In football schools, this is what inhabits the first passions of children. The OM jerseys look at those of PSG, and the valves on the failures of Benedetto or the dives of Neymar fuse as much as the passes are missed. These new generations of supporters are also building new rivalries. Far from replacing history, they demonstrate a new appropriation of modes of communication. Should we take them seriously?
Before these new technological and media rivalries, a whole history of rivalry was built. And this, since the very first football matches. The first supporters attended the match of teams from the same city. Coming from different neighborhoods, the geographical proximity of these teams gave rise to the first rivalries. As football has evolved, several types of rivalry have formed. Starting from society (social, religious, historical, media rivalries), or from proximity (geographic or sporting). How then, to define these rivalries of a new type emerging on social networks?
Sepp Blatter, The Old Firm et la Fiorentina
April 2001. Long before the Covid era, this Strasbourg Metz was played behind closed doors. A penalty due to the incident which interrupted the match earlier in the season (the assistant referee having received a firecracker on the head). Sepp Blatter, then President of Fifa, speaks on the case. In the columns of the Team, he declares : “Football must be played in front of spectators. » One way to demonstrate the importance of supporters in the life and organization of this sport, especially in a derby. If the rivalry between two clubs in the stands is essential, it is also on social networks.
A rivalry made in the 21st century which for example kept the Old Firm alive during the 4 years when the Rangers no longer shared the elite with Celtic. While the Gers vegetated in the lower divisions, the supporters had a great time competing on the Internet. Failing to be able to look at each other and seek each other in real life, they virtually let off steam. A fairly common situation which can be extended. If we only meet twice in the season, social networks allow an ongoing rivalry. Which complements the one that we can have in real life, with colleagues, friends, family … Since it should be remembered that social networks are only the extension and therefore a form of mimicry of human behavior. We see in his drifts the worst of Man, in his good deeds his best aspect.
But why create new rivalries? In reality, football is continually filled with new rivalries. Is it due to an upheaval and a fairly recurring renewal of teams, clubs and cities? Or just the relative youth of a sport that is barely a century and a half old? Whatever, the essential is not there. Let’s come back to these new rivalries: let’s take the example of Fiorentina. Without a geographic rival, the Florentines began to hate the Turinese. Simple story of cheating as revealed by the history of this derby? Not exactly. To exist, we always need to compare ourselves (especially in modern ultra-competitive societies at all levels). And the comparison also passes through the hatred of the other. By finding an enemy, we exist even more and we build even more importantly a strong identity.
“The Narcissism of Small Differences”
To be interested in and understand rivalry, you have to understand what, from a psychological point of view, creates this tension. Freud had constructed the theory of narcissism from small differences. A theory according to which his neighbor is the easiest person to hate for a very simple reason: he is the one who resembles us the most. Only its small differences irritate. The German psychologist cites for example the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the English and the Scots. If you want to learn more about these theories, we advise you this Guardian article (in English.)
Rivalry therefore stems from the hatred we have for the one who most resembles us. So let’s try to model that on the rivalries emerging on Twitter. Why, when each supporter is already inhabited by a rivalry, does he seek another? Perhaps precisely because it moves away from the framework of proximity. If PSG and OM have built a rivalry in recent decades, the gap between the two clubs is now immense. PSG supporters therefore found similar strength in Barca : often champions, with some of the best players in the world, strengths in the transfer market, but with differences: club identity, style of play, etc. And the same goes for OM supporters.
« The previous seasons, I already felt that the fervor fell a bit on my side with all these travel bans. There, I clearly do not have the impression that we are in a week of derby. »
Vincent, a fan of OL.
They can no longer be satisfied with a rivalry which often brings them more disappointment than anything else. So, the proximity with OL is quite obvious. Two major clubs of the 2000s – early 2010, chasing PSG, fighting for qualifying places in the Champions League, and with immense fervor on social networks. Two communities of supporters who resemble each other: chauvinists, proud, but also often open to debate, exchange, and most importantly in a rivalry, the valve.
The importance of the valve
The incessant and continuous activity of social networks allows to stir up the rivalry without rupture. It allows you to tease a match months in advance. The constant storytelling engaged in by the big accounts, and, more and more, the traditional media, helps to build new stories, new rivalries. The memes, the shocking statements are reused endlessly and increase this feeling sometimes of proximity (in the use of social networks, in the type of communication), and of difference (identity of the club, difference of ideas).
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For young people, these new rivalries are also a kind of reappropriation of a football world that no longer resembles them. The football business, globalized and with clubs often turned towards the international, pushes aside the “local” supporter of his club of heart. Direct consequences: the price of shirts, seats at the stadium, or subscriptions to sports channels. Hard for a youth who finds in his hand a tool allowing him to vibrate. There is certainly sports betting, widely mentioned at So Foot or in this Slate article, but also and above all social networks. The accounts of groups of supporters, of more or less chauvinistic personalities, and of a rivalry, as we have already pointed out, continues, without rupture.
Even more in these times of Covid which surely amplified these rivalries. For 20 Minutes, Sylvain, OL fan, testified for example: ” The previous seasons, I already felt that the fervor fell a bit on my side with all these travel bans. There, I clearly do not have the impression that we are in a week of derby. » Because a derby often takes place as much, or even more, in the stands. In a derby like that of OL against ASSE, “It’s 100% concrete and not digital. We all have in our family someone who supports the camp opposite. But, without being able to get to the stadium, without seeing the public vibrate, and in a result often falling on the side of OL, the rivalry is, immediately, much less lively.
But what to take away from all this information? First, that these new rivalries arise from proximity. That they are not, as some claim, the figment of the imagination. That we must therefore respect them, at least as much as the others, even if they do not affect us from a personal point of view. That they should perhaps even be kept alive, because for the youngest generations they constitute a real stake constituting their passion for the round ball. That these Twitter rivalries are, in the end, no less important than the others. And that they are especially not there to replace them. Let’s stop being boomers …
