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Why do Spain, italy and France have such a small away support?


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Old 09-06-2014, 13:16
Dixon
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The French follow their Rugby team in large numbers but only a couple of hundred fans travel to the major Football tournamnets.
Spain and Italy's support is just as poor.

The Scandinavian countries have much smaller populations and none of them are considered 'football powers' but their fans travel in huge numbers!
The Brits, South Americans, Germans, Dutch, and a number of other countries, also have great followings away from home.

Does anyone have any idea why the support is so poor for the French, Spanish and Italians?
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Old 09-06-2014, 13:22
Xela M
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Maybe their fans are not as rich as the other nations?
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Old 09-06-2014, 13:54
Dixon
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Maybe their fans are not as rich as the other nations?
Argentina & Ireland, are poorer than them but they have large away support.
Even some of the old Eastern block countries have better support.
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Old 09-06-2014, 14:06
Coen
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In some countries (e.g. Spain) there doesn't seem to be a culture or tradition of supporters travelling as away support for league games either. So perhaps this same culture transfers across to support for the national team as well.

Not sure exactly why this is the case for league fixtures, possibly a combination of distances involved/later kickoff times etc.
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Old 09-06-2014, 14:14
Ænima
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Maybe it's not such a big deal for them because they've all won it more recently? I always think winning games and finals is more of a big deal to countries that hardly ever win it- I mean, can you imagine England if we won?
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Old 09-06-2014, 14:22
Phoebica
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I disagree about France – from what I've read and seen they've got a lot of fans travelling to Brazil for this world cup.

With Spain and Italy, I think it's what's already been mentioned. Spain in particular "don't do" away matches. Anyone who watches La Liga will have noticed that the away fans are pretty non existent.

Italy on the other hand strike me as glory hunters. Apparently they've only sold 200 tickets for the game v England. Expect to see a significant increase in numbers should they progress quite far though.
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Old 09-06-2014, 14:27
mike65
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Spanish people support their region not Spain., Italy was a bunch of City states and provinces (while under the rule of the French or Austrians who fought each other) until the mid 19th century. Whatever about shared culture (and that's open to debate!) Nationhood is rather thin in these countries.
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Old 09-06-2014, 15:44
Philip Wales
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Could be that air travel is something A: we're used to and B: we have good air links to the rest of the world.
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Old 09-06-2014, 15:45
RichmondBlue
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Spain and Italy have always had good support at Wembley..must be all the waiters.
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Old 09-06-2014, 16:07
klunk
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People from those countries don't travel abroad much, full stop. It's just a cultural difference. They take their holidays in their own country, whereas those of us from colder countries tend to want to go somewhere warmer for a couple of weeks.
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Old 09-06-2014, 16:45
Draca_Noir
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Spanish people support their region not Spain., Italy was a bunch of City states and provinces (while under the rule of the French or Austrians who fought each other) until the mid 19th century. Whatever about shared culture (and that's open to debate!) Nationhood is rather thin in these countries.
True - the Basque region and Catalonia don't really like Spain.

With regards to the Italians, I read somewhere that it's not safe to wear your clubs colours at national games as rival ultras will still attack you, again shows that they probably care more about their clubs than the national team.
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Old 09-06-2014, 17:03
ihatemarmite
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I don't know about Italy but do know that their supporters in London are pretty fervent!

In France and Spain there isn't easy credit and people don't earn much. My mates in reasonably good jobs are on less than €1500 per month. It wouldn't go down at all well for a bloke to leave his family to go to a World Cup! It's much harder for them to fly to Brazil or South Africa than far wealthier English, German or Dutch fans (or Scandi countries when they qualify). I imagine even Portugal won't have many travelling fans and will hope for local support.
It's a pity. I remember in 2010 the majority of the Spain supporters were local Saffies.

The ticket sales so far show the biggest foreign buyers of tickets for this World Cup are Americans, then Argentinians, English, German and Dutch.
I expect to see Croatia fans though.
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Old 09-06-2014, 17:12
Dr. Linus
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As far as this tournament is concerned, Italy to Brazil is quite a trip - understandable that they won't be coming in large numbers given that it's a bit of a toss-up whether they'll reach the second round.

As for Spain, I have also heard in the past that travelling to away games doesn't really happen generally.

I think France may be a combination of the two - not to mention that it's still not that long ago they hosted it - 16 years is still arguably the same generation of fans. Maybe they've seen it all before. It's like Britain and the Olympics - are any Brits who went to our games really going to go all the way to Rio for the next one?
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Old 09-06-2014, 17:13
celesti
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Does the thread title read like the setup to a dirty punchline or is it just me?
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Old 09-06-2014, 17:16
Dr. Linus
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Maybe their fans are not as rich as the other nations?
Nigeria and Cameroon are hardly the wealthiest countries in the world and they always have quite a lot of travelling fans. I think Ghana had a lot of people in for the Uruguay game in 2010 as well, but that was a much shorter journey than this tournament, admittedly.

Brazil itself is not wealthy and legions of fans come to every tournament. God only knows what the hysteria is like in Brazil right now... wish I was there!
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Old 10-06-2014, 09:32
Philip Wales
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TBH I would hazard a guess that most Nigerians etc are probably living in or near the host country, lets see how many can afford to travel to Brazil, which again I will hazard a guess doesn't have a massive African population.
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Old 10-06-2014, 10:04
snukr
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Italy will have big support, there are lots of Italians living in South America. It's not true that Italians don't travel abroard, whenever I've been to the National Art Gallery or British Museum they've always been full of Italians and they are passionate about the national team, I was living in Rome during Euro 2008 and when Italy scored the whole street cheered.
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Old 10-06-2014, 19:09
Dixon
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Italy was a bunch of City states and provinces (while under the rule of the French or Austrians who fought each other) until the mid 19th century. Whatever about shared culture (and that's open to debate!) Nationhood is rather thin in these countries.
I really can't agree with that!

Across the world, people of Italian decent are very proud and feel very strongly about their Italian heritage.
In America, many generation on, they still refer to themselves as 'Italian Americans'.
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Old 11-06-2014, 09:31
ihatemarmite
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imho the one thing that really does unite Italians is the national team.
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Old 12-06-2014, 09:02
soulboy77
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I think it really comes down to the economics of the footballing country concerned and whether fans have enough disposable income to be able to follow their national team abroad and in the big tournaments. Depending on where the competition is being held then support may be bolstered by ex-pat communities nearby and second, third generations of migrants who still have allegiance towards their mother nation.
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Old 12-06-2014, 10:19
henrywilliams58
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People from those countries don't travel abroad much, full stop. It's just a cultural difference. They take their holidays in their own country, whereas those of us from colder countries tend to want to go somewhere warmer for a couple of weeks.
You obviously haven't walked down Oxford Street for some years. Packed with Italians and Spanish people.
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