Chris Thompson is the author of 'Six in a Row', a fictional novel in which a Sunderland fan sells his soul to the devil to win a North East derby.
It’s 1.30am on a cold Wednesday morning in January, and a coach full of Sunderland supporters rolls into the Stadium of Light car park. They’ve just returned from Burnley, where they made a 250-mile round trip to see their depleted football team lose 2-0 in the first eligible stage of the FA Cup. They don’t moan, though. 250 miles is nothing, not to them.
Just under 1,500 Sunderland fans were in attendance, many of whom had to take the day off work to make the evening kick-off. The match itself was a cup replay, meaning that these supporters had to organise the journey at just over a week’s notice — not ideal during the month after Christmas, where these types of expenses usually can’t be justified. Either way, the allocation was sold out. Those who couldn’t get a ticket watched the match on the only live feed in the world, a Periscope stream from a lad in the crowd.
While supporting Sunderland isn’t a competition, I’ve always been a firm believer that the more games you attend, the bigger fan you are. Of course, there are different ways to follow and show your support for a football team, but attending every game over the course of a season is the biggest commitment you can make. A commitment of time, of money, and of spirit. To those fans, the hardcore, it’s more than just a football match. It’s their lives.
In this lifestyle all other plans must be coordinated around match day, whether that’s a Saturday afternoon, a Sunday morning, or a sodden Tuesday night in Burnley. While all football clubs have their die-hard fans, this breed of supporter isn’t rare in Sunderland; there are hundreds of them, perhaps even thousands. Sunderland AFC continues to sell out away ends despite being the most-Northern of all Premier League clubs, as well as statistically the worst team in the history of the competition. These fans have been everywhere, gone through everything, so why do they keep going back?
Ritual certainly plays a part in it. Families have followed the same match day routines through infancy into maturity, helped of course by the many businesses and services across the city centre and beyond that celebrate match day. Pubs, restaurants, retailers, the press, not to mention taxi firms, emergency services, rubbish collectors. Going to the match is a celebration of all these things. It’s a big event in Sunderland, and it’s something we do really well. The many tiny branches of the community work to make match days an enjoyable, fruitful, and safe environment that families feel comfortable committing to through generations.
Sunderland fans even created their own literature. A Love Supreme is a Sunderland fan magazine that began in 1989, some 28 years ago, making it one of the longest-running, longest-surviving print fanzines in the country, thanks to the Sunderland fans. ALS is also the most successful fanzine in UK football history, having won the Fanzine of the Year award eight times. On top of that, this Wearside-based publisher has also released 16 books, amongst them The Mackem Dictionary, the best selling book that Sunderland’s branch of Waterstones has ever stocked.
ALS has given the average supporter a platform to air their views to thousands of peers, long before blogs and social media were even imagined. It also gave aspiring sports writers a vehicle to hone their talents, especially those who found a later passion for writing after being bored and disillusioned during their school years — SAFC’s press box is now full of former ALS writers. The magazine remains popular among fans, and has paved the way for brilliant fan blogs such as Roker Report, We are Wearside, and Salut Sunderland, not to mention the Wise Men Say weekly podcast, which has proven so successful that the team has hosted live podcasts in Sunderland, Manchester, and London. But why not? The demand is there as there are plenty of readers and listeners; SAFC certainly isn’t short on obsessives. All of these accomplishments are down to the Sunderland fans.
While football supporters can often be painted as unsavoury, I see our fanbase as an exclusive-yet-welcoming community. Where travelling to away games is enjoyable not just for the nervous hope that you might see Sunderland do something special, but also because you’re spending your day with like-minded people who understand your functioning addiction despite every speck of logic suggesting you’re a junkie. Every other Saturday, 48 thousand people pile into the Stadium of Light to experience a type of buzz, a high, that they can’t get anywhere else.
Maybe it’s a sense of release, where a week of pent-up frustration can be relieved by screaming at a referee, or chanting in unison and melody with those around you. Or maybe it’s an atmosphere, progeny of the famous Roker Roar, where every kick prompts a stir and every goal incites a rapture.
Maybe it’s in our DNA, with Sunderland having such a rich religious history our compulsion to worship still exists, if not slightly further up the River Wear.
Or maybe it’s a feeling of belonging. At a time when the world seems so divided and frightened, thousands upon thousands of people can come together once a week for 90 minutes and pull towards the same thing. Where you’re a single spectator but you’re very much a part of the show. Where you’re everything and nothing; ecstasy and vulnerability. There are no barriers for age, race, gender, or sexuality. And win, lose, or draw, the Sunderland fans will be here next time, so you’re always welcome back. The people of Sunderland created that environment.
Sunderland should be really proud because if that isn’t culture, I don’t know what is.
–Chris Thompson, Writer
