What sets a soccer fan apart from ordinary individuals? He never misses matches of his favorite team, behaves wildly at the stadium, and soccer is for him a lifetime love affair. Two thousand British fans have arrived in Ukraine to support their national team, which played against ours on October 10 in Dnipropetrovsk. (As you know, Ukrainian team won with the score 1:0.) They laid flowers at historical monuments, visited schools, universities and orphanages, and held the European Schoolchildren’s Championship finals. For us, the visit of foreign fans is an opportunity to show ourselves as good and friendly hosts so that the same people would come here again two years later to see Euro 2012. What else should we do for this? What else do British fans expect from their visit to Ukraine and what is their vision of the European championship? The Day put these and other questions to the England Fans spokesman Mark Perryman.
British fans are often considered aggressive and too active. What do the authorities and fan club leaders do to direct their energy into a positive channel?
“Our fans will be walking around Dnipropetrovsk with flags on which it is written what club they support, their name, or the bar where they drink beer. If the team wins, they will be singing and dancing. Our fans are very easy to notice: when it is sunny outside, they take off their T-shirts but never get a suntan. But all this does not mean that our fans are aggressive. They are loud-mouthed and devoted to their national team. I saw Ukrainian fans in England, when my club played against Shakhtar Donetsk. They sang throughout the match, but they were not aggressive: they were just easy to be seen and heard.
“Naturally, there are troublemakers among fans. Unfortunately, this happens not only in Britain but also in Ukraine, but we do not consider your fans hooligans. And we will ask Ukrainians not to do so to us. We are interested in seeing your country, not only the match. Many fans will put up in Lyiv and Dnipropetrovsk, and some will go on a Dnipro sightseeing tour. The Ukrainians told us at a recent forum of English and Ukrainian fans in London that we should taste borsch and the beer Obolon. There is no better way of conducting diplomacy than giving British fans beer. Seriously speaking, on Saturday morning we will lay flowers at the monuments to those killed in World War Two because we are aware of our common history whenever we visit Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus. This has nothing to do with politics; it is a tradition we maintain during away matches. Then we will visit Dnipropetrovsk’s secondary and boarding schools and universities.
What is the difference between the life of a soccer fan and that of an ordinary individual?
“It is written on our T-shirts that the club is noise, passion, a sense of belonging to the team, and pride for it. This phrase will be equally true for, say, a Dynamo Kyiv fan. We are traveling to the other end of Europe to find something in common with another state, and this is love for soccer. If you want to know what being an England fan means, look into my passport (shows his passport with the visas of Croatia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and other countries – Author). Most of English people will have in their passports the seals of Spain, France, or Italy, but I prefer traveling to the Balkans and Asian countries. I first traveled as a fan in 1996: it was a game in Moldova, when David Beckham first played for our national squad. How many people in England know about that country and its capital Chisinau? That trip prompted me to become a fan, for this gives me a chance to have an interesting lifestyle and discover the world for myself.”
Is the fan club network well developed in Britain?
“All members of our club have personal membership cards, and we are subordinated to a soccer association that comprises 25,000 fans. They all travel to other countries to see away marches. When they receive the membership card, they sign an agreement that they may be vetted for a criminal record. If a fan commits a crime or an act of hooliganism, he ceases to be a club member and is deprived of the club card. Our football association is very progressive: if you want to organize a large fan network, this should be done by fans themselves. The football association gives every fan a traveler’s information when he is going to a certain country: on its population, territory, currency, and the events organized by that country’s fans. We have official supporters as well as independent fans – it is they who take certain actions in the cities we travel to. This has been done since Euro 2000 was held in England. Scottish fans were once considered to be the friendliest, but we want our fans to be thought of in the same way.”
Ukraine is getting ready for Euro 2012. What would you advise us to do to host a successful championship?
“The European championship is the third most important competition after the Olympic games and the world championship. When England played at Euro 2004, 100,000 English fans visited Portugal because it is easier to get there than to Ukraine, and there are beautiful beaches there. What attracts people is not only the championship itself but also an opportunity to visit a new country for four weeks. The current balmy weather can be an impulse for fans to go to Ukraine once more, as can be such things as the way we were received, whether the food and beverages are good, whether we get a fair treatment, whether the transport is cheap, hotels charge reasonable prices, and camping sites are well prepared. We do not want to see police with shields and dogs. Of course, they should intervene if necessary, but they should not be standing at airports or railway stations when fans are arriving.
“Poland and Ukraine have a lot of things to do between today and Euro 2012, including telling everybody that Ukraine is a beautiful place to spend two or three nice weeks in the summer. If about 100,000 fans can come from England alone, you should sell them the idea that they can later come here on holiday. To be frank, most of the fans were glad that Poland and Ukraine won the right to host the championship. So you should take into account that attitude to fans is also the result of political relations between the states and very much depends on this. Therefore, your task is to do it in such a way that our fans may come home with good impressions. Nothing can have a more positive effect on the rapprochement between nations as love of football. This can also bring along popularity.
“With all my respect for you, I will say that the President of Ukraine is not the most popular Ukrainian in the world, while your soccer player Shevchenko is. The same in Britain: very few know who Gordon Brown is but everybody has heard about David Beckham. In other words, soccer is a powerful international language that is clear to everybody.”
