Week 9 – Mariami Dolashvili

Earlier I learned that fans in Latin America are very close to the teams. They support their idols on every match. Also, sometimes fans have a big influence on the game’s outcome. I saw only positive side of the fandom in Latin America. After reading articles “Football, Violence and Social Identity” and “Football Fandom and Identity in Mexico” I learned some negative facts about Argentinian fans. One of the articles describes an incident which happened during the football match between Velez Sarsfield and River Plate teams. The match resulted in victory of the Velez. But the fans of the River Plate wanted their team to win so much that they started throwing stones at the goalkeeper of the Velez team. Sometime later, goalkeeper fell to the ground because uncontrolled fans threw a knife at him. The referee suspended the game, and as a result, Velez won. After this uncontrolled aggressive crowd of funs moved to the field. They injured a lot of people. Police tried to stop the crowd using the teargas, and it caused a death of a young boy.
The reading “Football Fandom and Identity in Mexico” provides some information about how Pumas fans are supporting their team during the game. They are cheering not only when their team has scored the goal, but during whole match. The fans are very loyal and inspiring to their idols.
Despite fans’ positive attitude, described in the book, the article “Football, Violence and Social Identity” changed my general impression about football fandom in Latin American countries which seemed very united, supporting and harmless. The article reminded me that uncontrolled passion and hooliganism are part of sport, especially such emotional and exciting sport as football.