Are soccer fans more unhinged than Philly sports fans? A conversation between Inquirer journalists

I went to my high school reunion at a cabin in central Pennsylvania last weekend, where cell phone service was nominal, at best. When I returned home and started flipping through social media, I saw images of a whole lot of smoke billowing from the stands of Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly, where FIFA is holding Club World Cup matches. Salacious headlines called it “chaos” and an “outrageous scene.”

Of course, we in Philadelphia are used to such fear mongering from people who’ve never set foot in our city, but it got me wondering: Are soccer fans more passionate or unhinged than Philly sports fans?

(Obviously, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. There are plenty of Philly fans who count soccer among the sports they love).

I’ve covered Philly fans for 18 years and have never asked that question of any other fan base in my life because it didn’t seem possible. That being said, my knowledge of soccer fans is, admittedly, much more limited. The one person I knew I could go to get my questions answered and set the record straight was my colleague and The Inquirer’s longtime soccer reporter, Jonathan Tannenwald.

In between covering games this week, he took the time to chat with me over Slack about what actually happened and how soccer fans compare to our fans.

Stephanie Farr: Hey, Jonathan! I’ve seen Eagles fans set fire to stuff in the streets of Philly following a championship win, but never in the stands. That’d be like setting fire to your church. What the heck was that?

Jonathan Tannenwald: That was, put simply, part of the great spectacle of international soccer. Rest assured it wasn’t actually a fire. It was fans from some of the teams taking part here setting off smoke bombs and flares. And while it might not have been entirely legal (especially when some of the flares landed on the field), it was quite a scene.

S.F.: Do soccer fans often celebrate with smoke bombs and flares, or is this a weird quirk of a particular team’s fan base, like Philly sports fans’ proclivity to propel up poles (greased or otherwise) after their team’s big win?

J.T.: Yes, it is a common thing around the world. It isn’t so much in the United States, because Major League Soccer doesn’t really like it when fans have flares in the stands of the league’s smaller stadiums.

S.F.: Any idea how these soccer fans were able to get smoke bombs and flares into the stadium? According to the Linc’s list of prohibited items, I can’t take a kazoo, a hoagie in its original wrapper, or glitter inside of the stadium (balloons are also listed as prohibited, but from reading your coverage I know there were plenty of those in there too).

J.T.: I don’t know the answer to that. FIFA has its own stadium rules, some of which allow the leaders of fan groups to bring in things like giant banners and musical instruments. Officially, flares and smoke bombs aren’t allowed, but multiple teams’ fan groups have brought smoke bombs in. I’ll also note that [last] Sunday’s Juventus-Wydad game, which was the fourth game here, was the first time where there was actually an announcement in the stadium that the “use of pyrotechnics is strictly prohibited.” Before then, no one had complained.

S.F.: Are soccer fans tailgating in the parking lots ahead of games, like we do? If so, what’s the scene like and would they be open to locals crashing their parties?

J.T.: Yes and yes. The fans of Brazil’s Flamengo, which played here twice, threw a huge tailgate party on Friday before their afternoon game against Chelsea. The scene was wonderful, with lots of singing and dancing, and a whole lot of grilled Brazilian meat. One fan behind a grill offered me a sampling of his steak, and it was delicious.

It bears saying that while many fans traveled here from abroad, a lot of the fans of those international teams live in the U.S. No surprise that many came from New York and D.C., but a lot are around the Philly area, too, and they have been thrilled to have their lifelong teams in town.

S.F.: That tailgate party sounds epic and I am very jealous of your steak sample! I wonder, is there a team’s fans that are the most like Philly sports fans, in your opinion?

J.T.: That’s a tough one. I think it would be unfair to any of the fanbases — especially Flamengo, Wydad (from Morocco), and Espérance (Tunisia) — to pick just one, because each is a giant in its respective country. So I’ll put it this way: Any time you can go to a soccer game with Brazilian fans, it’s a must. There’s no party in sports like it.

The true answer to your question is a soccer team that isn’t here but has a guy from the Philly area playing for it: England’s Leeds United. The team, the fan base, and the city have a lot of history, but a giant chip on their collective shoulder compared to other teams and cities. And Leeds fans definitely don’t mind telling you to your face.

S.F.: Do you think soccer fans are more passionate or more unhinged than Philly sports fans?

J.T.:: Can I answer that question without getting run out of town...

S.F.: Haha! You have said enough.

J.T.: I’ve been fortunate to spend almost my entire professional life in soccer, and truly privileged to be able to travel the world covering it — often for The Inquirer, sometimes for other outlets. Yes, I think soccer fans have a passion for the sport unlike any other. But I’ve also found so many of them to be among the nicest and most outgoing people I’ve met, no matter where in the world they are.

S.F.: Sometimes when I’m covering Philly fan celebrations following a big win, amid all of the absolute chaos, I’ll have these moments or interactions with strangers that remind me why I love Philly and the people who live here. Have you had any of those moments while reporting during the Club World Cup here, that reminded you why you love the sport, a particular team, a fan base, or this city?

J.T.: Oh yes. On the day of the first game here, Flamengo-Espérance on June 16, hundreds of Flamengo fans gathered at the top of the Art Museum steps for a sort of pep rally. I went over to it with some journalist friends who were here from out of town, and I know many local soccer people who went just for the fun of it. There have been a lot of soccer games at Lincoln Financial Field since it opened 22 years ago (gasp), but there hadn’t really been a cultural moment with the sport in the city until now. That, finally was it, and I was so happy to see it after waiting for so long.

There have been quite a few more in town since then, as I’m sure people have seen, and I hope there will be a lot when the biggest World Cup of all comes here next year.

Now, can I turn one question on you?

S.F.: Of course!

J.T.: I think now people are starting to have some sense of what next summer will be like, and get that it will be even bigger. Obviously there’s still plenty of work that needs to happen before then, with transportation planning (especially) and security and so on. But one part is up to everyone: how we as the citizenry treat people who will come in from out of town.

They may or may not have been here before, they may or may not speak English, they may or may not take up parking spaces people are used to claiming as their own. How do you think all that will go?

S.F.: I think this goes to Philadelphian’s penchant for being kind but not necessarily nice. For sure, you’ll having people complaining up and down in advance about the restrictions and inconveniences on their lives (as they did ahead of Pope Francis’ 2015 visit), but I’m hopeful that individual interactions between Philadelphians and visitors will be memorable in the best way. Philadelphians love talking, joking, and partying with strangers, and hopefully, visitors will love doing the same with us.