Sports Rhapsody is back in three weeks. I need your understanding. Originally, today’s theme was, “Isn’t it a fake fan who supports the two clubs?” but we will look into this next week. I hope your readers understand. 안전놀이터
As I mentioned in my last column, ‘Plastic Fan’ means a fake football fan in England. Plastic fans appeared for the first time in soccer history, chasing Manchester United (Manchester United), which performed well. Following Manchester United, as Liverpool FC spent its golden years in their own leagues and European competitions in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of fake fans increased. But even then, the absolute number of plastic fans was not that large.
The Premier League (EPL) was launched in 1992, and plastic fans appeared in earnest a few years later. Once again, the club that led this trend was Manchester United. Manchester United were the absolute powerhouses of the EPL in the 90s. In addition, the number of people cheering for Manchester United across the UK has rapidly increased due to the charisma, overwhelming skills and good looks of Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, and David Beckham.
Manchester United dominated the EPL in the 1990s, but it did not show any effect in the UEFA Champions League. In the 1998-99 season, Manchester United reached the Champions League final, but captain Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were unable to play due to accumulated warnings. Manchester United, which had been dragged 0-1 for more than 80 minutes, won dramatically by defeating Bayern Munich 2-1 thanks to goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in extra time in the second half. As a result, Manchester United are back on top of Europe for the first time in 31 years and achieved a “treble” for the first time in the history of the English club history. Manchester United website
As Manchester United became a national team, the number of fans increased exponentially, resulting in side effects. Many of the newly introduced fans were plastic. In 1999, Ferguson said he was disappointed by the atmosphere at his home ground, Old Trafford, and publicly called for the home crowd to cheer him up even louder.
But captain Roy Keane was furious after the game. In an interview with BBC Radio, he harshly criticized some fans at the home stadium. Keane said, “When Manchester United have an away game, the away fans are fantastic. However, when playing at home, some spectators are not interested in the game, nor do they cheer. They’re just busy eating shrimp sandwiches.” This is how Keane’s famous ‘shrimp sandwich’ remark was born.