BEFORE proceeding with this article, there are a few important things you need to know about me, writes PIM WANGTECHAWAT.
I am a girl in my early twenties. I am a Liverpool fan (obviously). I am Thai, which means I look as Asian as you can possibly look. And I was that tourist in that Thomas Cook seat at Anfield.
Let me rewind a little.
I come from a country where supporting Liverpool is a huge thing. Huge. The morning after Istanbul happened, one of our most famous news anchors delivered the morning news in a Liverpool shirt. He hadn’t slept the entire night.
When you go around the country, you see the badge on motorcycles, on the back of cars — there is even an entire restaurant dedicated to the team (the food there is quite terrific, but that’s another story). In Bangkok, where I live, you’d spot a Gerrard shirt or a person in full Liverpool kit just a few minutes after you walk out the door.
I was among the fans who went to see the Reds play in Bangkok during the 2009-10 pre-season. Jay Spearing was running around, Voronin did his whole pony-tail thing, Gerrard was stuck in court back in Liverpool, and the Reds were pretty dreadful all around. But, in spite of it all, we got to see Xabi Alonso walking around in his flip flops, Dirk Kuyt gave us a smile, and we chanted Fernando Torres’ name until it felt like the stands would collapse.
It was like The Beatles had come to town. In fact, The Beatles’ reception would be nothing like what these lads got. We are proper fanatics.
All that said, for the average Thai Liverpool fan, going to a match at Anfield is a distant and impossible dream. Even coming over to Europe is a pretty difficult feat. And it is safe to say that our country and its people are as different from Liverpool and their people as Jose Enrique is to Jamie Carragher. Which is to say, there is a lot of difference. (NOTE: I am, by no means, comparing my countrymen to Enrique. Oh, what the hell).
And yet, we love the club. I’d like to believe we all love it the same way.
I was lucky enough to watch the Reds play in England twice during my time studying in London. The first time, my parents took me to White Hart Lane. It was back when we were under Kenny. My family and I could not buy tickets through either of the clubs’ official websites because they were already sold out. The ones that were available, we did not qualify for. I won’t bore you with the logistics of it, but the gist of it is that we couldn’t get the tickets “the right way”. So we had to buy them through a ticket touting website. I do not want to write down the amount we paid for them, but I’ll say this — it would be enough to pay a week’s rent for a posh London flat.
A few days before the match, the tickets still hadn’t been delivered to our hotel. We panicked, my father did some yelling down the phone, and just the day before the game, they arrived. It was close. Our seats were among the Spurs fans and just behind a pillar.
No one should go to a match in this way, but for a clueless Thai girl from halfway around the world, I felt like it was the sacrifice I had to make.
All in all, it was a mix-bag kind of experience. We talked to a nice steward who said the away end always sells out when Liverpool play and we got to hear stories about dodgy Arsenal fans. My dad, who is not a football fan, yelled to get Carra’s attention during the warm up (the IQ levels of us Asians tend to drop considerably lower when we’re tourists in Europe). Oh yeah, and we lost 4-0. That part was miserable.
For my first time going to Anfield two years later, I was determined not to repeat the same experience. It was a game against Manchester City. My two younger brothers and I took the coach up from London and we arrived in freezing Liverpool at 6am. Again, it was almost impossible to get tickets. I was not going to risk it again with another ticket tout. We ended up with Thomas Cook. The price came with accommodation. For a tourist who would have to pay double that for tickets and accommodation, this Thomas Cook package was the best option. That, or we were just clueless Asians.
This time, we sat right at the back of the Main Stand. It wasn’t too bad, actually. People around us seemed to be from Liverpool, I think. Everyone left us alone. We sang when the songs spread our way from The Kop. Stood up when something exciting happened, and then just sat watching the game. Basically, we did what everyone around us was doing.
We drew the game 2-2. I got to walk across Stanley Park, joined in with You’ll Never Walk Alone, finally caught a glimpse of Steven Gerrard, and celebrated TWO Liverpool goals. My brother got to meet Daniel Agger. There were a few tears and we were made up.
Lately, there have been a lot of discussion about “real” fans and the atmosphere at Anfield. What is the point of all my ramblings, you might ask. Well, maybe there isn’t any point. But here’s the thing.
I myself could have easily been the person with the half and half scarf. I could have easily been the tourist taking the selfie. And in many ways, I was the “atmosphere-destroying” Asian girl in the Main Stand. It is just this:
We do not know any better.
I’d like to think that there is not just one “right” way to support a football club. If there is, the rules should be printed somewhere. Preferably on the internet in multiple languages. But right now, there are no solutions and we struggle to even discover the true causes of these problems. My experiences are just that — experiences. Your experiences are just that as well.
People talk of taking action. Of making changes. Maybe first, before we take action, now is the time to listen. To everyone.
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Pics: Submitted & David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Extremely well put. If your passion for the club is not welcome at Anfield, then we’re all missing the point entirely.
Lfc is a global institution. It’s time locals clued up to the message from this Thai lady…that for some of our loyal fans every match is an away. Give them a warm welcome. Let then know how we behave as fans at a game but do it right, not with a sneer
Im so bored of people moaning about selfies. If people want to take a pic to show off on social media that they are at a sporting event then, whats the issue? We’ve all done it when we have been away.
However next time you’re at the game and see someone taking a selfie. Instead of moaning, why not be a good person and offer to take a couple of pictures of them for them.
what a brilliant piece, Pim. I take it for granted with a season ticket & living 6 miles from Anfield. Not until you read such pieces that you realise how hard it is to follow the club for many. Just one final point though, never NEVER go for the half and half scarves!!!
Pim-
Great recap! I agree there is no “right” way to support your club.
I’m from the States, and I just made my first trip to Anfield for a game in November. I spent a year in Liverpool at uni, and went to Anfield for a stadium tour while I was there. Some of the discussion about how international fans are ruining the atmosphere annoyed me, because I figure we have to be pretty darn passionate to spend the money and time making it to Anfield. I did buy a half and half scarf (for a friend who collects them), and I took selfies (without a selfie stick) from the Anfield Road end (before and after, but not DURING, the match), and I sang my heart out when called upon. I teared up while singing YNWA, and got a little mad I didn’t have the chance to sing Poetry in Motion during the match (we definitely sang it post-match at the bar). I urged the boys on, which is more than I can say for half of the proper fans from Liverpool sitting around us. I even inspired Glen Johnson to score a goal before practically knocking himself out! That’s right Gibbo, my first match was in fact Stoke at home! (I had a good chuckle at that part of the AFQ podcast that week.)
(Fun fact: I’ve seen two LFC goals scored in person now- by Joe Allen and GlenJo. Practically the football version of unicorns.)
The thing is, I consider myself so, so lucky to have been able to go to a match at Anfield, especially one we won. So of course I am going to take photos and purchase memorabilia for that match in case I’m not fortunate enough to go again. Anfield was definitely a bucket-list trip for me, but it’s because I love the team more than anything that is not my family or my pets. I even have YNWA tattooed on my person! Whenever I go back to Liverpool, I don’t consider myself a tourist, I consider it visiting my adopted home. So please don’t tell me I’m not a “proper fan.”
Mega! Hope to see you at a game again soon
Brilliant read that. Brilliant.
great article and it’s nice to see it from a “as you say thomas Cook supporter”, however there’s a general feel as a scouser myself that the club is being taking away from us ( the local fan ), we’ve been taught how to support the team from our fathers grandfathers which is passed like a encyclopaedic book of does and dont’s as a Liverpool supporter.
We see ourselves as unique and different to other clubs supporters, and then we see this tradition were brought up on being more and more pushed out by the modern day football soccer am chants ( you don’t need me to say ), we feel like we’re losing our identity and in truth the club we love, the institution that’s our life, every conversation in our football mad city starts off to people we don’t know with “red or blue”!
I’ve nothing against out of town fans or Asian, American or if there from Mars, as long as there passionate the same way as I am about the club, we appreciate that our success has heralded foreign legions of supporters, the only thing I dislike is half and half scarves…..please swerve them
predictably no comments for an article written by an OOT’er. Thanks for representing us.
“Predictably no comments”. What are you on about, Bill?
Excellent article. Something we need to keep in mind if the continuing trend of negativity towards the obviously out of town fan continues. I know people will counter this with the view that all fans are accepted if they adhere to a few key stipulations but it’s a fine line to tread between re education and alienation of the non Liverpool supporter.
I will be attending QPR, first time at Anfield…4 weeks away and I’m already buzzing.
Tried getting tickets through NYC supporters club, no luck. Woke up at 2am local time to get in the queue online, no luck. Ended up paying the ridiculous fee for hospitality tickets. Feel like I should eat the complimentary chicken and rice, reckon it’ll taste like a million bucks.
Just hope the seats are good and no one around me is slagging Raheem because I might have a go at them.
Great article, thanks for representing the Reds from around the globe!
Hello Stephen,
I’m going for the QPR game as well . it’s my first time to anfield as well. I’m from Singapore .. So excited ! We could meet up at Liverpool ! Ynwa !
Good article. It takes something like this to show the way.
Why can’t the Club/Spirit of Shankly/1906 or whoever wants to do it, make up a pamphlet with ‘What to do on the Kop’ (Kopite behaviour – that’d tickle the Toffees), words to the songs, instructions to raise your scarf during YNWA etc – all the stuff that the regulars know, but the infrequent visitors or day -trippers don’t?
Leave a copy on every seat before the game. Who knows, it might get some of the miserable old regulars singing ;)
I was thinking about this lack of atmosphere conundrum the other week.
I’m quite open to being wrong here but why don’t the match going regulars sing, chant, get the atmosphere going and generally teach those around them how they should be behaving when in Anfield.
As Pim rightly pointed out, she doesn’t know any different. Surely it should be the actions and vocals of the regulars that steers the rest of the crowd. Slowly and surely more and more will learn how to create that atmosphere and being part of that atmosphere will be part of the match going experience for those who only get a coupla times a year.
The club has its own part to play by maybe offering cheaper tickets to u21s, tickets available on match day, lower prices in general.
I loved reading that. I’ve never made any secret that I love the fact that people all over the world love Liverpool. I often get contacted to keep a look out for tickets for someone who only has one chance of getting to Anfield and I always get them for them. Same for fathers and sons where I live. I go out of my way and charge face value (obviously). I’ve done it over 20 times because I know what it means to people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not from Liverpool. I live 25 miles away so I’m an out of towner too but I don’t have time for stuff like that. Like all of us, Liverpool is in my blood.
I think we should be clear on the points though here. People want people with passion in the ground. Obviously Pim, you’ve got that. I’d guess no one would have a problem with that. I’ve always found Scandinavians and particularly Irish are very vocal in their support but it’s not really about where you come from. I’ve got a twin sister and if say, Suarez walked passed her in the street she wouldn’t know who he was. Yet, she gets brilliant tickets. She goes because she likes to have a main stand corporate lunch. She likes sitting on the same table as Kenny on the odd occasion, even though she doesn’t know whether he was a goalkeeper or a forward. She gets Utd Liverpool tickets for Old Trafford too. Does she give them to me? Someone who could make his lads dream come true by sitting with some of those people. Does she bollocks! She goes along in high heels ready to network and rate the hospitality. she then watches the game (after asking which strip Liverpool are in). It makes me effing mad.
My point is, this is common place in the ground. The bank near me offer tickets to people who’ve put the most people in debt that week. It’s a reward scheme. My sisters husband owns bars. He’s got the suppliers giving him tickets for buying off them, a little sweetner every few months. Can you see what I’m getting at? It’s not about your geographic location it’s about the distribution of tickets. Real fans like you are getting stung because you can’t buy them from the club. They’re all in corporate hands. Companies are buying season tickets to distribute at work. I even know a doorman who gets 4 tickets for every game, but supports Utd, because he does a bit of security work for Utd players. work that one out.
I commented on one of the other articles that when I took my lad to his first game I took loads of photo’s of him. Not arsed what anyone thinks of that. It doesn’t bother me when I go on Facebook and see people that I know have no interest in football posing at Anfield on match days. But that’s what’s at the heart of it, I think. I think the waters have been muddied in the deliverance. I’d guess the bottom line is if you love the team then you’re welcome.
Personally, I don’t blame the individuals, I just don’t like the distribution of tickets.
Interesting to hear the level at which the corporate tickets are passed around. As someone who can’t get to the games very easily, it’s difficult not to get angry about it just reading it. If it is this then it brings the stadium expansion sharply into focus. The main increase will be corporate, according to Ian Ayre, and judging by what you’re saying the atmosphere is only going to get worse.
I’ve said before on here that local fans are vital. I, as an out-of-towner, often get as frustrated with atmosphere as I might do with, say, Glen Johnson when watching us fail to get going against Stoke at home on some flaky internet stream. Having said that, I’ve only been to Anfield once – versus Blackburn on the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough. Hillsborough was my first memory of football as a 5 year-old. The cup final against Everton the same year was where it all started and, in an effort to stop me crying every morning when I had changed school, my parents bought me a Liverpool shirt. So, 20 years later, my first visit was a little overwhelming. I didn’t join in with YNWA as, I suppose, I just wanted to soak it up, and with it being such a poignant day for the city, I guess that YNWA didn’t feel like it was mine to join in. That soon changed. I was right behind Torres’s wonder-strike at the Anfield Road end and I went mental. Almost fell over the seat in front of me. We all did and we were going for the title again. That’s enough to wake you up after a 6am start to get there for the 12.30 kick off. But that’s what it is. We can’t all get to the game. Be it for financial reasons, distance or both, the sharp contrast between the author of the article and your sister makes the selfies and half n half scarves seem irrelevant. The expansion is a very necessary step for the club financially, but at what price?
Yeah mate. There are many factors to this. Let me quickly tell you something else. Just briefly regarding my sister, the company sends an email every game to all the directors asking who wants the tickets. There’s no Liverpool fans among them. She only takes them when the email comes around again pleading for someone to take them. No takers for Liverpool v Everton. Ridiculous. I know 100% that a Utd fan often takes them. Again, he can network.
One of my mates has 2 season tickets. He works nights and his dad can’t be bothered now so they give them to a tout for some games and to other people if there’s little demand. They’ve been offered 1k for the Palace game (Gerrards last home game). The tout will make his mark up obviously. They keep the tickets because they pay for themselves plus a bit of profit and they can go to any game they choose. The Utd ones recently went for £300 each to the tout. Ok, you could argue someone willing to buy them off the tout at that price is possibly passionate as well as rich but someone different is in that seat every week.
Finally, haha, season tickets are hard to get. When you get in your 60’s and 70’s a lot of people lose the desire to go every week. They can’t give them up though because they never come back. So, they flog them for most games too or give them to family members. Another mate has a couple of season tickets. He normally goes to every game but had 2 kids in quick succession and decided to leave it for a year. Again, he couldn’t give it back so he put ads on the internet in Scandinavia. He was booking the hotel and flights, arranging pick up at the airport and charging double for it all. It’s definitely happening on a large scale. I suppose I’m trying to convey the transient nature of the supporters. The Kop is less like that. One thing to note though, the club are getting onto this. I heard a story somewhere that the club has contacted some and asked why their seat has had a different person in it every fortnight.
We’ll need more than 55k seats before demand drops.
It’s obviously shocking to read what you say about the way season tickets are being treated by people and it’s logical from mine and other’s like me’s point of view to conclude that people are taking the privilege of having a season ticket for granted. In fact, it seems like, in their own way, they’re taking full advantage of that privilege, but in the modern world and in the recent economic climate I’d be hesitant to make any judgements.
I can’t blame the United fan either for taking the tickets. Networking aside, I’d take free tickets for United v City simply as a lover of the game happily revelling in a City win.
It’s a tough one. Expansion is a no brainer but, as you say, 55k is not only not even papering over the cracks, it’s also bringing its own challenges with it.
Anyway, Robin. Always enjoy your posts. Insightful every time. Cheers.
Well said Pim!
Nice to hear from you and always welcome as far as I’m concerned – coming from an Irish out of towner.
YNWA
Great news that you got tickets, from previous experience I would’nt get too excited about the curry and rice though!
Give it a miss and have an extra pint and then a pie from Home Baked Bakery, delicious.
The “Home Baked” tip was addressed to Stephen above [sorry, dammed Captcha code caught me out]
Read you loud and clear, thanks mate.
Get chips and curry sauce as well
Great piece and your absolutely right, there is no ‘Right’ supporter and there is no ‘Right Way’ to support your team. However and whoever we are, we support the team and the club in our own way.
Thanks for writing this
Great article I mentioned in Gareth’s original article maybe it would be nice if fans spoke to the day trippers and explain a bit about the culture in a nice way rather than sneer. If your a match regular just imagine if you only had one chance in your lifetime to see the Reds live in a proper game(Imagine that game was 1999 Watford at home!) I would probably do and buy everything I could.
I am from liverpool originally . I used to go to many games. Turn up support go home , not even buy a program. I now live in australia and went to the Swansea home game this year. I purchased the ticket as a corporate one back in August on my own membership which I still stupidly pay 50 quid for each year. This was my first game in 6 yrs . I took pics before , at half time and after. It’s not “cool” I know, I’m nearly 40!
I done this because I wanted a momento, because I don’t get to go every week anymore. Now I watch at 4am instead from a far. I don’t take pics during the game because I am too engrossed in the game.
And I sang more than the moany old twats around me and we won 4-1.
I used to be a regular, now i am a day tripper. There maybe a small minority of day tripping dickheads but most have gone to extraordinary lengths to acquire tickets. Just as not every season ticket holder eptomises the twelfth Man (some are even bad bad bell ends)not all day trippers are box ticking bucket listers .
Great piece, thanks for writing this Pim. I love the bit about the Thai news anchor! The first time I went to Thailand I was amazed by the huge LFC flags hanging off the back of tuk-tuks etc. I know I’m biased, but feels so much more uplifting seeing these than the “little England” flags on taxis for about 2 weeks every 2/4 years which is the only comparable thing we get where I live. Although to be fair, the closest thing to this would probably be the cab I took back from my last LFC game where the whole dividing screen between cabbie and passengers was an Everton badge! >_< "All cabbies are Evertonians" – maybe one to be included on the mooted list of instructions for out of towners?
Are you a SUPPORTER or do you want to go to Anfield to watch Liverpool? There is a MASSIVE difference!!!
The issue here isnt where someone has come from to watch the match, whether that is Thailand or Toxteh, Ireland or Litherland, its what they do when they get there.
Anfield (as has been pointed out by plenty of the worlds best players and managers inc Thierry henry lately) has ALWAYS had an amazing atmosphere, our twelth man, the kind that has regularly sucked the ball towards the goal.
That comes from the fans, and to some extent really began with the singing of Beatles songs in the 60’s on the Kop. The Kop i stood on week in week out and sang and shouted til i was hoarse from the age of 6 in the early 70s til I had too many kids to be able to afford to go anymore, over 20 years home and away.
Support does not come from a stuffed bird, this is NOT mascot-world, part of the USA type drivel being forced on us. The Liver bird belongs in one place, on our crest, not packaged up as a fool in a stuffed suit. At my first match I wanted to see Steve Heighway and Shankly (in that order, i later realised i got it the wrong way round, but i was only 6), not some ‘kids party’ disney character!
The team and the crest are all we need, we worship OUR team in OUR stadium Anfield, we are the REAL owners of Liverpool. We can survive with different owners, we cant survive with different fans.
Anfield never has been and never should be allowed to become a Liverpool FC theme park.
Ive been invited to a box a few times through business associates/work, trust me, someone in a suit can sing longer and louder than a replica shirt wearer, because i did.
It is all about the SUPPORT.
Buy a ticket to the match by whatever means you can if your going the game to SUPPORT the team, to sing, and chant and shout, but please leave seats available for those fans who want to go and SUPPORT Liverpool, not those who want to go to Anfield and watch a game. There is a BIG difference.
If you want to say youve been to Anfield book a stadium tour and take as many selfies as you want, just please dont take up the seat of a SUPPORTER.
Spend your money in the shop, Buy a CD of the Kop Choir and put it on in your comfy armchair when you get home and watch the game that will suffice if you dont intend to SUPPORT the team. Buy a scarf (thats one with the words LFC or Liverpool on it, there are no other types, half & halfs should be banned, unless for some odd reason you support both teams on the scarf, in which case, please go to the other teams games on your scarf and leave Anfield for Liverpool SUPPORTERS, not for the undecided).
Above all SING. CHANT, And SING some more. Everyone has to ‘learn the words’ at some time, there are plaenty of websites and fanzines thta have the wors to many songs and chants, learn them off by heart like your life depends on it, because thats how much it means to a Liverpool SUPPORTER……DONT get the game and read them off your Ipad, thats just as bad (or maybe even worse) than wearing a half-n-half!
And if you dont know who Tommy is, can i suggest you go and watch sport at the weekends instead.
SUPPORTING LFC is not a sport….its a way of life, just ask God……the real God, not the one in the bible!
Is anybody else wondering how fit Pim might be? :)
Thank you. Just thank you.
I have no issue with people going to City at home, sure it’s annoying they show up for the big game, but at the end of the day City goes down to all members, everybody has that chance.
What annoys me about that article is showing up at Spurs away, there’s Reds who follow the team around the country who won’t have got tickets for Spurs and will have been sat at home watching on the tele or stuck in a boozer around the ground after travelling down to London. By buying a ticket off a tout you’re essentially saying “screw those lads who go supporting the club regularly, I’ve got more money than you so I get to go instead”. It’s an attitude completely at odds with Liverpool FC and Liverpool itself.
As for there being a proper way to support Liverpool football club, there absolutely is, the club has a pretty unique culture that most other clubs in the country will never replicate. And people are worried we are losing this culture because the home and away ends are getting more and more full of people who don’t get it. maybe there should be a list of “dos and donts” send with every Thomas cook ticket by the club, but I have 0 understanding or sympathy for people willing to do good reds out of tickets by buying through touts, regardless of how much they’ve paid
There are also Reds that will have the credits, bought the ticket then flogged it for as much money as they can get. To touts. Or they act as touts themselves. What are they doing for the culture of support, mate? Aren’t they saying ‘screw those lads who go supporting the club regularly’? Is that an attitude completely at odds with Liverpool FC and Liverpool itself? What’s your point? How do you expect Pim, or anyone else coming to a game for the first time, to know these ‘rules’? Rules that don’t actually exist. There are Scousers who have hoarded seasies flogging them game by game for as much as they can get. There are Norwegians doing the same. Let us know which of these are ‘good reds’.
Not sure I follow your logic on this. It’s close to impossible to get tickets when you live outside the UK through the club. Touts and hospitality packages are the only option.
Getting the match ticket is the keystone of the entire trip. You can’t plan the rest of the logistics without it.
I made my bucket list trip to Anfield last season and caught the City match. After paying £1000 per plane ticket and insane amounts of money to feed and house my family of 5 while in England for the week, what I paid a tout to stand on the Kop was incidental.
By the way, the tickets that I bought from the Tout were a fellow Reds season ticket. One of my fellow Reds had no issue making a profit on me, nor do I begrudge them for doing so. My family of 5 had a truly memorable day at Anfield and I hope to pull it off again at some point in the future.
By the way, fantastic article Pim.
Is this wrap always full of crying glory hunters?
Is this wrap always full of crying glory hunters telling us how great they are?Were finished as a proper club.
Great article!
Here’s a new way to tackle the problem of the flagging Anfield atmosphere: Fly in 1000 of those Indonesian nutcases for every home game and sit them together. That’ll liven things up.