Bianjie

[journey]

Living the game: your extensive guide to the Bianjian football (fan) culture
9 June 5724



For a nation as small and underpopulated like Bianjie, sports may not be the primary focus, and yet, football occupies a special place in Bianjian culture, and remains an important sport for many to cheer on, and be a part of its movement, of its culture. For many people in Bianjie, it became a social ritual, a regional identity, a political conversation even, as well as a calendar of emotions booked for the rest of their lives annually. The growth of local clubs, and their promotion to the top leagues is accompanied by influence on the local businesses, media coverage, and sometimes even divison of households with an intensity that many outsiders will find harder to understand.

Weirdly, or not, enough, in order to understand how or why Bianjian football operates, you need to understand the country in general. From industrial port cities, whose clubs represent the working class communities, and were founded by the workers of the dockyards, to university towns, rapidly growing urban areas, symbolising modern ambitions and demographic changes. Every scarf, change, banner and derby carries decades of history behind it.

Typical match day, especially if it is weekend begins hours before the play itself, with clubs supporters overflowing the places all around the stadium, all around the cities or towns, gathering in pubs, restaurants, tea houses and convinience stores, all while fans march with scarfs, chanting their club songs, many know by heart. For club supporters football no longer becomes a simple entertainment, but an obligation, their life. Missing an important derby or promotion/relegation match is seen as abandoning the community, made by the generations of supporters, with grandparents, parents and their children all standing together for their club every week or so. Now, Bianjie is not a big country, nor it is a very rich one, so do not expect many grotesque enormous arenas you may see in countries like Luthori, and whatnot. And yet, the stadiums of many clubs will be filled with their organised fans, with the largest and oldest having memorable chants, visual spectacles, banners and more.

And yet, the club identity in Bianjie is quite localist, with people choosing, or simply being "assigned" with a club to support, depending on their birthplace or home. Moreover, in addition to the regionalist identity, a number of football clubs in the country are being associated with certain ideologies, and promoting certain political or social ideas. And even though, usually the north of Bianjie is voting for the centre-right opposition, its largest club, Beijixing, is considered to have progressive left-wing supporters, who vote SPP or PCP, while the nation's largest club, located in the heart of the capital city, Gemun, the Dorgi Gemun, is considered a right-wing club, with its fans holding monarchist, traditionalist views. That's why the "eternal derby" between the club team is also filled with passion, emotion, from both the players and fans, both of whom rarely are able to avoid the physical conflicts during the match.

Football discussion can't avoid the traditional and modern media in Bianjie, dominating the television programs, podcasts, forums, social media and cultural references, which all contribute to the endless discussion about tactics, transfers, emotions, referee decisions, fans, ultras and their disputes, youth academies, politcs, and obviously economical part of the football, and how clubs go bankrupt, or revive, and so on, and so on, the list of discussions present in the media is immense, and yet, it's continues to fight for its place with the traditional media content, and discussions about other stuff, including sports, like volleyball, and more. Football continues to take a dominant and prevalent part in the modern Bianjian culture, its plays an important role in the economic uplifting of certain places in the country, businesses, infrastructure, as well connecting generations, people, friendships, and simply being a great entertainment for hundreds of thousands of people across the nation, and around the world.



カトウレブン (Katuebun) is a Bianjian daily sports newspaper, founded in 5453 and published in Gemun