Language used in football chants

There are many different chants, sung by the thousands of fans of English football on game day. These chants vary from “We’ve got Di Canio” to “Are you city in disguise?” But I want to explore them more. I want to know who uses them and why?

The first trail I chose to explore was the use of taboo language. Cuss words/phrases often appear in football chants such as “*insert name here* you’re a cunt, *insert name here* *insert name here* you’re a cunt!” The use of taboo language is often used in an attempt to abuse or intimidate an opposing player or group of fans. Similar use of taboo could also be used to abuse an official if a decision went in what would be deemed to be the wrong favour.

Linking to the use of taboo language in football chants, sexual connotations frequently appear. A popular chant amongst fans of Chelsea F.C. is ‘Celery’. A line of this chant is sang “if she don’t cum I’ll tickle her bum with a lump of celery”. Using sexual connotations within chants could support the humour theory of psychic release. Psychic release theory is all to do with terminology and situations seeming funny, as they are often considered rude and inappropriate. Psychic release theory often occurs throughout football songs as there is a sense of diminished responsibility as fans are chanting in large groups.

There is good evidence of many different discourse structures within football chants and songs. Some take a discourse of adjacency pairs. This could be if one fan were to shout a question, and the rest of the fans were to answer. An example of this would be from a very popular arsenal chant which leads “What do we think of Tottenham?” by a single fan, and the rest of the stand would be expected to reply “SHIT!” This adjacency pair would be question-answer. Fans would use chants as an opportunity for everyone to get involved. Also, as the original question would be replied to with a powerful minor sentence, the group of fans would seem intimidating yet again to the opposing fans and players.

One major reason as to why football chants and songs are sang so frequently and powerfully would be to become the hypothetical “twelfth man” This would probably be the most significant reasoning for why they are sang as it is all about supporting the side they support. Many teams have songs which are specifically sang by just their fans. It becomes the song of the club. These kinds of songs are sang during every game by the thousands of avid, loyal fans. Some examples of these kinds of songs in the English Premier League would be ‘You’ll never walk alone”- Liverpool F.C. and “I’m forever blowing bubbles”- West Ham United F.C.

There are many factors which contribute to the language used in football chants, there is no definitive reason as to why they are sang. They have just become a significant part of the beautiful game.

 

Adam Bartlett