While spending some time with my friend Alice and her family in the Hague I joined them to watch a live match of the local Eredivisie football club. Eredivisie means Premier Division and is the Dutch equivalent of the British Premier League. The local club is ADO, which throughout recent history has been known for its fierce hooliganism and it has had some dire performances since the start of the season. This weekend’s opponent was PSV Eindhoven, which is one of the big three clubs, together with Ajax and Feyenoord, and last seasons’ champions. It was my first live football match and I found it a rather interesting anthropological experience.
Study in Human Behaviour
I remember the big social debates back in the 80s and 90s on how to control football hooliganism, that was- and still is- a big stain on the sportive and wholesome image of football. Most measures that were taken to tackle the issue at the time are still in place today. The spectators of last weekend’s match were of a wide variety of people divided into different sections. Everyone was wearing sneakers or something similar as if it were us who were getting sportive. As I was with my friend and her family, our section was dominated by kids and their parents, many kids wearing ADO the Hague t-shirts. Like going to the theatre, your ticket allocates you a seat in a certain section of the stadium. You enter your division through a very narrow hallway, where they inspect your ticket. Once you are through, you are underneath the stadium where they check your bag. Make-up artists are available to paint kids’ faces with ADO colours green and yellow and there are wheelie bins from where you can grab a flag in the same colours. Before the match starts, there is some sort of entertainment on the field and the hardcore ADO fans make the most noise and wave the biggest flags. The opponent’s supporters were located in a separate division as far removed as possible from the home hardcore supporters. This section was completely closed off and PSV fans looked like a bunch of caged animals in a zoo. It was tribalism of the highest sort. If one would have witnessed a gathering like this somewhere remote like deep in the Amazon, it would have been considered some sort of ritual, most likely of a religious nature by a primitive people. There was a lot of security around. People, men and women, in certain uniforms were standing at the lowest level of the grandstand with their backs to the field facing the people on the grandstand. It must be the most boring job in the world. But then, if you are a geek like me, it could be fascinating to watch the expressions of thousands of people while they are watching a football game. There wasn’t much joy for ADO fans as the home team got completely thrashed and had to deal with a historic loss of 0-7. And I was there. I saw it all unfold. It was great to witness the atmosphere and PSV was a true joy to watch, but I did miss the re-runs of goals and other exciting actions like you have on telly.
Games and Big Money
Spectator sports in general and football in particular are a curious thing. It used to be just a game played by people- mostly men- who had jobs to make money and played football for fun, fitness and self-expression and then some people watched that game in support of ‘their’ men. At some point certain entities saw the opportunity for big money and a lot of things seemed to have gone to shits since then. Many supporters have great love for their club often just out of tradition. They are from that region and/or their family and friends support that particular club. In primary school I was a Feyenoord Rotterdam ‘fan’. Not because I loved their game or had any relation with the city of Rotterdam. But just because all the boys were Ajax fans, so someone decided that therefor all the girls were supporters of Feyenoord. No one supported our local pro football club N.E.C, that has always played at the top of the First League or, if they’re doing very well, at the very bottom of the Premier League. Because so many people seem to like football Big Money found a way in and blew it up. Those in charge of the football club or governing bodies might quite like footie but for many the real love is for the shekels it generates, especially the higher up you go. They say it is all for the fans, but the bigger the fan, the more he or she gets fucked by Big Money. I was lucky to get my match ticket for pittance, but in general it’s by no means cheap to watch a live match of the typically working-class game. Attending with a family of two adults and two kids sets you back at least €100 and then you haven’t even fed yourself and your offspring with shit food. Merchandise too cost a true mint. I haven’t even talked about following your club to away-matches. There are hobbies or obsessions that are considerably cheaper. Pro-footballer players do very well in terms of money or make an absolute mint when playing for top clubs. That money comes from somewhere. Football, which you would think promotes sportsmanship, team effort and all sorts of other wholesomeness, is sponsored by corporations, that are the least wholesome around in terms of product as well as business practices. I am talking gambling companies, soft drink providers and fast-food outlets. And then there are the mega -corruption scandals surrounding football’s governing bodies UEFA and FIFA. Something turned very ugly with the beautiful game indeed and the very sad thing is, the masses are just taking it. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s high time that supporters and people in general take the power back from greed and other fucked up powers that should-not-be.
Dark Fairy Adventures 
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