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Chants at football matches, where to draw the line?


ponsaelius

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Not completely topical or based on any recent incidents in particular, but I was wondering what people's thoughts were on this. I was debating with somebody the other day, what kind of chanting at football matches do you find acceptable and what do you find is just too far?

 

When you're at a game and the atmosphere is rocking, most fans will go along with almost anything that is chanted. I'd admit myself that I've probably sang some pretty unsavoury and offensive stuff in the past.

 

However, I would never resort to things like racist abuse or disrespecting the dead. Similarly I was disgusted by the paedophile chants directed at Wenger by the Spurs fans, that kind of personal insinuations of something so dispicable and obviously false is a step too far IMO.

 

So have you chanted anything at a football game in the past that you regret? What do you consider to be a step too far? Or is anything simply acceptable in a stadium because that's just what happens?

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Guest Heneage

It's football's blessing and curse. I've been at games where the right chant was hilarious and made the game a more enjoyable experience. Of course there's been instances in which I've been ashamed to be associated with certain sections of our fans who've sang some terrible stuff.

 

 

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As long as it's not racist or anything like that i don't really care. But if your a twat like Michael Owen you deserve to be chanted at and not in a good way.

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As long as it's not racist or anything like that i don't really care. But if your a twat like Michael Owen you deserve to be chanted at and not in a good way.

 

See that's the main point that stuck with me when I was talking to a mate about it. There is obviously a stigma, rightly, in place now which stops people from resorting to racist abuse too much, yet what makes that any less acceptable than say something like homophobic abuse which I'd admit to using in the past?

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the thing is, i'd say that you should live by the same rules as you would normally go by, no racism, homophobia etc. BUT, if wayne rooney's 5 yards away and i think calling him a fat granny shagger just might make him fluff the next chance, i'm doing it like. :blush:

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Worst I have been 'involved' in was chants against two (I think) man u youth players who were on loan at watford and died in a car crash! That was far too far!

They chanted at dead people?

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Another thing with the homophobia chants, there are no 'out' footballers at all. Meaning all chants like that become 'jocular' rather than downright offensive (kinda like calling your mate a puff or something), where as there is no confusion over somebody's race so you know for sure where the intentions lie behind a chant of that type.

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Another thing with the homophobia chants, there are no 'out' footballers at all. Meaning all chants like that become 'jocular' rather than downright offensive (kinda like calling your mate a puff or something), where as there is no confusion over somebody's race so you know for sure where the intentions lie behind a chant of that type.

 

:thup:

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Another thing with the homophobia chants, there are not 'out' footballers at all. Meaning all chants like that become 'jocular' rather than downright offensive (kinda like calling your mate a puff or something), where as there is no confusion over somebody's race so you know for sure where the intentions lie behind a chant of that type.

 

i think the decline in racism in largely thanks to the kick it out campaign, could be wrong but i'm pretty sure there's a similar campaign planned to reduce homophobic language at games

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A lot of the more offensive chants are sang purely to get a reaction from the opposition fans imo. Take the individuals involved to one side and ask them if they would taunt people like that privately and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't.

 

Pack mentality where, pretty much, anything goes. 

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A lot of the more offensive chants are sang purely to get a reaction from the opposition fans imo. Take the individuals involved to one side and ask them if they would taunt people like that privately and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't.

 

Pack mentality where, pretty much, anything goes. 

 

Yep.

 

I'd also say there is sort of a comparison that can be made with stand-up comedy. Some comics will poke fun out of allmost anything in order to gain a response of laughter from an audience, and it is acceptable because people detach this scenario from any real life situations and merely accept it as purely a joke. The same sort of thing happens at football grounds, the scenario is viewed as being detached from real life and therefore it becomes acceptable to do anything in order to wind up opponents/opposition fans - safe in the knowledge that you don't REALLY mean what is being said.

 

The above is the view I take with most chants, but then I question whether I am a hypocrite because I can still be offended by the chants that are closest to the knuckle, especially ones that are personal and involve singling out an individual.

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I've heard a few chants that are racist and I would never join in with, especially the Kenwyne Jones and Adebayor ones. That includes at St James's.

 

It scares me the amount of people that join in with them, and IMO the pack mentality thing is no excuse at all. Peer pressure can make people do a lot of things, but they're still responsible for it and it's only through saying no to these things that we'll get rid of them.

 

Stuff like Wenger being a paedo etc isn't in the same bracket for me, as it's so far fetched and comical that it couldn't possibly offend anyone.

 

TBH I don't buy the excuse that the racist chants are to wind up opposition fans, IMO they're to ridicule the player personally. Or at least that is how any outsider would (quite rightly) see it.

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Nothing racist, homophobic or in any way bigoted I think - at least directly.

 

edit:

 

Though I disaprove of poof etc. being used as an insult, I'd chant it as part of the 'Fulwel end, is always full' song, as it's a tiny part and the word is largely detached from homosexuals.

 

I was disgusted by how many joined in with the Jones one at St James this season, and many others didn't, but laughed.

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Guest BooBoo

A couple of years ago, I heard "Chopra is a pxki" at a few away games. Embarassing in the extreme. I think in general our fans usually stay on the right side of taste although the Toon Charva element still exists. Sometimes its not just the content of any particular chant, but just a bad attitude. A couple of years ago at Anfield, I saw three lads get off their coach and immediately start singing "In your Liverpool slums!" to a passing family of Liverpool fans. Just epic twattery really.

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