I once got called a part time supporter on Tuesday night at Bristol because I had the temerity to criticise the team.
A real fan knows it in their heart. I've lived in many places and watched many teams from many sports, some of whom I've become a 'follower', but I'm a real fan of only one football team.
I once got called a part time supporter on Tuesday night at Bristol because I had the temerity to criticise the team.
A certain group of my friends all support prem teams and they,re up to speed on their fortunes from the press and internet but hardly ever go to watch them live.
They all call me a proper football fan because I folllow a lower division team and watch a lot of their games home and away
So we,re all proper fans by their definition
Whether you class yourself as a real supporter or a fan doesnt matter these days, we are all classed as PUNTERS.
In fairness to the Millers, they made an exception to this in my case a few years back. At the time of the Buy A Brick program, one of the concessions offered for buying into the scheme was a 15% discount on season tickets. I contacted the club through the supporters representative and pointed out people like me living overseas wouldn't really be able to benefit from this offer and would the club substitute two free tickets to games per season instead. They thought it fair and were happy to oblige.
OK that was the ill-fated Millers05 era and things rapidly went pear-shaped but it does illustrate the point that it's not exclusively season-ticket holders who are recognised as fans.
You make a very good point, CT. Fans actually present at the game are becoming an irrelevance. Indeed I have held early stage talks with a major Chinese company and some interested clubs about replacing fans with automata programmed to sing and cheer constantly, never booing, swearing or invading the pitch. The fans thus replaced will be offered video links to watch the games at home. Everyone wins. You heard it here first.
That's available now on ifollow wendun. I don't think I'd enjoy football as much if someone near me wasn't moaning and that is why I annoy the wife match day mornings so that she's constantly moaning whilst the match is on. Mind you the language at the match is less aggressive at times.