Family, friends and football. Feeling home abroad

Family, friends and football.






Feeling home abroad































Courtesy of Pexels

Dennis Bergkamp,
former football player
and Arsenal icon, on
supporting a team.

Courtesy of Quora,
https://www.quora.com/Is-
it-okay-to-change-your-
favorite-football-team-that-
is-switch-loyalty-from-one-
club-to-another

Supporting Football




Supporting your favourite team means dealing with
stress and disappointments when ‘they’ lost. But

however the results, you stay loyal to your team.
When ‘they’ win, it means that ‘we’ are the best.
And when ‘we’ win, it means absolute madness.

















A fan in Rotterdam found a creative way to not miss a thing of the ceremony.
Courtesy of Lars van der Bel (left)

Dutch article about the Euro Cup 1988 from a treasured magazine:
‘Colourful parade conquers German football cities. Kanjers [very great people]
confess colour.’
The motto of this Euro Cup was: Supporters of all countries paint yourself! (above)

Allez les Blues! Euro Football 2000 by Ton van Rijn.
Courtesy of Stadsarchief Amsterdam (left)




‘‘Oranjegekte’ (Orange-madness): the Netherlands won the Euro-Cup in 1988. A
football fan preserved his magazine to remember this historic moment. (below)














All-out celebration in Mallorca the night that
Spain won the Euro-Cup in 2012. (below)

But what if you come from a different background



or country?




Are people able to identify with the
football team of a country where they
were not born? Which team brings them

into ecstasy? Recent developments in
Dutch football show that even fourth

generation immigrants prefer to cheer
and play football for the country of
origin instead of the country of birth.

What does that say about the concept
‘home’? And how do expats experience

home?


The FIFA World Cup 2010 was broadcasted
on big screens at Zuidplein in Amsterdam
where everyone supports the Netherlands

together. Courtesy of Stadsarchief Amsterdam

Do you support home from a distance?





Skype with your children, call with some friends or now and then watch a game
of your favourite football club. Staying connected with home appears

something to have to do with sports too. People take pride from a particular
football team, because it represents the city or country they love so dearly. But

even expats, who are sometimes for years away from home, show to be loyal to And sometimes even an American
their ´native´ football teams. team??? Strange way to play
football by the way.

Supporting a local team… Supporting a national team…

A football-expat?






Even football players themselves sometimes remain loyal to their
home while playing somewhere else. A football-expat is something
relatively new. The picture on the right is a football-card of

probably one of the most influential players within football of all
time. No indeed, this is not Cruijff, Maradona or Pele. A lawsuit

between Bosman at the one hand and RFC Liege, the Belgian
Football Association and the UEFA at the other, resulted in 1995 in
the Bosman ruling. It meant that clubs could employ as much as

foreigners as they wanted. Thereby changing football forever.
Football clubs became global institutions with global expats as

overpaid employees.


Bosman as a Standard Liege player (1983-1988) before making the short

trip to R.F.C. Liege, the club against he began a lawsuit.
Courtesy of Colin Littlewood

Listening to Football





Before 1927 supporting football was only

possible by watching a match live. But on the
22 of January 1927 the BBC broadcasted a
nd
football match live through the radio: Arsenal -

Sheffield United played at Highbury. A listeners

aid, here shown on the right, was meant to help
listeners understand the commentary that was

provided. Having learned from the first live

broadcasted rugby match, they used two

commentators: one told what action was

happening, the other told in which section of
the listeners aid it was happening.



Courtesy of the Radio Times

Listen to old radio reports







Partial radio report: Manchester United – Liverpool,
FA Cup Semi-final 1979
Language spoken: English

Source: YouTube click here



Partial radio report: Verona – Milan
20 Maggio 1973
Language spoken: Italian

Source: YouTube click here


Partial radio report: Feijenoord – Celtic

Final Europe cup 1970
Language spoken: Dutch
Source: YouTube click here
Complete collected sticker book from 1970 – 1971
showing the Feijenoord football players.

Modern media makes it easy to support your team



no matter where you are






With the recent appearance of internet and social media, people are

not only able to communicate with each other while living far away
but also are able to follow their beloved football teams. Supporting

football from a distance has never been so easy.














Whether it is news or live matches: everything

is just a click away on the internet.
(8 December 2017)

More than one team?!



Thanks to internet and hundreds of sports channels people

have the opportunity to support a team in every country.
Because of that, not everybody chooses to focus on one club

for the rest of their lives.




Amanda van Mulligen on the WeAreXpats Twitter feed:
‘So my expat life has meant a collection of football teams I

support.’




What?! A collection of football teams? And who is Amanda
van Mulligen?







Courtesy of WeAreXpats

Meet Xpat Amanda






‘I was a football season ticket holder in England and now transferred my
football love to a Dutch side. ADO is doing well so far 9/9 points!’


‘If you’re a football fan and an expat adopt your local club. Live football beats

watching it on the TV hands down!’






The British Amanda van Mulligen at the
Dutch ADO Den Haag stadium for her
son’s birthday party.
(2017, left)


A picture Amanda took in the stadium of
her favourite Dutch football team ADO

Den Haag.
(August 2016, right)

Both courtesy of Amanda van Mulligen

A proper birthday cake for a football
fan. (2016)

Amanda supported Watford FC in

England and has great memories
of seeing live matches with her
family. She wanted the same for

her children while living in the
Netherlands. Hearing good things

from fellow expats she started
attending ADO Den Haag matches
with her sons. She also took her

eldest son to a Watford match so
that he could experience the

different culture: seeing a football
match in the Netherlands is
different from a match in England. Courtesy of Amanda van Mulligen


Expats getting involved supporting a local football club is great in many ways according to Amanda:
culture immersion, language, being a part of something in the local community and meeting other people.

Supporting as a choice. A hybrid tradition








Amanda shows to be an interesting alternative for supporting
your home team. Why only support your old home team when

you found a new home elsewhere? Supporting a new home
team helps you integrating as a expat. It learns you something
about the identity of your new home city and country. Be brave

and plunge yourself in the local community by sharing feelings
of pride, disappointment and joy.











For Amanda and her new country it meant mostly disappointments,
unfortunately.
Courtesy of Amanda van Mulligen

Multiple teams, multiple homes





And do not just support one team. Make your own collection of teams you support at home and abroad.
Try to fit a double identity or multiple identities and create a home in different places.


Iris Geldermans: supporter of Spain,
the Netherlands and de Kennemers.
(below)




















Lars van der Bel: supporter of Feyenoord Why choose when you can support more
Rotterdam, Scotland and Germany. (above) than one team? Support them all! (above)
Courtesy of Lars van der Bel Courtesy of the Amsterdam Museum

Credits







Curators: Lars van der Bel and Iris Geldermans




With thanks to:


Colin Littlewood Dr. Manon S. Parry

Expatriate Archive Center and Sarah Bringhurst Familia Dr. Amy K. Levin

Amsterdam Stadsarchief Pexels

Amsterdam Museum Quora

Drs. W. Geldermans The Radio Times




And a very special thanks to Amanda van Mulligen