Fan support If K-League clubs are depending on fickle teenage girls for support and increased gate receipts, then the league will be condemned forever as a third rate football league for years to come. Football support has to happen at grassroots and become ingrained as a way of life and not a fad. With these teenage girls, their interests are merely whims... infatuated with one pop singer and then move onto the next. Are you surprised then that so many artists in the music industry in Korea have a shelf-life of only 1-2 years? Football cannot be suckered into this trap and if it is, kiss the K-League goodbye in terms of becoming a seriously followed sport. In my opinion, making these supporters clubs are a start. But too often, there are supporters who like a team because of a single player. So when the player leaves, there is no passion for the club. But when clubs aren't affiliated with a locale or a region, rather with a corporation, how can fans truly identify the club as their own. Look at English second and third division clubs. Yeah, they might have only 10,000 supporters that can fit into their stadia, but clubs you've probably never heard of (such as Torquay, or Exeter City) have great lasting support even though they've never been in the Premiership. This is what the K-League has to start aiming for. I want to read one day in a Korea daily (maybe three days up to match day) articles that anticipate a huge game like the Spanish dailies AS, Marca and El Mundo Deportivo do prior to the Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona matches each year. I want a rivalry to emerge from the K-League to rival some of the other rivalries such as Galatasaray-Fenerbahce, Partizan-Crvena Zvezda and Rangers-Celtic (minus the ugliness in hooliganism). People have to be passionate about football and not some icon superstar. People have to be loyal to the club colors and not a personality. We need real football clubs in Korea and move away from company sponsored football. The club should belong to its supporters and not become an ancillary interest of a corporation like Samsung or Hyundai. I want to see regional rivalry and friendly antagonism (an oxy-moron I understand). When Busan Icons (what a *************** name) travel to Sangmu in Gwangju, I dream to see the day that Sangmu fills their stadium with the number of people that witnessed Korea-Spain and give Busan a "welcome to hell" reception. I dream to see the day when Seoul will have its fierce derby match just like Boca-River. I dream to see the day when there is a promotion-relegation system that would allow crap sides like Daejon Citizen to wallow in second division wilderness football while give new boys Korean Railroad (without that corporate title) a shot at the big time. I dream of the day when a small amateur side from the rural area of Korea somehow achieve promotion into the first division and inspire writers just as Castel di Sangro inspired an American writer to write the story of this Serie-C2 side that went so far. This is football. Not a stadium full of those screaming high school students who don't have a clue as to what the game means or is. I'm tired of these girls who confuse football with a ga-yo top 10 concert (I know the reference is a little antiquated). Football is a game. While clubs should exploit market opportunities to gain valuable revenue, they should never base their support on such fickle fans. Let them pin up posters of Ahn Jung-hwan or other heart-throbs. But leave the real support to genuine fans of their respective clubs. Patiently waiting for the day that club football takes off as the national team and national support for football did last year. Patiently waiting for a real 18 team first division with compatible 2nd division. Patiently waiting for explosive derbies and regional rivalries that will make matches national attractions and the theme of conversations among both old and young. Perhaps when we are older and have grandchildren will K-League football come of age. A great example and model is Turkiye. Real raw passion for their football clubs. Their fans really showed me what true support is. I think they have the most ardent supporters (yes, English fans would dispute it). So many songs, so many chants (both tame and very vulgar). Club football, however is on the up and up in Korea. P.S. I have no actual support for any K-League club. I am going though this summer and in my search, will find a club to throw my support. It seems to easy to support Suwon as they are one of the more successful clubs. But would I really want to support Daejon? Just can't come to terms with a club that has a name like "Citizen." Sounds more like a watch than anything else. I support only Barcelona (there is a story behind this) and Galatasaray (an even better one behind this). So there must be an even better story that lends itself when I explain why I like whichever K-League club that I adopt.
If you don't like the name "Citizen", then I guess you won't become a Manchester City supporter any time soon.
No team from that country let alone that city appeals to me. It's not that I don't like Premiership football. But I don't have any solid allegiance to a particular team (although would have loved to see Arsenal beat Manchester United for the title). I was following Seongnam a bit during their drive in the AFC Champions' League. But again, we'll see what happens in Korea and where fate or destiny takes me. Who knows what will happen.
I've been supporting Suwon since '97. Basically when they were first created. I went to their games since '97 and still do (sometimes). But i decided not to love them and support them with a passion or associate them with my life because i know that Yongsan-gu, Seoul is my home. I don't worry about the league too much right now. A club in Seoul will trigger all the right stuff. After what i saw on TV about the Daejeon Citizen, it gave me rays of hope. When you go to a Suwon game, the majority of the fans come from Seoul. Suwon Bluewings to Suwon city, is nothing but a Samsung F.C. After Suwon games, I walk around downtown with my blue shirt on of course, and people would ask me what jersey I'm wearing. At the games, when Suwon scores, the stadium would explode and once the oppositon scores on Suwon, the stadium would explode once again. You can't really blame Seoulites for not supporting a certain team. You can't blame the Suwon citizens for not knowing when their team is playing or even what their team is. But we can blame Samsung Electric and the city of Suwon for being totally apathetic. Meanwhile, Daejeon is a different story. The entire stadium filled with 37,000 people chanted and yelled "Dae-jeon Ci-ti-zen!" and Suwon, who actually brought more supporters than the home team did, were in awe at Daejeon's home field and its fans. The mayor of Daejeon was at the game in Daejeon's purple shirt waving his mufflers with his fellow Daejeon-ian supporters. In the depths of the city, there are numerous banners that says "We love our soccer club!". I said this before but even on soju bottles, there is a picture on the back of the bottle that says "We support the Daejeon Citizen". Drawing conclusions could be a bit hasty but the city of Daejeon have succeeded to attract a steady base of soccer fans without the help of the World Cup. Of course, everyone will agree: Soccer is the national sport. However, Seoul is the hub of Korea and the hub is missiing in action. A team in Seoul will draw exisitng number of supporters out from their supporting team and will call them back home. A team in the nation's capital will surely bring attention to other cities and i have no doubt in my mind that this will be another chance for the FA and the League to do their jobs correctly. Oh, and another point. The league has now SIX (in reality five excluding Sangmu) teams that are independent from corporate hands. They are now their own. To the: Jeonnam Dragons F.C. Pohang Steelers F.C. Busan Icons F.C. Daejeon Citizen F.C. Daegu F.C. PLEASE START DOING YOUR JOBS!
Oh please, don't you be complaining about the Suwon supporters. You guys can easily pack the stands behind a goal, and have great organization. Busan is but a small shadow of your northern scummers in comparison. One thing that really pissed me off is how polite the Busan fans are. They NEVER mention the name of the opposition team in songs. Not a single song to lambaste the other club. Don't get me wrong, I prefer songs that are related to our club... but the occasional cheeky song against the opposition would be nice. We seem to rely on the same old, tired, recycled songs, game in and game out. I tried some semi-critical songs (in Korean) related to Suwon on Sunday, and the Busan supporters just turned it into a pro-Busan song. Bah.
Too bad u werent here for the old Busan Royals supporters. They were rough and tough. First Korean hooligans, id say. ----- I guess its like an ethical issue among the Koreans. Even prior to the world cup, we were criticized among the Korean society for jeering against the opposing team..it was ridiculous. I dont know if they really consider it unethical or they *think* its unethical but its bound to pipe down soon. At the Suwon v Daejeon game, some Suwon supporters threw water bottles on the field in protest at their players. This rose some heat at the Suwon page and some people said: "don't make us look bad. don't make soccer look bad and don't make suwon look bad". The other group were like "get off my nuts. I am a supporter and i support my team by criticizing them when its needed." It ended all at once when the leading tam-tam hitters and the cheer-starters were like "NO THROWING ANY OBJECTS ON THE FIELD". I'm not saying throwing water bottles on the pitch is a good idea but im just saying that supporters should 1) support their team and 2) scare the shet out of the opposing team to give the home team the edge. Wait a couple of seasons. I imagine this: Busan's supporters will become the hooligans of the stadium whereas the rest of the Busan fans will sit calmly with their red shirts and chant softly "busan forever~~". You know deep inside, we're all hooligans. But lets give props where its due. Thats All i gotta say (erhm- SUWON 2 - 1 Busan).
Passion vs. Hooliganism I think that our culture is based on civility and sometimes "overpolitness." There are good and bad aspects of this. When we meet someone for the first time, there is a proper way of speaking as opposed to talking with a close friend. These cultural aspects have no doubt permeated into the football fabric and other sports. To this day, my mother tells me stories of how her ping-pong team's supporters (she played for Seoul National Univ.) would have their banner and flag stolen by fans and students of Yonsei and how this was an extremely disgraceful show... I dare not even show her videos of hooliganism and images coming across from Europe. So the question is, how do you passionately support your club without it transforming into hooliganism. Let's take the Italy-Korea Round of 16 match played out in Daejon as a case study. In my opinion, this is the best example of passionate support that is at it maximum before turning into something negative. We saw the entire stadium in red (really a sight that touched me very much all the way here in the United States). We heard our fans sing and chant in unison, roaring on our lads with cries of "Dae-han min-guk" and "O Pilseung Korea~" But do you remember the banners in that game? "Tomb of the Giants!" and "Benevuto al Infierno" (Welcome to hell). Then the choreographic display when both teams marched onto the field ("Again 1966!!"). After the match, one man held a sign "You remember in England?" This is the kind of ribbing that is fun and yet not destructive. If our fans started pelting Italians with coins and yelled death threats to them, then that's not support (it's stupidity). But using songs to ridicule once in a while shouldn't be an issue. There are extremes when it comes to chanting. Galatasaray fans in Turkey simply take a song made by Fenerbahce fans and change the words to make it derogatory towards Fenerbahce. So instead of "Yasa Fenerbahce" (meaning Long live Fenerbahce), you can hear the song "Yavshak Fenerbahce" (meaning "Fener, those who kiss ass"). In England, fans at a Sunderland match sang "Cheer up Fabrizio(Ravenelli), Derby are s**t you know" (to the tune of a famous Italian song). These are cheeky songs but not really destructive. But then take a song from Boca Juniors. A friend of mine translated this one recalling his days spent in La Bombonera in Buenos Aires. It went something on the lines of, "when I was ten, I threw a coin at a River player, at 12 I got into my first fight with River's barra bravas, at 16 I smoked my first weed in the tribunes and at 21 I beat and f***d a cop, and I did it all for you (Boca)." This is too extreme in my opinion. It merely feeds into the violent culture that does exist in Argentina amongst the "barra bravas." Throwing things on the field isn't exemplary behavior. We don't have to copy the negative aspects of European support. We often forget that many of the hooligans in Europe are formed by those with other political agendas or those who are out of work and have natural violent tendencies. They are the scum of football. Even as a Barcelona fan, I would never identify with the Boixios Nois ultra group because of their right-wing tendencies. Fighting, brawling and other forms of violent expresssions aren't necessary to be a good supporter. We just need to intimidate the opposition through positive support and a little jabbing toward the opponent (like Korean Red Devils did against Italy). Anything beyond that, however, has the potential to be negative and destructive toward the club.
My picks for this weekend, as posted on the Busan I'cons English Supporters Club forum (http://busanicons.hyperboards2.com/index.cgi): Saturday Seongnam 3 Chonnam 1 Gwangju 0 Chonbuk 2 Sunday Bucheon 0 Pohang 1 Daegu 0 Ulsan 0 Daejeon 2 Busan 1 Suwon 0 Anyang 1
What's wrong with teenage girls coming to the games? As long as they help filling the seats bringing more cash, I really don't mind. What we need right now is $$$ for the clubs and attention from people. You know exactly how difficult it is to find a fellow k-league fan. The media will not cover or write articles about k-league games if it doesn't sell. But forming support clubs to increase fan base will not help much because I know ajossis, the real revenue source, will never join them. They think wearing team jersey and singing together is just too corny. It's just the way they are. We have to encourage every age groups to come to the game and have them get a sense of involvement that gives 'this team is my team' mentality. And why do we have to follow Euro league as our model? Their social structure is different from ours. They've had rivalries between towns for thousands of years, even before soccer was born. For us, except that Kyungsang-Cholla rivalry, we just don't have any rivalries among different provinces. If we try to artificially design fan support structure, it's going to fail. Everything has to come naturally.
Ian Porterfield and Drew Jarvie OUT! I am now officially a "boo boy" against the management at Busan.
The problem with teenage girls are that they dont come to the games that often. I too dont have a problem if they continue to come root for the teams.
TODAY'S RESULTS: SUWON 3-1 Anyang Cheaters Daejeon 1-0 Busan Daegu 1-1 Ulsan Bucheon 1-1 Pohang YES. This is what i wanted. Good results. And uh..Busan sucks @ss dood. Glad that u joined the club, bro. Down with Busan.
The great Gabriel Popescu of Romania and Seo Jung-won. Visual Coordinator of Suwon: The ex-visual coordinator of the Korean National Squad for 2002 - the Iraninan-American coach Gotbi (on left talking to coach Kim Hyun-tae, the ex-Korean GK coach of the 2002 WC squad)
The Pitch Hi, I'm writing from London. Just wanted to say that the pics of the pitch look great. Actually, the pitch looks to be in excellent condition -the frothy green that makes one want to roll around on the surface. It's as good or better than the pitches seen in Europe. You can stick a flag in the middle and use it as a putting green.
do u know how much a player on Sang moo earns a month??? 1 man won hahahaha ten bucks wont even pay for the gum they chew each month
Errrr, in all honesty, our beloved Busan belong in the K2 more than Sangmu, Oakydoaks. They beat us 3-2 here in Busan. But in other news..... Apparently on Sunday, Daegu supporters got into a massive brawl with.... other Daegu supporters. Not sure on the details, but I was told that Daegu's hardcore spent most of the second half smashing each other's faces in. Sounds like a mere "handbag brawl", but apparently one bloke had his head cracked open and was juicing pretty good. If the K-League keeps this up, Korea will be in the EU pretty soon!
I know Busan is not very hot right now. But Sangmoo has no business competing with professional teams. I believe Korea has enough money to abolish the draft system right now (which would mean the end to Sangmoo), but I digress. People in Daegue are probably not the smartest in Korea. Just look at what accidents had happened in Daegue.