Fan Friendly Success In Faro

This article was generously provided to ClubFootball by the British Council, which operates in China as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy.

Tuesday night in Faro, the evening before the Portugal-England friendly match and some 50 England fans packed into a nightclub for a fans forum with the South Side Boys, Portuguese Ultras who follow Farense, the 'B' division club from Faro who will eventually take over the Faro Euro 2004 stadium. 
 
The fans forum was organised by the British Council in Portugal with support from Kiss101.2fm Algarve, the FA and England fan groups. It was one of a series of events aimed at fostering links between fans in preparation for the summer's Euro2004 tournament which Portugal will host.
 
More than 60 of the South Side Boys - rather confusingly at least half their number were young women - joined us for the evening. Welcomes, introductions and "goody bags" full of English and Portuguese football souvenirs were exchanged.
 
We wanted to give our Portuguese friends a bit of a flavour of the best of England fan culture, easily done with England flags quickly tied up and hanging from every available light fitting. Though it's hard to know quite what they made of the origin of the biggest flag on show, 'Barrow AFC', another club for the keenest amongst the Portuguese to find something out about. Tim Murray from South Coast England fans provided the soundtrack CD, the Portuguese swiftly joining us in a singalong to 'Three Lions'. Stuart Clarke, the football photographer of 'Homes of Football' provided a brilliant slide show showing fans, stadiums, and teams from up and down the divisions.
 
The party mood was taking over when the next stage of our Portuguese friends' education in England fan culture took place, the 'pub quiz'. The twist was that the England fans had to answer eleven questions on Portugal, and the Portuguese eleven questions on England. With the tables all mixed a huge bout of international cheating took over as answers were eagerly swapped between the two sets of fans.
 
Sven provided the highlight of the evening with an exclusive video message, in English and Portuguese, supporting this exciting venture in bringing the two sets of fans together. Now the party was in full swing, National Anthems were sung loudly in turn, there was dancing, and plenty of piri-piri downed with Portuguese beer.
 
The evening closed with 4England presenting Farense with a plaque of fan friendship signed for us by Sven, followed by NorthWest England fans presenting a signed picture and shirt from Sir Tom Finney, President of Preston North End FC. We had chosen Sir Tom as Farense play in a very similar kit to Preston, and, like Preston, find themselves out of the top flight!
 
The next morning another thirty fans joined in a visit to a secondary school. We were divided into groups of five to join 15-16 year olds for an English conversation class. The students' grasp of English was impressive, but what was really staggering was their interest in our football. When a Spurs programme was handed over to brush up their reading they knew all about Manchester City's 4-3 cup win. Not bad eh? But nothing like the surprise on the Nuneaton Borough fans' faces when they handed over a club programme only to find themselves quizzed about the state of non-league football. The students practised their English, and then helped us with some handy Portuguese phrases, translating 'You're not singing anymore', 'Who ate all the piri-piri' and 'We are friendly England fans'. These were all duly practised in front of the school's staff and headmaster when the fans joined in the launch of the British Council Euro 2004 BritLit pack, featuring Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch'.
 
The visit over, there remained one more activity. At the forum we had collected 500 euros for a childrens' refuge in Faro. When we arrived at the place to hand over the funds we were greeted by English comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, a long time supporter of the orphanage. He was mightily impressed, and a little surprised, by our efforts, so impressed that - to our relief - he forgot to tell any jokes!
 
Was it all worth it? Nearly one hundred England fans involved in the activities, direct contact with many Portuguese fans, a lot of fun, something worthwhile achieved too. A few stereotypes of what an England fans adjusted. Great co-operation between fan groups, British Council and the FA. And most importantly we achieved wide, and positive media coverage. 'Bola' is the top selling Portuguese paper, a sports paper, their two page match report gave space and photos to the forum and orphanage visit. Two Portuguese TV channels, a Faro paper, Sky News and Sky Sport, Radio 5, BBC Radio London and Cambridgeshire, the Guardian, www.365football.com all covered the activities, it even made it into the Italian paper 'Gazetta della Sport' . And for the first time the positive impact of these activities made it into a tabloid paper, Oliver Holt wrote a mainly sympathetic report in the Daily Mirror on both the forum and the school visit, concluding with 'what happened in Faro last night and this morning is evidence of another step towards extinguishing English hooliganism'.

Mark Perryman, February 2004