Flamengo and the Boo Boys – Should Fans Boo Their Own Team?
So it appears Ashley Cole was booed by a section of England fans in the recent 5-1 win over Kazakhstan. Big deal. Generally speaking I am not a fan of the boo boys, whose impatience is rarely if ever helpful for the team. Unless it is in circumstances that really warrant it I am of the opinion that, as a supporter of whatever club, fans should try to support and encourage the team at all times, especially in moments of struggle when they need it most. The counter-argument of course is that, as a paying customer, supporters have the right to vent their feelings in whichever way they see fit.
Previously I would have been inclined to pour scorn on those who booed Cole, however detestable a character he is. England won with relative ease, why the need for heckling one of their own? That is until I went to the Maracana this past weekend and witnessed a spectacle of supporter anger, booing and all round enraged derision the likes of which I have never seen before.
Flamengo are a Rio de Janeiro based Brazilian football club who, with an estimated fanbase of around 40 million fans, claim to be the world´s best supported club. Riding high in the 2008 Campeonato Brasileiro, Brazil´s top division, the team nicknamed Mengão or the Rubro-Negro (descriptive of their distinctive scarlet and black shirts) went into last weekend´s crunch game against Atletico Mineiro just four points behind league leaders Gremio and looking a good bet for a place in next year´s Copa Libertadores.
Their opponents Mineiro are a mid-table club who supposedly had little hope of toppling the mighty Flamengo and so the home supporters, around 81,200 of them – the highest attendance of the season in Brazil, crammed into the wonder that is the Maracana stadium expecting a routine victory and a feast of goals.
It was not the case. The fans wanted a spectacle and they got one; unfortunately for them however it turned out to be a horror show. Atletico Mineiro destroyed the Rubro-Negro 3-0 in their own backyard, with a beautiful display of tactical discipline and ruthless counter-attacking.
Humiliation, shame and embarrassment were three of the most prominent words used by the Brazilian press to describe Flamengo´s astonishing collapse and really they were being polite. It was shocking. Dreadful. Disgraceful. Mineiro won on the road for only the second time of the season, but nonetheless fully deserved the praise they rightfully received. Their football was full of attacking zest and enthusiasm, fearless in their approach despite the intimidating circumstances, and coach Marcelo Oliveira´s tactics worked perfectly. In contrast, Flamengo were terrible. They were disjointed, lacking in fluency and perhaps worst of all, did not really seem to care.
An angry reaction
What astonished me however was the reaction of Flamengo´s supporters to the debacle in front of them. The fans wasted absolutely no time in letting the team know just how they felt about the performance, lambasting the players and coach Caio Junior as soon as the stunning first goal went in after half an hour, and more or less constantly for the rest of the match. By the time the third goal flew in most people were no longer even there to see it, a look of either livid disgust or sheer disbelief etched onto the faces of each and every one of them as they dejectedly trudged out of the cavernous stadium.
One example of Flamengo fans´ intolerance to mistakes came around the 25th minute, just before Atletico Mineiro´s opening goal. Kleberson, formerly of Manchester United, had looked easily one of the best players on the park in the opening twenty minutes of the game. Spraying passes all over the show from a central midfield position, everything good about Flamengo seemed to be going through him, with several intricate through balls finding the frontmen and wingers in good positions. Every incisive pass was greeted with howls of approval from the passionate crowd.
A stray ball or two later however and he was enemy number one. Refusing to forgive the occasional err, his every touch from then on was booed manically until, perhaps feeling sorry for the midfielder, Caio Junior took him off after 36 minutes to a cacophony of jeers. One fan spent the entire remainder of the first half concentrating solely on the Flamengo subs bench, gesturing furiously and angrily dishing out a piece of his mind to a dejected Kleberson. It was almost comical.
The same thing happened to Ibson, on loan from Porto. Flamengo´s liveliest player had a pretty decent game given the circumstances, but after missing a golden opportunity that would have handed the Rubro-Negro a lifeline, the fans heckled him mercilessly until he too was put out of his misery and subbed.
To sit in a 95,000 seater stadium with little more than a few thousand home fans, a deathly silence and a sea of empty seats as the last twenty minutes awkwardly played out was a truly bizarre and fascinating experience. It was as though the most damaging punishment for the ineptitude of the players was to ignore them, as harsh a penalty as refusing to offer a troublesome child the attention he craves. Playing the rest of the game with barely anyone there to watch can only have embarrassed the Flamengo players, and as the clock ticked towards the game´s inevitable outcome the silent atmosphere became almost uncomfortable for all but Mineiro´s players and travelling fans.
Remember, this is a fanbase that once set off a small bomb in protest at the team´s training ground in anger at poor results. Compared to the impatience of Flamengo fans and their eagerness to take out frustrations on their own team therefore, a handful of England fans booing Ashley Cole now looks really rather immaterial.
Do you agree with fans booing their own team and players? Have your say in the comments field.
Atletico Mineiro,
Brazil,
Brazilian Football,
Flamengo,
Football in Latin America
The boss of this here... Creator and Editor of Just-Football.com, world football analyst, watcher, freelancer and all-round enthusiast. French football analyst for Football Radar. Write for FourFourTwo, have also written for ITV, When Saturday Comes and others.
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great article Jonathan!
there are a number of teams in the Brasileiro that have very fickle fans and Flamengo are certainly one of them. Fla do have a habit of losing key games they are expected to win. this year in the last 16 of the Libertadores, they went down 3-0 against America of Mexico in the Maracanã after winning the away leg 4-2. it was the same reaction from a packed stadium on that occasion too!
Speaking of fans booing their own team, just a few days after the Flamengo game the same thing happened in Brazil’s 0-0 draw with Colombia, again at the Maracana. The booing and calls for Dunga’s head began after 20 minutes!
Flamengo fans support until the death if the team and players show that would play all games like the last one of their lives, but if they dont show interested, they cant play for Flamengo, if you are not able to play against pressure, you are not able to play on the most popular team in the world.