WAssociation football culture refers to the cultural aspects surrounding the game of association football. As the sport is global, the culture of the game is diverse, with varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness in each country. In many countries, football has ingrained itself into the national culture, and parts of life may revolve around it. Many countries have daily football newspapers, as well as football magazines. Football players, especially in the top levels of the game, have become role models.
W1GOAL Education for All campaign is run by the Education Week Foundation (India). Working with football and the footballing community, 1GOAL raises public awareness and involvement in achieving education for all the 67 million children out of school worldwide. It is supported by over 200 international footballers; over 70 football clubs including Manchester United, Corinthians, Los Angeles Galaxy, Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Liverpool F.C., FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Arsenal; and national and international footballing organisations including the Confederation of African Football, FIFPro, the Professional Footballers' Association and FIFA.
WAn association football trading card is a type of trading card relating to association football, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. These cards feature one or more players, clubs, stadiums, or trophies. Football cards are most often found in Europe, Asia and South America.
WThe Ayatollah is a football celebration used by fans of the Welsh football club, Cardiff City. Performing the action is sometimes preceded by a chant of "do the Ayatollah".
WBarra brava is the name of organized supporters' groups of football teams in Latin America, analogous to English hooligans in providing fanatical support to their clubs in stadiums and provoking violence against rival fans as well as against the police.
WThere has been an extremely long history of the involvement of Christianity and association football. In 16th-century England, Puritan Christians opposed the contemporary forms of football, due to its violence and its practice on Sunday, the Sabbath day of rest. However from the 19th century, Christians espousing the movement of "Muscular Christianity" encouraged the game for its physical and social benefits. Several of England's leading clubs, including Everton, Manchester City and Southampton, were founded by churches, as was Celtic in Scotland. There have also been leagues set up specifically for Christian clubs outside of the normal national league pyramid.
WDynamism of a Soccer Player is a 1913 Futurist painting by Italian artist Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916). It is currently held in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
WEUROFANZ is an annual international football tournament which began in 2007 for fans of European teams and is held in Lviv, Ukraine. The dates for the next EUROFANZ festival are July 3–5, 2020.
WA flare, also sometimes called a fusée, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications. Flares may be ground pyrotechnics, projectile pyrotechnics, or parachute-suspended to provide maximum illumination time over a large area. Projectile pyrotechnics may be dropped from aircraft, fired from rocket or artillery, or deployed by flare guns or handheld percussive tubes.
WA football chant or terrace chant is a song or chant usually sung at association football matches by fans. Football chanting is an expression of collective identity, most often used by fans to express their pride in the team or encourage the home team, and they may be sung to celebrate a particular player or manager. Fans may also use football chants to slight the opposition, and many fans sing songs about their club rivals, even when they are not playing them. Sometimes the chants are spontaneous reactions to events on the pitch.
WFootball hooliganism or soccer hooliganism is disorderly, violent or destructive behaviour perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Football hooliganism normally involves conflict between gangs, in English known as football firms, formed to intimidate and attack supporters of other teams. Other English-language terms commonly used in connection with hooligan firms include "army", "boys", "bods", "casuals", and "crew". Certain clubs have long-standing rivalries with other clubs and hooliganism associated with matches between them is likely to be more severe.
WGarra Blanca is the title given to a barra brava that was created in Chile by the supporters of Santiago based football club Colo-Colo. It is one of the three largest and most important barras bravas in the country, the other beings Universidad de Chile's Los de Abajo and Universidad Catolica "Los Cruzados".
WFenerbahçe Spor Kulübü, commonly known as Fenerbahçe, are a major Turkish multi-sport club based in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul, Turkey.
WIn sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the supporters of the team. Whilst referring to the celebration of a goal in general, the term can also be applied to specific actions, such as a player removing their shirt or performing a somersault. Celebrations are generally more substantial in lower-scoring sports, such as association football and ice hockey, where a score has greater significance.
WThe International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA) is an international organization which was founded in 1992 with the intention of promoting association football in the gay and lesbian community and to promote gay and lesbian football to the world at large.
WRidha Jlassi or Ridha the elephant, is a Tunisian football supporter and he is the official Tunisia national football team supporter. Ridha's first appearance was at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was chosen as the best 2018 FIFA World Cup fan.
WThe Juventus F.C. ultras are the organized fans of Italian football club Juventus, from Turin.
WKick It Out was established as a campaign with the brand name 'Let's Kick Racism Out of Football' in 1993 and as an organisation in 1997. The organisation works within the football, educational and community sectors to challenge discrimination, encourage inclusive practices and work for positive change.
WProfessional association football players have released records in the United Kingdom since at least the 1930s, when the Arsenal team issued a now-collectible gramophone disc. The first such record to achieve commercial success was "Back Home", released by the England national team as part of their build-up to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, at which they would defend the trophy they had won four years earlier. The single, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, spent 17 weeks in the UK Singles Chart and reached number one on the chart dated 16 May. England did not qualify for the World Cup again until 1982, but the Scotland national team had hits in 1974 and 1978 with singles released ahead of the World Cup, on the latter occasion teaming up with celebrity fan Rod Stewart. England topped the charts again in 1990 with the single "World in Motion", recorded in collaboration with the band New Order and remembered for the rap performed by player John Barnes.
WA makarapa is a hand-cut and hand-painted hard hat worn by sports fans. They belong to the typical South African football fan's supporters gear, and are increasingly popular with fans of other sports. Sport fans spend hours to sculpt and paint their makarapa in the colours and emblem of their clubs or country. Besides the makarapa, fans also wear giant glasses or have shields with team slogans and logos. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the international profile and availability of the makarapa has increased greatly.
W"Marge Gamer" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 22, 2007. It was written by J. Stewart Burns and featured a guest appearance from Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo.
WMaroon Friends 1946 is an FK Sarajevo fan association and advocacy group organized by influential individuals from the financial, political and cultural sectors of Bosnian society with the aim of lobbying both locally and internationally for the club and influencing club policies. The association has strong informal ties to FK Sarajevo Ultras, Horde Zla.
WOriginal 21 is the name of the association which consists of many supporters groups of the Greek multi-sports club AEK Athletic Club. Officially founded in 1982, Original 21 is the biggest supporters' union of AEK. Original 21 has members from all over Greece and has over the years become a part of the club by affecting club decisions and by following the club on all possible occasions.
WA pitch invasion occurs when an individual or a crowd of people watching a sporting event run onto the playing area to celebrate or protest an incident. Pitch invasions may involve individual people or capacity crowds. Pitch invasions can result in charges being brought, possibly resulting in fines or jail time, and sanctions against the club(s) involved, especially if the actions cause a disruption in play.
WThe Poznań or Grecque is a form of sporting celebration that involves supporters standing with their backs to the pitch, linking shoulders side-by-side and jumping on the spot in unison. It is mostly associated with supporters of the football clubs Lech Poznań in Poland, with whom it originated, Manchester City in England, Celtic in Scotland, Deportivo Alavés in Spain, and the Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia. Its first use is thought to have been as a protest against club management while still supporting the team.
WAssociation football is the world's most popular sport, and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries. Around the world, the sport is played at a professional level by professional footballers, and millions of people regularly go to football stadiums to follow their favourite football teams, while billions more watch the sport on television or on the internet. Football has the highest global television audience in sport. The sport had amateur origins and evolved into the modern professional competition.
WRetiring the number of an athlete is an honor a team bestows upon a player, usually after the player has left the team, retires from the sport, or dies. Once a number is retired, no future player from the team may wear that number on their uniform, unless the player so-honored permits it; however, in many cases the number cannot be used at all. Such an honor may also be bestowed on players who had highly memorable careers, died prematurely under tragic circumstances, or have had their promising careers ended by serious injury. Some sports that retire team numbers include baseball, cricket, ice hockey, basketball, American football, and association football. Retired jerseys are often referred to as "hanging from the rafters" as they are, literally, put to hang in the team's home arena.
WSheep-shagger is a derogatory term, most often used to refer to Welsh people implying that the subject has sex with sheep. In a court case in Britain, the use of the term directed at a Welsh person was ruled to be a "racially aggravating" factor in a disorderly conduct offence.
WShow Racism the Red Card (SRTRC) is an anti-racism education charity, established in England in January 1996 to harness the high-profile nature of footballers as anti-racist role models to educate against racism throughout society in the United Kingdom.
WStand Up Speak Up was a Europe-wide campaign that was launched in January 2005 by the French Football player Thierry Henry following an increase in reports of racist incidents in football across Europe. The campaign started when the former Spanish footballer Luis Aragonés, at this time coach of a Spanish national team, said these words towards his player and Henry's teammate, José Antonio Reyes: "You will show this black shi* that you´re better than him". It led to Nike creating the "Stand up speak up" campaign. Together with Nike and other top European players like Rio Ferdinand, Carles Puyol and so on, he protests against this continuing problem inviting football fans to voice their opposition to racism.
WIn association football, some national and club teams include one or more stars as part of the team badge appearing on their shirt, to represent important achievements for the team's history. Often a ad hoc decision by a club itself since late 1950s, various national governing bodies at club level and some confederations and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) at international stage has regulated introduting that recognition after the triumph of a significant number of titles in a specific competition as league tournaments, continental championships and the FIFA World Cup.
WA sticker album is a book in which collectable stickers are stuck into designated sections. Sticker album themes can be sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup or TV shows like Doctor Who. Panini first produced a World Cup sticker album for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Initiating a craze for collecting and trading stickers, UK newspaper The Guardian states, "the tradition of swapping duplicate [World Cup] stickers was a playground fixture during the 1970s and 1980s." A complete 1970 World Cup sticker album signed by Pelé sold for a record £10,450.
WSupporters' groups or supporters' clubs are independent fan clubs or campaign groups in sport, mostly association football.
WA terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a series of concrete steps, with intermittent safety barriers installed at specific locations to prevent an excessive movement of people down its slope.
WTifo is the phenomenon whereby tifosi of a sports team makes a visual display of any choreographed flag, sign or banner in the stands of a stadium, mostly as part of an association football match.
WThe use of triangular corner flags in English football is a regular occurrence based upon traditional achievements. Tradition holds that only clubs that have won the FA Cup have the right to use triangular corner flags rather than the regular square ones. However this tradition has no basis in The Football Association's (FA) regulations and clubs are free to decide what shape of flags they use.
WThe Twin Towers were part of the original Wembley Stadium in London, England. They were constructed in 1923 on the site of Watkin's Tower in Wembley, and came to be recognised as one of the iconic symbols of English football in general and of Wembley Stadium in particular. They became grade II listed buildings in 1976, but they were demolished in 2003 to make way for the new Wembley Stadium.
WUltras are a type of association football fans who are renowned for their fanatical support. The term originated in Italy but it is used worldwide to describe predominantly organised fans of association football teams. The behavioural tendency of ultras groups includes their use of flares, vocal support in large groups and the displaying of banners at football stadiums, all of which are designed to create an atmosphere which encourages their own team and intimidates the opposing players and their supporters. The frequent use of elaborate displays in stadiums is also common.
WThe Viking Thunder Clap or Viking Clap is a football chant performed with a loud shout and a clap. The chant has been performed by fans of a number of clubs, but came to prominence during the UEFA Euro 2016, when fans of Iceland national team introduced their 'viking clap' or 'volcano clap' with a 'huh' chant.
W"You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee" is the sixteenth episode of the 25th season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 546th episode of the series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 30, 2014. It was written by Michael Price and directed by Mark Kirkland. Argentine soccer broadcaster Andrés Cantor guest-stars as himself. The title is from the refrain "don't have to live like a refugee" from the 1980 song "Refugee" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Homer also sings a parody of Foreigner's 1981 song "Juke Box Hero".