Fans Bola tuh emang doyan memaafkan dosa2 pemain bola.

Mau bunuh orang (Marcos Alonso), memerkosa (Greenwood), hingga pedofil (Benzema), pasti dimaafin.

Cuman 2 “dosa” pemain bola yang gak akan bisa dimaafin, yaitu:
1. Pindah ke Klub Rival (Figo)
2. Berorientasi seksual LGBT. https://t.co/LmiPWev16K

— Geoffrey 🍉 🐧 🦉 (@footycinephile) March 12, 2024

Raised in a football-crazy household, the sport has always been a rare constant in my twenty-one-year-long life. From the moment I was born, all I can remember being excited about was seeing and hearing the satisfying sound of the ball thumping into the goal. It seemed like I was destined to be a part of The Beautiful Game’s diehard fanbase; it looked even more likely when I was the second youngest member of a certain English club‘s official fanbase in Indonesia (my younger brother held the top spot; yes, our household is that much of a football addict). About 12/13 years have passed since that time, and with each passing season in which I engaged in said community, I can firmly say that football’s fanbases are rotten and have failed to live up to the sport’s nickname. 

Of course, it isn’t exactly a unique statement to say about the fanbase and its culture. You can see countless think-pieces on social media, even by the fanbases themselves, every time a big tragedy happens within the football world. I’m not here to talk about the overly physical hooliganism and tribalism that I think 95% of the fanbases themselves agree with. Rather, I’ll talk about the moral hypocrisy and the misogynistic roots of fanbases’ views (especially regarding football players’ actions), which seemed to be a hot discussion both internationally and locally. Football fanbases pick and choose what they want to forgive, but those picks most of the time are immoral, and you can clearly see the misogynistic roots that came with the sport being mostly played by men for more than a century. A tweet by X user, @footycinephile, which I quoted as the opening of this piece, sums this up and acts as the inspiration to write this. 

The Moral Hypocrisy 

This discussion has always been a spicy one to converse about, as it always seems to cause a divide in the sport’s fanbase. I experienced what I think was the peak of the discourse during Mason Greenwood’s case back in early 2022. During those days, most folks outside of football would agree that what he did was abhorrent and he needed to get some kind of punishment. The fanbase’s world? Nu-uh. A loud part of the fanbase either thinks that he’s innocent (which is insane) or they say that while Mason’s action was wrong, he deserved a second chance and should still be allowed to play. Look, I’m not disagreeing with the notion that people deserve second chances, but having been in the community for almost the whole of my life, I know what and how the fans think. Fanbases don’t care about the off-field actions of a football player as long as the player helps their team win games. 

Those second chances they said aren’t actually second chances, as they don’t care about the crimes, the victim, the implication towards young kids, or what the punishment is. They would much rather have their team win a rainy night in Stoke for all they care. They seem to blindly give away their money and energy for an alleged abuser if they can get that euphoria of their team scoring goals. They also have this rose-colored lens when it comes to players they’ve idolized. Take a look at the reactions to Kurnia Meiga’s (ex-Indonesian goalie) case. It was revealed that he abused his wife, but when you look at the discourse amongst local football fans, most will try to forgive him as he’s one of Indonesia’s best ever goalies and a massive part of their childhood. This immoral forgiveness because the man can kick a ball (or save them, in Kurnia’s case) is bewildering to me. Especially when lesser, more unimportant “mistakes” are frowned upon by them. 

The pick-and-choose forgiveness of the fanbase can be seen in how they’re more appalled by players being unhappy and asking out of the club than alleged and actual criminals. Let’s still use the aforementioned Mason Greenwood case and his club’s fanbase as an example. Like I said, a pretty good chunk of the fanbase will say they’ll back him. Compare that to what you’ll get if you ask them what they think of Ángel Di Maria, a player who forced his way out of the club because he was unhappy with the city after his house was robbed. You’ll most likely get answers like “Di Maria is a snake” or “He’s a scum,” even though he left for a perfectly legitimate reason. Another example would be the different opinions regarding Dani Alves (a literal rapist who’s currently imprisoned) and Luis Figo (someone who switched to a rival club). The fanbase will only remember how they loved and thought Alves was a great footballer, yet they loathe Figo for simply moving to a rival club. The priority of a football fan is really skewed, as most are too much of a fanatic that they only have football to rely on in their lives. 

When I was younger, I used to be that fan. The one that let football and their results dictate my day. I skipped classes and acted like an asshole just because my favorite team lost the night before. I get that football might be the only source of happiness in your life, but we all should remember that there are other things in life bigger than the game. I’ve idolized many of these players too; you can even still find tweets of me loving and praising Mason Greenwood or Cristiano Ronaldo, but I’ve come to the realization that these players can also do some really detestable actions. I don’t think I want to be grouped and remembered as the clique that tolerates hard crimes and yet acts like moving clubs as the bane of my existence. I can grow out of that state of fanaticism. 

The Misogyny Roots 

When you try to trace back those baffling excuses to forgiveness and their blind fanaticism, you’ll find that 99% of the time it is rooted in a problem bigger than football and even the sports world as a whole: misogyny. As I said in the introductory section of this piece, the sport has been dominated by only men for more than a century. Sure, there have been spurts here and there, like the women’s golden age in the 1920s (which was then followed by a ban for women using football pitches), but the women’s game has only started to get a lot more eyes during the last two decades. Not to mention, based on a survey by the English Supporters Association, about 84% of football fans are men. With those types of histories and audiences, it’s no wonder misogyny lies deep within most fanbases. 

So, how does this correlate to the fanbase’s pick-and-choose forgiveness? One of the other common responses to deflect from a player’s harmful actions (especially towards women) is by saying said woman is an attention seeker or a gold digger. This is, of course, a tactic not only used by football fans but also by misogynistic men in general, as they tend to believe that women are beneath them and are trying to topple their position in the hierarchy. The hypermasculine view, where they project themselves as the player with all the power and materialistic riches, makes them side with the player and blinds them from the objective views, where it’s clear that said players did terrible things. I have seen so many football fans defend alleged rapists and abusers by saying, “What if it’s fake?” when, in fact, fake allegations rarely happen. This is another deflection tactic commonly used by other misogynistic groups, too. 

This misogynistic view does not only affect women and victims but also men—even the players themselves. Hector Bellerin, a footballer known for his bold fashion style, once said that it’s “impossible anybody could be openly gay in football,” after he was criticized for his fashion style. Mind you, Hector is straight and he only loves his fashion, but the fanbase, of course, had a go at him. This sort of behavior is the reason why openly LGBT+ men footballers (even in sports in general) are rare, and if they did open up, the amount of hate would be unfathomable. This is sickening, especially when they accept second chances for murderers and rapists but can’t, for the life of them, accept a different sexual preference. The misogynistic views even sometimes bleed to the fetishization of lesbians in women’s football, where they sort of accept or “forgive” them, but then again, the fanbase rarely gives a damn about women’s football and thinks it’s below them—which is another effect of misogyny in football. 

Football fans, especially men, often have these unconscious misogynistic views when they try to make a decision or form an opinion about a player. This, of course, connects with the notion of how much of a hypocrite most of the fanbase were. I’m a man, and being in this space for years makes me realize how much of a misogynist I used to be without me even knowing. Now, every discussion with other folks in the football community, I’ll try to change some of their perhaps uneducated views, as these views can affect the football world as a whole. 

The Beautiful Part of the Beautiful Game 

As much as I know and experience first-hand the atrocities and often perplexing logic of football’s fanbase, I still can’t dissociate myself from the game itself. The togetherness of a fanbase is still wonderful, the singing and chanting songs together is still fun, and football as a game is still beautiful. Football and its culture, including the fanbase, should be enjoyable and inclusive for everyone. We shouldn’t prioritize our selfishness as fans that we become blind to the cruelty that exists in our world. Take a look outside of the world. Football is beautiful, but it isn’t the most important thing on this earth. Those who currently identify as a football fan should take a look in the mirror, see whether we have made these mistakes, and try to make this space better as a whole. We can’t change the space by ourselves, but we damn well could if we all at least try.