Day -557. WorldCup2018
In Toronto FC's second season I was working on a project exploring the influence of European football on football in North America. It was very helpful having a new MLS team in Toronto, and lucky for me. A meeting with one of the senior managers at the club was extremely insightful and one aspect of Toronto FC'S philosophy which I particularly remember was that they wanted to keep a real football feel to the club, and not be a North Americanized soccer club.
On the fans' side the amount of copying or imitation of European stadium supporter behaviour, including the songs, was easily apparent. Adoption may be a better description than imitation. There's nothing wrong with using the best examples of football fan culture to create an atmosphere worthy of a real football stadium. It took a lot of organising from all the Toronto FC supporter clubs and it has now developed into what is probably the best atmosphere at an MLS stadium.
Part of my research for my project included searching online for video material demonstrating the link between European football and that over on this side of the Atlantic. One of my favourites was a pretty popular chant of the RC Lens supporters in France and adopted by the Toronto FC fans. I knew a lot of the English songs but this was a new one to me. I haven't heard it for a while here but here is the TFC Massive chant from a few years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment