You know it’s coming. Any minute now and the referee’s whistle will sound, be it for half-time or full-time, and the noise will cascade down from the stands. A chorus of boos.
Arsenal fans started early this year, (a minority) booing the players off after a pre-season game. Internet musings suggested that the disquiet was as much to do with their lack of transfer activity and season ticket price rises as the performance itself, but it was a strange time to act that way. But then it was only a matter of time – I’ve lost count of the number of times a team have been booed after the first game of a season. Footballers have always taken stick from fans. But booing seems to me to be a modern phenomenon. Fans who choose to boo will argue that they have a right to show their discontent as they have paid good money to watch their team, and deserve better. After all, the only other option is to not go, and a hardcore fan could never do that.But what precisely does it achieve? Supporters are there supposedly to support. To back their team. No one knows for sure why home teams historically do better than away teams, but the fans surely play a part. Boo your players and you risk losing that advantage. Footballers are sensitive souls, and many will react badly to heating boos. Their wage packet is irrelevant. After the New York Giants were booed last year, cornerback Antrel Rolle’s response was rather more extreme – he said it’d be like booing American soldiers returning from Iraq.
Maybe we should look abroad for answers – perhaps show our discontent by waving white hankies as they do in Spain – a less brutal method, but equally effective in getting the point across. Somehow I can’t see it taking off here though. It is that aforementioned wage packet that many say is the reason for this situation. It is the disconnect between the fans and players in the modern game. A disconnect caused by seeing these players failing to perform yet blinged up to the eyeballs and driving around in Aston Martins. And yet I hear many reports of booing in the lower leagues, where the wages are much more modest. It just seems that the modern fan is angrier than ever. It is a surprise they have time to boo their own players considering the effort they put into shouting abuse at opposition players, managers and fans. Any fan can find a spurious reason to hate a couple of the opposition players. Or if it is a derby match, all if them. Booing the opposition team at least makes some sense, whilst not necessarily being any more excusable, when you consider the tribal nature of football.
Booing a side is one thing, but booing one of your own players is beyond the pale, unless he has done something truly terrible. This usually means wanting to play for a better team. How anyone thinks this helps anyone escapes me. I have never liked Ashley Cole, but his booing in an England shirt was a disgrace. But not that surprising, when all said and done – I went to the England 2 Croatia 3 game that saw the end of the reign of Steve MacLaren, and the way some parts of the crowd got on the players’ backs from virtually the first minute meant it came as little surprise when England lost. What’s more, the press love nothing more than a scapegoat in an England shirt, be it Phil Neville or David Beckham.
Sometimes the press can even misinterpret booing, accidentally or otherwise. I can recall a couple of occasions at least that the media have reported fans booing a substitute coming on when what they were doing was booing the decision to take a popular player off. I can also recall newspapers claiming Manchester City fans booed a team off when they were actually booing the referee after a number of unpopular decisions.
Some players just never get a chance at a football club. Some managers too. And some just don’t cut the mustard. Some would argue that booing them is the only chance they get to get across the fact that they are doing well enough. But they only need two brain cells to know this already. Paying good money to watch your team gives you the right to express your opinion. Having a perceived right to do something does not automatically make it acceptable to others though.
In Chelsea’s case I think a tipping point has been reached, where the gentrification of the crowd through ticket pricing has brought the ‘new’ fan with their massive expectation and “entertain me” attitude. They fail to grasp the ‘support’ function of a home crowd and are embarrassed to sing or chant yet willingly express their “dissatisfaction’ with perceived underperformance. You know guys the team NEEDS your support when losing/playing badly not when we’re 4-0 up and its celery time! There is no real empathy with the players, who are seen as robots not capable of having an off-day or of giving credit to the opposition. Sometimes in MHU I think some around me are unhappy if we’re not 3 up in 20 minutes! There may be an economic dislocation but when do you get filmgoers booing actors (who get equally obscene wages)? Good luck to the players for getting whatever rewards they can for their short careers. Lack of effort I can understand riling spectators but there is absolutely NO benefit in booing your own side. I also hate the whistling of opposition sides that has crept into our game, really disrespectful…something you’d expect from the likes of red scouse fans and their perceived divine right to be succesful. Sure someone will write a thesis about the subject sometime soon.