The 8 Different Types of Football Fan

BuzzFeed has had phenomenal success over the past year – so I thought I’d jump aboard the bandwagon and use its community feature to write my own guest post.

I’ve reproduced the article below but, to see it on BuzzFeed itself, click this link: bit.ly/Buzz8fans.

1. The Know-it-all

Much more comfortable in his armchair than at an actual game, The Know-it-all is usually surrounded by a couple of doting minions who’ll lap up his every knowledgeable comment. The Know-it-all is surprised by nothing and will disdain those who get excited by anything happening on the pitch.

  / Via Time Out London

Smugness has no place in football

2. The Corporate Fan

The Corporate Fan might attend only the big midweek games when he can get a freebie from a business partner, but that won’t put him off venturing his opinions on everything from Diego Simeone’s tactical acumen to Frank Lampard’s waistline.

  / Via Getty

You won’t see him on a February night at Boundary Park

3. The Thug

A football match is simply an excuse for The Thug to vent his anger at the mediocrity of his everyday existence. While The Thug will pretend his vein-bursting, foul-mouthed rants at opposing fans are in support of his team, what he really wants is an old-fashioned brawl.

  / Via giphy.com

Keep your distance

4. The Theatre-goer

The Theatre-goer will sit in silence, occasionally shaking his head when his team lets him down yet again. He doesn’t cheer or even celebrate after goals – the only sign he can speak is when someone in front of him stands up, when he’ll immediately shout at them to sit down.

  / Via Getty

What do you actually enjoy about football?

5. The Ego

The Ego sees a football match as an opportunity to impress a large number of people with his puerile sense of humour and juvenile japes. Similarly to The Know-it-all, The Ego will expect appreciation from all others around him.

  / Via Eat Watch Run

We’d rather watch the game

6. The Emo

The Emo took Bill Shankly’s famous saying to heart: nothing matters more than in which net the pig’s bladder ends up on a Saturday afternoon. Even the birth of his children won’t prevent The Emo from missing a game.

  / Via Getty

Football: more important than life and death

7. The Old Timer

The Old Timer is a pleasant old man who makes a point of shaking everyone’s hand before a game. He hasn’t missed a game since 1963 and wants his ashes scattered in the stadium when he dies.

  / Via Who Ate All The Pies

The Old Timer could teach Luis Suárez a thing or two

8. The Singer

A dying breed within modern football, The Singer spends every Saturday night massaging his vocal chords after their intense workout. He considers missing the warm-up a mortal sin and will abuse anyone who leaves the game before the final whistle.

  / Via Getty

On your own

Data: How will England perform in the World Cup this summer?

Is there a correlation between clubs’ Champions’ League performances and their nations’ F.I.F.A. rankings?

Long has the debate raged about whether the strength of England’s domestic league harms the national team’s performance or, conversely, whether German clubs’ recent renaissance has been caused in part by the resurgence of the German national team.

Yet few attempts have been made to examine this link statistically. In this post, I will look into whether there is a correlation between the performances of a nation’s clubs in international competition and the performances of a nation itself, in the form of its F.I.F.A. ranking, to see whether this season’s Champions’ League can give us a clue to the outcome of the summer’s World Cup.

To read more of this story, visit this post on my Tumblr account (used because Tumblr can host interactive graphics, whereas my version of WordPress cannot). 

Premier League spreads out: dominance of North West and London has lessened

Norwich’s decision to reimburse fans who travelled the long road to Swansea last fortnight, only to see their team limp to a 3-0 defeat, got me thinking about the locations of clubs in the Premier League.

I remembered that, only a few years ago, hardly any clubs based outside the football heartlands of the North West and London were in the Premier League. As you can see from the map below, the concentration in these two corners of the country in the 2010-11 season was quite startling.

Note: click on the map to be taken to an interactive version.

Yet this seems to have changed of late, providing more diversity for Premier League away fans. The map below shows the locations of clubs in the 2013-14 season.

Note: click on the map to be taken to an interactive version.

The promotions of Southampton, Norwich and Hull, along with those of the two Welsh clubs, have contributed to a more diverse Premier League.

Of course, the fact that these teams have been only recently promoted means it should be no surprise that the country’s best-performing clubs remain in the North West and London. For the sake of more interesting away days, however, it is preferable to have a more even spread of clubs around the country – and, with Leicester City (of the East Midlands) already set to join the league next season, it looks like the concentration of a few years ago has gone for good.