Some teams in the first and second leagues can still let people stand and watch the ball, but these stands are small and often half empty. Even if the stands are packed, the dominant season ticket audience and the strict control of the sports in the stadium will break up the fans who once naturally got together and stood singing.
Now we can't see the big waves formed by the crowd washing away the old stands, and we can't see the concave and convex lines formed by the teenagers crowded beside the sideline billboards.
The density and shape of the audience used to change with their emotions and movements, but now there are only rigid scenes in a full stadium.
Only when the ball is shifted and the plot is reversed will it be broken by the vertical fluctuation of the crowd standing and sitting.
However, some troublesome clubs even want to take care of this matter, threatening to let those fans who stand up too many times for too long leave the stadium.
In this way, the bleachers' seats not only affect the economic and demographic composition of British football spectators, but also are an important tool for monitoring and controlling.
In the past, the most lawless behaviors, such as dangerous pushing, jumping, breaking into turf, arson and attacking visiting fans in the stadium, have almost disappeared.
The incidence of all kinds of misconduct has even dropped to the lowest point in history.
During the 2010/1season, there were more than 3,000 arrests for football-related riots alone, the least since 1985 was recorded.
No one was arrested in more than 1/4 games, and the average number of people arrested in professional games was only 1.
It is also rare for fans to provoke confrontation.
Of course, there are fewer on-the-spot operations on the court.
Seat planning is not the only reason. Police force, prohibition, security and closed-circuit monitoring all play an important role, but the seat is not only to regulate the body, but also to suppress the rising mood of the masses.
When everyone is sitting safely, it is relatively difficult to arouse the collective ecstasy, anger and disorder needed for large-scale riots.
Other than that, others may not seem to have changed much.
The nonverbal expression of the masses has obviously not changed much in the past 20 years, and the extensive use of insulting gestures is still common.
Even if there are seats, the audience will still cheer.
When the game encounters a critical moment, there will still be specific songs on the scarf wall.
The goal celebration is a little innovative.
Celtic fans began to "meet" to celebrate; The celebration action of Glasgow rangers fans is "jumping"; Manchester City fans imitate Lech Poznan fans. When scoring goals, they all turn their backs on the court and jump up and down. They are called "Le Greque" in Poland and "The Poznan" in Manchester City.
However, there is always a feeling that something is wrong now.
Although the new stadium has obviously brought a sense of security and comfort, many fans still feel lost.
Thousands of messages and fans' blogs can read the same view: yes, the stadium has improved in many ways now, but we don't sing loudly as before.
In fact, in the1970s and1980s, people's singing has been regarded as the best model of supporters, the most famous of which is the Kop stand in Liverpool.
But in 20 12, Gareth Roberts wrote more about sadness than anger:
"Just a few weeks, this is the second time.
The momentum of the home fans was overwhelmed by a group of away fans who supported the newly promoted champion team.
On these two occasions, these visiting delegations were not only louder, obviously more enthusiastic and more supportive of their own players, but also laughed at us:' Where is your famous atmosphere?' Your anger stinks like slag',' This is a library' and so on. "
Today's Liverpool stands may not be like this all the time, but this dilemma will occasionally occur, which has shown the great changes in the behavior of football spectators.
Recently, many giant clubs have tried to add chorus areas and standing areas in the audience, which proves that football management units and the masses are deeply worried that if the old good atmosphere, loyalty, friendship and cheers are not passed down, some important and precious things will disappear.
Singing and cheering are actually only part of it, and the wider fan performance culture is gradually disappearing.
For example, if you look at the photos of the audience in the sixties and seventies, especially the competitions, you will definitely see all kinds of homemade clothes and flags.
This kind of works can be traced back to the early 20th century, when it was a feature of the FA Cup final. Top hats with team colors, teddy bears in hand-sewn sweatshirts, oversized garlands, and most importantly, flags and billboards. The fonts pasted with tape are square and unique.
"The goalkeeper pounced and Pearson missed", "The hot shoe burned Arsenal Willie" and "Joey Jordan shot Billy Lan quickly".
This handicraft culture still exists among today's fans, especially when it comes to the top management and directors of the club.
Among them, Liverpool is the most common.
This slogan is sometimes unconstrained: "Scott is so fierce, it is also successful to hit King Hamburg and Big Mike"; Sometimes angry: "Shankly builds, Americans destroy".
The Galatasaray team in Turkey put up the slogan "Welcome to Hell", and Leeds United fans also moved out their own billboards and responded sourly: "Welcome to the civilized world".
Today, I may see some flags hanging on the sidelines, but I'm more likely to see bumpy replica jerseys.
/kloc-there were almost no replica jerseys on the football field in the 1970 s, but now it is the single item worn by the most people in the stands.
Although the public is becoming more and more homogeneous in consumption, Britain has always rejected the practice of European blood fans.
As it turns out, most British fans are not interested in conducting chorus with loudspeakers or drums, holding flares, smoke bombs and fireworks, and threatening players and coaches outside the stadium.
The most deviant behavior of fans existed until the1980s, but it is a pity that they can't be seen now, that is, streaking and bird walking.
Only a beer belly can compare with today, especially those Newcastle fans who go shirtless in winter.
Among all kinds of performance desires of football fans, it may be Karl Bauer's pranks that are more in line with this era of excessively advocating celebrity culture.
200 1, before Manchester United played FC Bayern Munich in the Champions League, they successfully entered the starting lineup and took photos with everyone.
In 2003, before Manchester United played against Liverpool, he arranged for 1 1 to run into the goal area, repeating a goal that Liverpool goalkeeper Duddeck missed at his feet during the last match between the two teams, so that Manchester United striker Diego Forlan could easily make up the shot.
Powell's troupe then ran to the side to laugh at Liverpool fans, and Powell himself was permanently banned from admission.
1980 fans are careful about throwing things at the stadium, although they don't break into the turf regularly.
In the1960s, grenades were thrown at targets in brentford.
Paul gascoigne returned to his old club after going to Tottenham Hotspur, and Newcastle United fans threw a chocolate bar at him, which was nothing serious by comparison.
Gascoyne, nicknamed "Gaza", also picked up one and ate it on the spot, which became a beautiful talk.
From the mid-1980s, Chelsea fans would throw celery into the stadium to celebrate their victory, until the club banned this behavior in 2007.
From 65438 to the early 1990s, balloons were popular for only one season, and the most memorable one was grimsby's army of inflatable fish.
But bananas are the most common ammunition.
Active racists among fans regard throwing bananas as a personal attack, but this kind of behavior is rarely heard now.
Now it is easier to see the management trend of * * * clubs where fans lose things.
From 65438 to 0997, David Lloyd, a former tennis player who opened a fitness center, became the president of the club. The fans were dissatisfied with his business strategy and threw hundreds of tennis balls at the stadium.
More recently, Blackburn fans let chickens run around Ewood Park because of the stupidity and stubbornness of Wenxi, the owner of the * * * club, because Wenxi Group is a big consortium of Indian poultry processing industry.
Destroyers also have high-tech options.
Pay attention to the faint green spots that appear near the eyes of the penalty taker or on the face of the goalkeeper waiting to kick off. That's the light of a laser pointer.
This thing first became popular in Europe in the late 2000s, and then began to appear in Britain.
The biggest event reported was 20 1 1, when Chelsea fans interfered with Manchester City players with laser pens.
However, people still prefer primitive tools. As long as it is enough to arouse anger, fans will throw coins and lighters at players and staff
Therefore, even if the emotional construction in the stadium has undergone many changes, even if it is now under more management and monitoring, the British football audience has accepted the carnival-like atmosphere on the one hand and retained the unpredictable side of the masses on the other.
Today, when fans are the most noisy and devoted, they can still create a wonderful atmosphere.
In the final round of the 2009 season, Newcastle United played Middlesbrough at St James' Park. If they don't win, they will be demoted.
As a result, for 90 minutes in that game, you couldn't hear anyone else at all, and you couldn't think of it at all. People's energy is transformed into a sound barrier, half of which is the roar of the masses. With the hum of roar, noise and whistle, a force field is formed, and the whole sound scene is surrounded first and then swallowed up by the senses.
But what about the rest of the season? What's the difference between ordinary feelings and the past? Compared with other occasions, the lovesickness in the golden age may be the strongest on the football field, but it seems that there are almost no audio files to prove the collective memories of that blend of nostalgia.
In the 1970 and 1980' s, few people tried to record the voices of football spectators systematically, and one of them was De Maurice.
For the book "The Football Tribe", Morris recorded several games between the old first-class league and Oxford United in the third-class league for nearly half a season, and transcribed the sound content into words.
The results he compiled are very suitable for trying to compare the past and the present.
In 198 1, Morris initially divided the sound of the scene into two categories: noise and singing, which are still applicable today.
First of all, fans will switch constantly, sometimes silently, sometimes making general noise.
Tone and timbre are very different because of emotional ups and downs.
Secondly, some noises are made for specific events inside and outside the venue, others are more like large-scale atmosphere music, and some are sudden and spontaneous bursts.
Third, no matter what kind of noise it is, most of it starts from the home stand behind the goal and then spreads to other stands sporadically. The key role of away fans is to stir up the atmosphere. At both ends of the stadium, you come and go, bickering endlessly.
Nowadays, although the soundscape structure on the football field is very close to Morris's description, it is not as frequent as before.
According to Morris's records, in most competitions, clearly audible slogans and collective noises will appear about 130 to 160 times, which is equivalent to once every 30 seconds.
Although there is no concrete evidence, the number of times seems to be significantly higher than most Premier League games now.
In addition, casual observation can also be found that among the many slogans heard at the scene, only a few fans really sing, and the whole stand and even the whole chorus are very rare.
As in the case of 1980, the music of the audience is still dominated by singing, supporting slogans, cheering and praising.
Quesera, Serra, You are my sunshine and March as a saint are still fixed options.
Attacking the referee is nothing more than shouting "You are stupid and don't know", "Referee * * *" and "Are you pretending to be Scottish?" .
Individual players dedicated refueling songs are still relatively common, including short songs and Long song.
Contemporary fans are still creative at least at this time.
For example, queens park Rangers fans praised habib beye with the theme song of Happy Hour, or, like Liverpool fans, enthusiastically paid tribute to their hapless defender with Michael Jackson's criticism of the boogie: "Don't blame Finland, blame armand Traore, he just can't stop it. Alan shearer changed from a guest commentator on sports programs to the head coach of Newcastle, and his record was destroyed.
Fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the song "Pretty Girl at Guantanamo Bay": "You should have stayed on TV." The same song was also dedicated by Bristol Rangers fans to their opponents from the declining seaside town of Torquay: "You only work in summer."
Nowadays, it is rare to hear insults or threats against the police, only historical scenes will appear.
"Clap your hands if you hate the police" and "The police are all pigs, and we hate pigs" are hardly heard now.
"Watch your head get kicked in the door", "We'll see", "You want to go home in a London ambulance" and "You don't get on the bus" no longer exists, only occasionally accompanied by gestures.
It is easier to hear self-mockery in the stands today.
When Manchester City fell behind Middlesbrough 0-7, Manchester City fans sang: "Every week is good for you".
After 1-8 lost, they broke out "Easy! Simple! Easy! " Cheers.
The songs of fans may not be the songs they used to be, but they are still songs.
The football stage has undergone earth-shaking changes, and today's performance has shown great resilience.
Countdown to seven minutes, if you look up from the game at this time, you will see the audience start to pull out strange gestures.
The staff wearing fluorescent orange or yellow lined up with heavy steps, stepped down from the height of the stands to stand at the players' passages and exits, or came to the sideline to form new fortifications to separate the fans from the lawn.
At the same time, people in twos and threes began to get up and leave and walked to the door.
Some people will stay in the aisle and often look back, looking at their watches or mobile phones.
When people try to squeeze out seats that are closely arranged, they will try to shrink up without attracting attention.
These people left early, not because they were too angry to watch.
Some people will leave 20 minutes early when they are 0-5 behind, and these people are not them.
Leave early to avoid the crowd and get a ride first.
Again, this is not a new phenomenon.
It is easier to see the audience leave first than the stadium, but it is more and more common to leave early.
Although this phenomenon is very small, it is worthy of further study, especially considering that the tickets are expensive, the players are tired at the last moment, and the mistakes are multiplied, which is more likely to lead to key judgments and goals.
The whistle sounded and the game was over.
The fans shouted, hissed or cursed in a low voice.
People hurried to the exit and the crowd began to disintegrate quickly.
Some people still linger, mostly home fans, who left applause and watched the players leave.
However, the background of the picture has begun to turn to sponsors' advertisements, and photographers, sound recorders and well-dressed broadcasters have flocked to the lawn to talk to unlucky players.
The public address system was turned back to the maximum volume and buzzed in the space.
With the crowd and vitality pouring out from the stands, the sound effects in the stadium are more and more sharp and harsh.
The away fans are likely to stay until the end and wait for another 20 minutes before leaving.
The low-paid labor group responsible for picking up garbage and cleaning seats slowly entered the stadium.
From this moment on, the game was gradually replaced by the scene.
Everything on the day of the game seems to have disappeared without a trace, leaving only the post-match interviews and press conferences in the media room.
The competition is divorced from reality, edited, replayed and analyzed in hundreds of colorful studios and basements, then circulated and deformed on Facebook and Youtube, and reappeared as a stranger in the recording studio of radio programs, the sofas of TV celebrities, and the reports of sports and news websites.
1 10,000 words, 1 10,000 photos can capture only a little bit of live experience.
The bronze statue of Shankly wears a scarf and becomes amiable; Thousands of hands clap the sound of the iron ceiling; Strangers hold you in circles in the corridor when scoring goals; The away fans put their faces on the window and scold you.
All these thoughts and feelings are dust from distant volcanic eruptions, spraying high into the atmosphere, and now falling back to the earth, buried deep in overlapping personal memories and collective memories.
To borrow Derrillo's words:
"That afternoon, everyone was together.
Shouting, cross-border, vicious songs and abuse, all kinds of things as fine as gravel, all indelibly turned into the past. "