also owns, funds and forms a team to compete in the SL.

So, is there a ‘football club’ in the SL then? Yes, there is.

If you are a regular follower of the SL, you will notice that there are 2 teams from Johor: Johor FA, and Johor FC. The difference between them, basically, is who pays the wages and expenses of each of these teams.

The Johor FA team is funded by the Johor Football Association (thus the name Johor FA, owned by Mr. G, again). And, it is the ‘state-team’ of Johor.

Johor FC, however, is funded by the ‘Sports Bureau of the Workers Union of Johor State Economic Development Corporation’ (Perbadanan Kemajuan Ekonomi Negeri Johor). 

So, Johor FC, as a football club, will only do what football clubs do: selecting players, form a team, and compete in the SL. It does not have to manage/govern affairs regarding football in the state, which should be done by the Johor FA. So, this team cannot be called Johor FA, not only because there is already a team called Johor FA, but mainly it is because it is not a ‘Football Association’, and does not do what FAs do.

Do note this: if you look at the name of the corporation which funds Johor FC, it is a government-based corporation. Thus, Johor FC is, technically, also owned by Mr. G.

So, both Johor FA and Johor FC are owned by Mr. G. The difference is Mr. G funds Johor FA directly, and Johor FC indirectly.

And where does Mr. G get his income to do the funding? It is from a variety of sources. But the main one is called ‘taxing’. It is paid by tax-payers, whom are also called “the rakyat.” In other words, we are paying the salaries of those players.

So far we’ve talked about teams which are owned by Mr. G; let me introduce to you a team which is not owned by him.

Sime Darby FC is a football club owned and funded by the private entity Sime Darby Group, and thus is a true privately owned football club. It only does what football clubs do, and does not do what football associations do. And, of course, Sime Darby does not collect tax. It funds the football club with its earned profits from its own businesses.

It was founded in year 2010, and participated in the 2010 FAM Cup League (the third division, two divisions below SL). They finished undefeated champions that season and thus winning promotion into the 2011 Premier League (PL – the second division, one division below SL).

They finished 5th out of twelve teams in the PL, and thus was eligible to play a qualifying play-off round against Pahang FA to earn a place in the 2011 Malaysia Cup. Pahang FA finished second from last in the SL and was thus relegated into the PL. They defeated Pahang FA 6-0 on aggregate, and were thus eligible to play in the 2011 Malaysia Cup. They are grouped with Terengganu FA, NSFA, and Selangor PKNS FC.

It is a very admirable achievement for a team which was only founded last year. They finished fifth in the PL, above teams like Penang FA, Pos Malaysia FC, etc who were founded years before them, and also defeated Pahang FA (which was founded in 1959) in a routing manner.

Comparing to those teams, if you consider the little experience Sime Darby FC have as a football club, and (probably) the small number of supporters they have earned to themselves in just 1.5 years, it is a very admirable achievement.

But why is that? Why are they so successful despite being a team with such a short history? Why do those teams, which are founded years before them, could not get that kind of results? Is it just plainly because Sime Darby FC has better players or a better coach?

In the next post, we will discuss the answer for the questions above.