My point is that fan culture in Europe is way more advanced than in North Aamerica

LOL...fan "culture"....advanced?....wearing Condum hats and beating on drums.....oh yeah....highly advanced culturally...try reading what you print next time...u won't sound so ridiculous...and Euro snooty....lol

hey Candon......... cool it..........lol

Euro snooty? what's that?...

LOL, condom hats? from the 2 videos I posted here earlier you won't find any1 wearing a condom hat. There is a difference between fans and a popcorn-eating "supporters" which are the most likely wearing stupid hats and costumes

And yes fan clubs have long history of several dozens years, so yes it is fan culture.

Fan culture?
bacteria form cultures, there is a drug culture, and certainly a gang culture in many large cities. Fan culture can mutate as it does in Soccer hooligans or the idiots in Montreal who rioted just this spring.
Whatever a fan culture is, it is not a key element in the game of hockey, which is played on the ice, not in the stands.
Kids who play minor hockey at the Midget A level with 14 parents and three cousins in the stands try just as hard, if not harder to win than do many professional players. The motivation comes not the decorations in the stands, but from elements on the ice, on the bench, and in the dressing room.
I don't say that there is no effect for players from the crowd, but certainly fans have to stop taking themselves so bleeding seriously?
I can just imagine the players on the bench telling each other that they will start to try winning because the fans have reached the magic level of "energy creation"?.
These guys want to win for the game, not to reward the fans who drank enough beer to give them motivation.
I don't go to a hockey game as a motivational consultant, I go as a spectator.
If the players on my son's midget team can work their hearts out in a game against the teenagers from the next town down the highway, than certainly players who make obscene salaries can stand a bit of analysis?
If 5 million dollars a year isn't enough support for a player, he won't get my support at all!

perhaps some european fans need to put things in perspective a little bit...


ie. it's just a freakn' game, no need to set yourselves and the stadium on fire.
well at least these fans could tell that they had a direct impact on the game- they stopped it afterall...

that's closer to being barbaric than "advanced"

walnut,

Vandalism and football hooliganism are two different things actually, rioting and breaking stuff is vandal. Football hooligans usually pre-arrange their fights and fight each other rather than some random "civilians". Watch some episodes of Danny Dyer's "The Real Football Factories", if interested, of course.

schmeep,

Who stopped the game? Why would it be stopped because of a few flares? C'mon.

nilz, do you really think that the game would continue with all of that smoke and the hazard of fire in the stands?
c'mon, you could clearly see that there was no game being played.

as far as "the real football factories", there's a bunch of people who need (desperately) to get a life!

I've seen a hockey game in Europe. The fans (to avoid an argument I will refrain from telling you which nationality they were) lit flares and the game had to indeed be interrupted. You'd think they'd stop lighting them after that but nooo. They went on and threw them on the ice, almost hitting a few players.
I would have to agree: singing pointless songs, chanting some brainless insults, beating drums like crazy,...only distracts you from the game. I'd rather watch it and be quiet.

Oh, now I see that the culture of football hooliganism is also advanced eh?
I did not say that what fans in Switzerland or Latvia do during a hockey game is "the same" as what vandals and hooligans do, I am saying that not all 'cultures' are germane to the subject they surround or leech off of.
You introduced the idea of 'fan culture' into the discussion, I was merely commenting that cultural preferences surrounding behaviour at sporting events are not necessarily more advanced or less developed versions of the same thing.
In the USA, I am told, the carnival atmosphere lives at their college football games with their marching bands and rah rah stuff.
Here there is much less of that stuff, the spectators don't think that they are themselves the show.

If fans are so important to a teams success I wonder how Canada has won the IHWC so many times....
We never have more than a handful of spectators traveling to Europe for these affairs....

I do find some fans entertaining but you are a very POOR Professional if the antics in the stands affect your game!
To be a true champ you rise above these distractions!!!

If I want to sing and dance I'll go to a bar

Then again I don't have a mundane 9-5 job in some urban centre where my only release are spectating sporting matches....

different strokes for different folks

schmeep,

Of course it did continue, the video is from Crvena Zvezda - Partizan 130th derby. The match ended 2:1. Wasn't even interrupted =)

Hooliganism is not what I personally accept, but still its far more complicated than the media covers it. Ppl tend to think that it is a bunch of drunken kids that riot just for fun, you'll be surprised to know that there are mostly adults involved and getting pissed is the last thing they want to do when attending those fights. And hooligan "firms" are highly organized.

Ray Canuck,

Who argues about that professionalism and talent is the key factor of winning the games? I am saying that fans (their support) have an affect on the game. No matter how professional you are, it is hard to play an away game against Panathinaikos for example, when the home crowd puts a lot of pressure on you. This alone doesn't win games, but it sure as hell helps. Thus winning on "hostile" ground tastes much sweeter.

Well, why aren't canucks travelling? I'd love to see more fans from NA cheering for their teams on WC in Europe. You see a lot of fans from Europe in Canada this year, which is a good thing, cause that is what sport is all about - connecting people I'd love to go myself, I even had plane tickets booked at some point, but had to cancel due to some complications at work..

And one more thing, just because you think that those actions are stupid and/or pointless, doesn't mean that's the case. I mean for lots of guys out there their club, their colors, the passion for sports means a World.

Aurora Borealis,

flares on ice hockey game? That's wicked. Although in Greece its quite common to see flares on basketball and even volleyball (!!) games. Where did you see flares on ice hockey game? Italy? Russia?

Yeah, I've seen them at soccer games, too.
It was a game in Austria. Slovenian fans lit them.

wow, they're such great "fans" that they decided to provide their own smokescreen during the game?

just lending credence to my point that soccer is so damn boring that these people have to create havoc in the stands!

lending more credence to my point that these people need desperately to GET A FREAKN' LIFE!
people in canada are able to put things into perspective a little bit better than some europeans i guess....

schmeep,

I don't see any problem with a bunch of guys kicking each other's arse before/after a footie game, if that's what they want. Unless the "civilians" (normal fans) don't suffer.

Football is No 1 sport in the world, so I guess most of the people (including myself) would disagree with you

"people in canada are able to put things into perspective a little bit better than some europeans i guess...."
Now, that is offending, especially said by an Administrator. Football hooligans make up a minor part of the regular fans (way less than 1%). There are pricks in every nation, even in Canada (don't have to dig too deep to find examples, looking through this forum will be enough to determine SOME of them).

lol

I don't see anything offensive in that.............he said "some" so that means that he doesn't generalize.............and .............. I don't see what him being an admin of the board has to do with anything............sorry.

and btw........I am European and I think he's right....