Clubs and their affiliations

[Excape Goat]

I am not from a traditional soccer country so I am always interested in thhe different affiliations of soccer clubs around the world. I cannot really understand why some fans chose to support one club, but not their cross town rival. I can come up with the following.

Spain (Perhaps where club affliation meant the most)
Real Madrid: the royalist.
Barcelona: Catanian pride
Espanyol: Loyality to the Spanish crowd as opposed to Catanian separatists
Athletic Bilbao: Basque nationalist
Real Sociedad: Basque version of Espanyol????

England
Chelsea: Posh London????

Greece
AEK: I believed they are extremely left.

Scotland
Rnagers: Protestants
Celtics: Catholics

Holand
Ajax: Jews.

Italy
Lazio: Political right
Livorno: Political left.
Napoli: Napoli represented the South, but all clubs have regional afflliations. I should not really count this one or I have to list every clubs in Europe.
Inter Milan: The founder considered it an international club and the current roster consisted of many Argentinian players. Does it still mean Inter Milan is a club for international players vs AC Milan?

Argentina
Boca Juniors: The poor.
River Plate: The Upper class.

[dannytoone]

In Portugal:

Benfica: The common people, working class
Sporting: The educated and upper class
Porto: The vulgar people, northerners:)
Boavista: Elitists and foreigners


Then there are the regionalist clubs with lots of support but only from their region: Braga, Guimaraes, Beira-Mar...etc.

[albionroad]

I am not from a traditional soccer country so I am always interested in thhe different affiliations of soccer clubs around the world. I cannot really understand why some fans chose to support one club, but not their cross town rival. I can come up with the following.

I run a website that focuses on a lot of these issues. Take a look - http://www.albionroad.com (http://www,albionroad.com)

Spain (Perhaps where club affliation meant the most)
Real Madrid: the royalist.
Real Madrid's support isn't really royalist. The Spanish monarchy exists as a figurehead and tabloid entertainment these days a la the British. Their support is more Center-Right/Castilian/Republican (ie unitary Spain) as opposed to one of the regions.
Espanyol: Loyality to the Spanish crowd as opposed to Catanian separatistsEspanyol was founded as a club for Spaniards, as opposed to Barcelona who were (in their early days) made up almost exclusively of foreigners. I'm not sure their fan base is really any less Catalan but obviously they're not the flagship that Barca are.
Real Sociedad: Basque version of Espanyol????No, they are also proudly Basque.
Ajax: Jews.
Sort of. I think that some of the founders/influential players were Jewish. Rival fans began to sing anti-Semitic songs at matches and the Ajax supporters adopted being "Jewish" as a badge of pride although there aren't really any more Jewish Ajax fans than Jewish fans of other Dutch clubs.

Inter Milan: The founder considered it an international club and the current roster consisted of many Argentinian players. Does it still mean Inter Milan is a club for international players vs AC Milan?Inter was formed by breakaway members of Milan which, at the time, was restricted to Italian players. In political terms, Inter's fan base is more right-wing while Milan's is more left-wing. Other Italians...

Juventus - Right
Roma - Right (used to be Left)
Fiorentina - Left

[sidis]

In Brazil:

Palmeiras, Cruzeiro: Italian immigrants, the original name of them is "Palestra Italia" an be changed in second war.
São Paulo: Rich people.
Grêmio: Germany immigrants/heritage.
Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo: RIch people (but after 30's flamengo start to be an very popular team, and now is the team of the poors).
Vasco: Portuguese descendants, after that suburban people and black people.
Corinthians: poor people, im some times they creat the "corinthians democracy".

[Cassano]

Italy
Lazio: Political right
Livorno: Political left.
Napoli: Napoli represented the South, but all clubs have regional afflliations. I should not really count this one or I have to list every clubs in Europe.
Inter Milan: The founder considered it an international club and the current roster consisted of many Argentinian players. Does it still mean Inter Milan is a club for international players vs AC Milan?
.

As Albion stated Milan was formed for Italians and then foreigners broke up to form Inter (funny how Inter is still an almost all foreigner team..)

Roma- The working class city people that live in Rome are Roma fans
Lazio- Mostly fans are from cities outside of Rome.

[johan neeskens]

Holland:

PSV: formerly the football branch of the employers association of Philips, the electronics company. Reputedly the 'warmest, most social' club in Holland, very good relationship with former players and other staff.

Feyenoord: working class grafters (as opposed to Ajax allegedly playing the pretty football), the hard men of Dutch football.

Heerenveen: flagship of the Frisian nationalist party (they even play their national anthem before kick-off at home games, believe it or not)

AZ: plaything of the rich (every twenty years or so some millionaire comes around and breathes new life into the club)

De Graafschap: the Super Farmers, provincial club with massive local support in the agricultural community particularly in the eastern Netherlands

Sparta: the Gentleman's Club, traditionally a club where only well-behaved footballers play (compare to that other club in Rotterdam, Feyenoord). They still have official club etiquette dictating players hairdo's among others I believe. Big cult celeb following.

[wufc]

St. Pauli (Germany): Ultra left wing, punk, anti-fascist/anti-racist/anti-sexist, anti-commercialism, etc.

[Excape Goat]

St. Pauli (Germany): Ultra left wing, punk, anti-fascist/anti-racist/anti-sexist, anti-commercialism, etc.


I thought they represented the Red Light district. :)

[leg_breaker]

English affiliations:

Blackburn: scum
Man United: scum
Tranmere: scum
Spurs: scum
West Ham: scum
Bury: worse than scum

[HSEUPASSION]

Doesn't Hansa Rostock have alot of neo-Nazi fans?

The club itself isn't neo-Nazi, but they have neo-Nazi fans.

[Catel]

Marseille, Saint-Etienne, Lens: popular clubs (specifically "working-class" for the 2 last)

Lyon, Lille: clubs "bourgeois"

[JackBastard]

Chelsea are NOT posh London. They were very much a working class team.

[PsychedelicCeltic]

Chelsea are NOT posh London. They were very much a working class team.
Eh, bit of both. The terraces were tough guys from South and West London, but the seats always had their fair share of toffs - they are a West London club after all!

Inter was formed by breakaway members of Milan which, at the time, was restricted to Italian players. In political terms, Inter's fan base is more right-wing while Milan's is more left-wing. Other Italians...
Ironically, I believe this is changing a little due to Milan's chairman being the bete noire of the Italian left, and Morratti's affiliations with the Olive coalition. Is this correct?

[brassmonkey]

Eh, bit of both. The terraces were tough guys from South and West London, but the seats always had their fair share of toffs - they are a West London club after all!


Ironically, I believe this is changing a little due to Milan's chairman being the bete noire of the Italian left, and Morratti's affiliations with the Olive coalition. Is this correct?

Moratti isn't very popular with the Inter faithful(unlike his father), so he hasn't made any difference in that way. Milan and Lombardy in general are more right wing than other parts of northern Italy(almost 60% to Berlusconi in the last elections I believe; all of Milan's districts went to his coalition in 2001), and Inter's fanbase is made up mostly of people who are middle and upper class Lombards, rather than immigrants from the southern parts of Italy.

[brassmonkey]

Moratti isn't very popular with the Inter faithful(unlike his father), so he hasn't made any difference in that way. Milan and Lombardy in general are more right wing than other parts of northern Italy(almost 60% to Berlusconi in the last elections I believe; all of Milan's districts went to his coalition in 2001), and Inter's fanbase is made up mostly of people who are middle and upper class Lombards, rather than immigrants from the southern parts of Italy.

And those lower-class immigrants from southern Italy make up the largest part of AC Milan's support base, to clarify.

[nicephoras]

Chelsea are NOT posh London. They were very much a working class team.

The Kings of Kings Road? Come now.

[elprincipe]

English affiliations:

Bolton: scum
Man United: scum
Man City: scum
Burnley: below those who are worse than scum

*fixed*

[PimFortuynsGhost]

Slavia Prague: supported by Czech intellectuals, persecuted by the Soviets and became the club of the anti-Communist movement
Sparta Prague: originally the working class team in Prague

[ZeekLTK]

I'm curious to know the difference between the "big 3" in Istanbul and why someone chooses to support one over the others.

Galatasary, Besiktas, and Fenerbahce....

[oguzmania]

I'm curious to know the difference between the "big 3" in Istanbul and why someone chooses to support one over the others.

Galatasary, Besiktas, and Fenerbahce....

Firstly i am sorry for my bad English...

Fenerbahce is in Anatolian side but Galatasaray and Besiktas is in European side of the Istanbul.

Especially in this time there are no differences between this team's supporters.For example my friend's team is Fenerbahce,his brother's team is Galatasaray and his father's team is Besiktas.

Besiktas founded in 1903,Galatasaray in 1905 and Fenerbahce in 1907.
In 1900-1970 there are some differences between this team's supporters.

For example some of Galatasaray High School's students (is very histocial and important school in Turkey) builted Galatasaray because of this Galatasaray presented educated people.
In these times most of Galatasaray's present and admins must be graduated from Galatasaray High school.

In those years Istanbul was holded down by especially England and some of countries and there are some important matchs between Fenerbahce and this countries teams.Fenerbahce presented Ottoman and our people looked this matchs like a war.And Fenerbahce won a lot of cup.This scores raised our people's boycott because of this some of enemy commenders made a lot of pressure to Fenerbahce players and a lots of them died in Canakkale war.
Because of this Fenerbahce presented people in those times...Fenerbahce called people's teams...But some of the people called Fenerbahce as bourgeois's team.

Besiktas is 3. biggest team in Turkey it's history likes Fenerbahce,Besiktas presented Turkish national team so it have Turkish flag in it's emblem.
In 1950-80's Besiktas called civil servant's teams.

I said in starting in this time there are no differences between this team's supporters.

Because of this the foreign football supporters don't understand Fenerbahce and Galatasaray derbies importance.For example Boca-River,Barca-Madrid like etnic,Celtic-Rangers like religious but this 2 teams don't have important differeces..