[Albion] African Fans

[nwgull]

What is it that makes African fans of big English clubs such utter utter bellends? Obviously, it’s Chelsea fans that are riddling every social media post by the official club account and high-profile BHA commentators right now, but the African Arsenal contingent were just as bad in January, albeit for a much shorter timescale.

I doubt that many of them will ever visit England to watch a game live. I don’t know if that explains why they have a strange comprehension of what it means to support your local team.

 

[Easy 10]

They are absolutely insufferable. Before we started having high-profile transfer jousting with vile clubs like Chelsea, they were never an issue. Now every f*cking online post with anything to do with BHAFC gets absolutely WATERCANNONED by these utter f*cking random NIMRODS from Kenya and Sudan.

I'm absolutely sick of it. Quite pettily, I have resorted to randomly answering their drivel posts with just one-word insults. Goon. Div. Dinlo. Bellend. Twat. And yes, spazzer has been resurrected. I'm not proud. I'm just macked off.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Do you not remember the absolute state of our social media when we had the likes of Percy Tau? Everyone was a cow, everyone’s grandma told them as they were born some kind of rubbish. It’s not limited to the biggest clubs but yes do agree.

Mwepu’s fans seemed the exception but am sure if he’d been stalked by bellends instead of positive comments, we might not have had (quite) as positive thoughts about him ourselves.

 

[hart's shirt]

I doubt that many of them will ever visit England to watch a game live. I don’t know if that explains why they have a strange comprehension of what it means to support your local team.

My normal matchday experience for the last 10-15 years has probably been much the same as many of them. Go to the local sports bar or cafe and watch the Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon games live with other football fans of different clubs. The closest you get to the ground is a TV screen of it.

It will always be a million miles away from the tribal experience of the English supporter. Having grown up 2 roads away from the Goldstone, I could hear the crowd roar on a Saturday afternoon when I was too young to go. Albion didn't have to be on TV for me to know that it was really important. And I didn't have to physically be there to start supporting them.

African fans, and I would also add Middle Eastern as well, generally don't have that forming experience as all the teams on TV are so far away in Europe and there's little to no chance of attending regularly. So to counter this geographical imbalance and with the increase of live streaming of games, they're able to create their own reality of what being a non-attending genuine fan of a side looks like through social media and YouTube channels.

Foreign fans also bring in their own cultural and national identities with players transferred. Tau's already been mentioned, but I'd also throw in the influx of Iranian fans with the arrival of Jahanbakhsh. There was always going to be some degree of culture clash there.

Is it challenging at times? Yes, as what we've been used to has changed dramatically with the growth of the game globally and the Albion on its biggest domestic stage. Being plagued online by faceless supporters in other continents isn't something we've had a lot of practice in handling. We're a long way from Orient DJs playing YMCA as a thinly-veiled wind-up at Brisbane Road.

Our understanding and practice of being a fan is vastly different, but sitting with them in the sports bar, I found that the love of the game as a whole is pretty similar for fans of all nationalities despite expressing it in different ways. In a rapidly changing fan landscape, that should provide a little reassurance.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

My normal matchday experience for the last 10-15 years has probably been much the same as many of them. Go to the local sports bar or cafe and watch the Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon games live with other football fans of different clubs. The closest you get to the ground is a TV screen of it.

It will always be a million miles away from the tribal experience of the English supporter. Having grown up 2 roads away from the Goldstone, I could hear the crowd roar on a Saturday afternoon when I was too young to go. Albion didn't have to be on TV for me to know that it was really important. And I didn't have to physically be there to start supporting them.

African fans, and I would also add Middle Eastern as well, generally don't have that forming experience as all the teams on TV are so far away in Europe and there's little to no chance of attending regularly. So to counter this geographical imbalance and with the increase of live streaming of games, they're able to create their own reality of what being a non-attending genuine fan of a side looks like through social media and YouTube channels.

Foreign fans also bring in their own cultural and national identities with players transferred. Tau's already been mentioned, but I'd also throw in the influx of Iranian fans with the arrival of Jahanbakhsh. There was always going to be some degree of culture clash there.

Is it challenging at times? Yes, as what we've been used to has changed dramatically with the growth of the game globally and the Albion on its biggest domestic stage. Being plagued online by faceless supporters in other continents isn't something we've had a lot of practice in handling. We're a long way from Orient DJs playing YMCA as a thinly-veiled wind-up at Brisbane Road.

Our understanding and practice of being a fan is vastly different, but sitting with them in the sports bar, I found that the love of the game as a whole is pretty similar for fans of all nationalities despite expressing it in different ways. In a rapidly changing fan landscape, that should provide a little reassurance.

Great post, but they are still insufferable online. I wish there was a way to filter them out and only get Albion fans comments on twitter for instance. I like Twitter for the rumours but it is beginning to be unusable and that is without Musk's interference further messing it up.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Great post, but they are still insufferable online. I wish there was a way to filter them out and only get Albion fans comments on twitter for instance. I like Twitter for the rumours but it is beginning to be unusable and that is without Musk's interference further messing it up.

They are worse on Facebook than Twitter.

 

[BN41Albion]

Very easy to ignore if you don't waste your time reading comments sections on social media (which, whatever the nationality, have never been the height of intelligence and insight)

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Read the story, don't read the comments?

Here's an example. There was a news story about Burnley fans STILL booing the knee. Saw the story, didn't read the comments as I just knew some would wind me up. Ate a sandwich

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I agree with most of the above including about the foreign (not just African) fans and also about how easy they are to avoid. You can create your own experience of football. For most of us on here it is about going to games, the history and culture of the club and generally supporting our local team. None of that is going to register with people not brought up with it. I lived in Singapore for a while and we went to games in the S league just like we have also supported our local team when living in different parts of England. The difference in Singapore was that the live games were sparsely attended by locals but that didn’t stop most of my work colleagues going to ‘Arsenal’ or ‘Liverpool’ bars when ‘their’ teams were playing. I found it bizarre and much prefer being at a game down the road with several thousand football people. Local football (the Albion if you live near by or somewhere else if not) plus Albion away games, NSC, BBC and Sky Sport for football news and not using Twitter, Instagram or Facebook are my enjoyable football experience.

 

[HeaviestTed]

This is such a simple problem to solve, just don’t go on twatter or Facebook.

I gave up both last year, perfect.

 

[Comrade Sam]

Africa, pah what a lot of rubbish. It's not as cool as when our ancestors lived there. Maybe leave social media for the children?

 

[nwgull]

This is such a simple problem to solve, just don’t go on twatter or Facebook.

I gave up both last year, perfect.

The thing it, I quite like Twitter for football chat. I like NSC as well, but it’s a bit of a BHA echo chamber so it’s good to read non-BHA fan opinion. However, it’s become insufferable over the last month.

It’s not all foreign fans either as the majority of US, Asian and European fans are fine; it’s specifically African fans.

I’m sure the NSC mods would soon be handing out bans to users that spammed every single thread with Caicedo taunts.

 

[Live by the sea]

Some of them probably live in London they don’t all live abroad . But yes certainly on social media they make a lot of noise , most of it nonsense . Why ? Lack of education perhaps .

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

The thing it, I quite like Twitter for football chat. I like NSC as well, but it’s a bit of a BHA echo chamber so it’s good to read non-BHA fan opinion. However, it’s become insufferable over the last month.

It’s not all foreign fans either as the majority of US, Asian and European fans are fine; it’s specifically African fans.

I’m sure the NSC mods would soon be handing out bans to users that spammed every single thread with Caicedo taunts.

I don’t know. We seem to find plenty to fall out about !

 

[BNthree]

I don’t know. We seem to find plenty to fall out about !

No we don’t.

 

[Seagull58]

Some of them probably live in London they don’t all live abroad . But yes certainly on social media they make a lot of noise , most of it nonsense . Why ? Lack of education perhaps .

I often check where they live in their twitter profile when I see particularly obnoxious, insulting or gloating comments. I accept this is anecdotal but in my direct experience at least 70% are from Nigeria or Ghana, a few % from South Africa, a few from India, and the rest from a variety of locations such as Myanmar, Pakistan, Iraq etc. In the last couple of weeks I've seen an influx of USA-based Chelsea twitter morons.
There is a few % from London also.

 

[ozzygull]

It not just twitter tw@ts that are getting on my nerves.

It's every pundit, media and match commentator that says our players are too good for us and then in the next breath say “well if they sell all their best players, they will end up like Leicester” Pricks

 

[Wardy's twin]

The Premier League is a circus and getting less and less about the football but more and more about the drama of things so its not surprising it attracts a lot of people who don't match the stereo typed 'born and bed' fan.

 

[Bakero]

I agree with most of the above including about the foreign (not just African) fans and also about how easy they are to avoid. You can create your own experience of football. For most of us on here it is about going to games, the history and culture of the club and generally supporting our local team. None of that is going to register with people not brought up with it. I lived in Singapore for a while and we went to games in the S league just like we have also supported our local team when living in different parts of England. The difference in Singapore was that the live games were sparsely attended by locals but that didn’t stop most of my work colleagues going to ‘Arsenal’ or ‘Liverpool’ bars when ‘their’ teams were playing. I found it bizarre and much prefer being at a game down the road with several thousand football people. Local football (the Albion if you live near by or somewhere else if not) plus Albion away games, NSC, BBC and Sky Sport for football news and not using Twitter, Instagram or Facebook are my enjoyable football experience.

Same for me when I lived in Vietnam. Hanoi TNT were my local team and I'd go to games most weeks, including some away trips, but even though they were doing well in the league, the crowds were sparse. Then come Saturday evening when the Premier League games were on, bars would be full of "diehard" Arsenal and Man U fans.

I wouldn't be too critical of it. It's just a very different football culture. It's actually similar here in Almeria. I used to have a season ticket to a local lower division side (not UD Almería, who are now back in the top flight). You'd get a few hundred fans at the stadium but most locals would prefer to watch Real Madrid from the comfort of their sofa. Even fans of La Liga teams also tend to support one of the big two as well.

As for Twitter/YouTube/ The Argus etc, as others have said, avoid the comments section at all costs.