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Fan culture

100 terms · Whole glossary

12th man
A metaphor for the fans, whose support is like an extra player.
50+1 rule
The German rule that club members must keep a majority of voting rights over investors.
Against modern football
A fan movement against commercialisation: high prices, TV-driven kick-off times and corporate control.
All-seater stadium
A stadium with no standing areas.
Anti-discrimination
Campaigns against racism and all discrimination in stadiums.
Armchair fan
Someone who only watches football on TV.
Atmosphere
The noise and energy of the stands; the reason people go to the ground.
Away allocation
The number of tickets the home club must give to visiting fans.
Away count
The number of away games a fan has been to.
Away following
The fans who travel to support their team in another city.
Bandiera
A player-symbol who stays loyal to one club for his whole career (Italian for “flag”).
Banning order
A court or club order barring a fan from attending matches.
Barra brava
Latin American organised fan groups known for huge displays and drums.
Booing
The crowd whistling or jeering a player, coach or opponent.
Boycott
Fans refusing to attend or support as a protest.
Call and response
A chant where one stand starts and another answers.
Capo
The stand’s leader who faces the crowd with a megaphone and starts the songs.
Casual brands
Labels linked to the subculture: Stone Island, C.P. Company, Fred Perry, Lacoste.
Casuals
A 1980s subculture of fans in expensive sportswear without club colours to avoid police attention.
Chant
A short crowd song or shout, often to a well-known tune.
Choreo
A pre-planned display where everyone in the stand raises a card or flag on cue.
Choreo designer
The person who designs displays and lays out the cards across the sections.
Club colours
The colour combination fans wear with pride: red and white, blue and white and so on.
Club crest
The club badge, a symbol of its history.
Club legend
A player or coach who wrote himself into a club’s history.
Club nickname
A club’s informal name, like the Gunners or the Red Devils.
Coach trip
Travelling to a game as a group by coach.
Cult hero
A player fans adore for his character as much as his skill.
Curva Nord
The north curve: home of the ultras of Inter, Lazio and others.
Curva Sud
The south curve: the ultras end of many Italian clubs such as Roma and Milan.
Day-tripper
A one-off visitor who comes for the experience.
Drummer
The fan who keeps the beat of the support on a drum.
Fair play
Honest play and respect for opponents, on the pitch and in the stands.
Fan
A devoted supporter for whom the club is a way of life; in Russia the word means the active core of the stand.
Fan culture
The traditions, symbols, music, clothing and codes of football supporters.
Fan embassy
A help service for fans at major tournaments: information, translation and support.
Fan podcast
A podcast in which supporters discuss their club.
Fan token
A club’s digital token for polls and perks. Not the same as Terrace Wars match tokens, which cannot be bought.
Fan violence
Fights and disorder around matches. In real life it is a crime; in Terrace Wars rivalry is a fictional game.
Fanzine
A fan-made magazine about the club and the terraces.
Firm
An organised hooligan group tied to a club. In Terrace Wars it is a player community within a club, with no real violence.
Flag ban
Restrictions on flags, drums and banners imposed by clubs or police.
Flag waving
Big flags on poles waved during the support.
Flare
A signal firework that burns with a bright flame; dangerous and banned by UEFA rules.
Football special
A train chartered by fans for an away trip.
FSE
Football Supporters Europe, the network that represents fans before UEFA.
Gemellaggio
The Italian word for a twinning between fan groups.
Glory hunter
Someone who follows whichever club is winning and switches with the trophies.
Graffiti
Fan murals and tags on walls in club colours.
Half-and-half scarf
A scarf with both clubs’ colours; among fans it is seen as a tourist souvenir.
Heysel
The 1985 disaster at the European Cup final in Brussels that killed 39 people; English clubs were banned from Europe.
Hillsborough
The 1989 disaster in Sheffield in which 97 Liverpool fans died; it led to all-seater stadiums in England.
Hinchada
The Spanish word for a club’s whole support.
Hooligans
People who cause disorder and violence around football. It is a crime and condemned by most supporters.
Huddle
Fans linking arms and swaying to a song, as Celtic supporters do.
Judas
What fans call a player who leaves for the arch-rival.
Loyal fan
Someone who backs the club in any division and through any results.
Loyalty
The principle that you do not choose or change your club.
Material
Everything used for the support: banners, flags, drums and megaphones.
Mexican wave
A wave of standing spectators running round the stadium.
Mural
A large wall painting of a club legend or fan symbol.
Olé!
The crowd’s cry on every pass when the opponents cannot get the ball.
Peña
A Spanish supporters’ club, often tied to a town or a bar.
Plastic fan
A mocking name for a supporter who only knows the club from TV.
Pyro
Flares, smoke and strobes in the stands; banned at stadiums in most countries.
Racism in stands
Racist abuse, punished with fines, closed sections and lifetime bans.
Respect
Acknowledging the rival and his fans, without which there is no real rivalry.
Rivalry
A long-running hostility between clubs and fans rooted in geography, history or politics.
Scarf
The fan’s key item in club colours, held aloft during the anthem.
Scarf swap
The tradition of friendly fans exchanging scarves.
Scarf wall
When a whole stand holds up its stretched scarves.
Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes riff sung by stands all over the world.
Silent protest
A stand keeping quiet for part of a match to show football without fans.
Smoke bomb
A canister of coloured smoke in club colours.
Stand leader
The person who organises the support, displays and trips.
Standing ovation
The whole stadium applauding on its feet.
Sticker
A fan group’s sticker, left around cities on away trips.
Supporter
Someone who backs a club: goes to games, follows the team and lives its results.
Supporters’ club
An official association of a club’s fans with membership and trips.
Supporters’ trust
A fan organisation that owns part of a club or influences its decisions.
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough inquiry report that made British top-flight stadiums all-seater.
Terrace code
The unwritten rules of the stand: sing all match, never leave when losing, respect your own.
Terrace culture
The British culture of standing terraces: songs, fashion and away days.
Terrace fashion
The clothes by which fans recognise each other, from scarves to certain jacket brands.
Terrace song
A longer fan song sung in chorus.
The Poznań
A whole stand jumping arm in arm with its back to the pitch, named after Lech Poznań fans.
Ticket price protest
Fan action against expensive tickets, such as walking out in the 77th minute.
Tifo
A large visual display by a stand: banners, cards and flags that form a picture.
Torcida
A fan group in Brazil or Croatia; in Brazil a torcida organizada.
Travel banner
The banner a group takes to away games.
Travelling fans
Supporters who regularly go to away games.
Twinning
An alliance between fans of different clubs who support each other on away trips.
Two-pole banner
A long banner on two sticks raised above the heads of the crowd.
Ultras
Organised groups of active support: choreographies, banners, pyro and singing for the whole match. Born in Italy in the late 1960s.
Ultras group
An ultras collective with its own name, symbols, banner and leaders.
Viking clap
Slow synchronised overhead claps with a “Huh!” made famous at Euro 2016.
Wall of sound
Loud, unbroken support that puts pressure on the opponents.
You’ll Never Walk Alone
A show tune that became the anthem of Liverpool, Celtic and Borussia Dortmund.

Violence around football is a crime. Rivalry in Terrace Wars is a fictional game. Terrace Wars rules →