Football has long been the at the centre of British society for many years now with the sport never leaving the headlines. Players and fans are at the heart of all things football and passion is driven through their blood, or is it?
I sat and watched the League cup final on Sunday when Swansea hammered Bradford 5-0 which was a very impressive score when you consider that is the Welsh clubs first ever major cup final and full credit to the Swans. Bradford did well to reach the final but no one really expected them to win against Swansea, any other, I think they would have had more of a chance of success. Obviously the Swans wanted to play how they normally play, slick passing and intricate play which helped them win by a 5 goal margin but they went too far when in the 60th minute they started to pass around their defence. Maybe they wanted to keep Tremmel from getting pneumonia and got him to do a bit of passing but it really wasn't the morale performance that many fans had hoped for.
I was thoroughly disappointed in Swansea because they were 4-0 up and they wanted to pass it around the back against a league 2 side. The likelihood of the Bantams coming back from 4 goals down with 30 minutes to go against a top Premier League side was slim, very slim. Swansea weren't taking any chances which ruined the spectacle for the thousands of Bradford fans which had turned up.
The Bradford were terrific throughout the whole game with constant singing, cheering and flag waving even though they were being thrashed but the Swansea fans on the other hand who may I remind you once again, won 5-0, we're appalling!
Let me give you a very clear example of how the noise in the Stadium panned out. De Guzman scored a penalty to make it 4-0 and the Swansea fans jumped up and celebrated for a matter of seconds and then the East stand fell silent. The great thing at this point was the Bradford fans in the West stand started waving their flags and singing again, they didn't stop till 5 minutes after the final whistle which was a very impressive site.
I'm still staggered at the Swansea fans at how quiet they were in their first major final. Why be so quiet when you win your first ever major cup final, it just seems so pointless.
I don't visit many away grounds but when the chance arises I try to get to the games and I watch most of the games on TV and I have noticed a very suspicious trend with the noises in the certain football stadiums. Lower League teams have such small grounds that their fans create a lot of noise so the grounds are always very loud but in the Premier League there is a massive difference in the north/south divide.
Northern teams always have the loudest stadiums for some reason and does that mean there is more passion in the north than the south or is it to do with the capital. To be honest the capital has been known to be very quiet for football and even Wembley is quiet these days because fans can't afford the trip to the national stadium which is quite sad. Wembley used to have some of the loudest chants running throughout it but since the rise in rail prices and the extensive Wembley tickets the amount of fans has dropped significantly which is very sad.
What is your thoughts on the passion of fans in the present day?
