Big Question: Which World Cup Country has the Best Fans?
This one is inspired by a post by our stellar blogger Mike on the Netherlands blog. Every country has its share of loyal and vocal supporters, but we think it is fair to say that some countries receive better support than others. At the risk of angering fans from the other 27 countries, we’ve come up with our top five list of supporters in this year’s World Cup. Our highly subjective criteria includes the number of people who travel in support of their team, their level of insanity and simply the folks that we think do a great job cheering on the lads.
In no particular order:
South Korea – Somewhat of a new kid on the block, but the level of support shown to the Red Devils in 2002 blew our socks off. The Koreans have a long way to travel this year, but they will be out in force.
Netherlands - We totally agree with Mike on this one. The Dutch look zany, but most people do when they wear orange.
England - Forget the small few who cause most of the trouble, the Brits bring it for World Cup matches.
Brazil - Samba and bikinis. If we ever run for political office that will be our campaign platform.
Croatia/Serbia and Montenegro - Both countries have some rabid fans that would scare the shite out of us if we were playing against them.
Ok, we admit that this is a short list and there are lots of other countries with great support. But that is where you come into play. Make your case for your country or one that isn’t on this list.
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 28 comments.
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By LUIS GONAVLES | April 14th, 2006 at 10:35 am 
CROATIA HAVE THE CRAZY FANS
BIGS FLAGS WIT BRING IN 98 and 2002
SO F*** ALL U OTHER COUNTRYS
HRVATSKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted from 
Canada
By Chris | April 14th, 2006 at 10:53 am Looks like Bob was spot on with his description of Croatian fans after that last comment.
I hope the Aussies put on a good show. The Fan-atics are pretty vocal at other sporting events, but our chants and songs leave a lot to be desired. Plus all the blokes are gonna be distracted by the Brazilians on theother side of the pitch.
Obviously the Germans will be out in full force. They were very vocal with great chants, clapping and songs with flags and colours everywhere during the Euro 96 semi-final against England. At home I’m sure it will be an even better atmosphere.
Posted from 
United States
By soze | April 14th, 2006 at 10:59 am I love it when neandrethals leave comments and opinions. I am embarrased for the rest of us who support Croatia without the anger and bitterness reserved for those at the bottom of the intelectual pool.
Although my Latin Croat brother is right…we do have crazy fans who brought big flags to those two tournaments, I feel it sad that only the inadequately spoken seem to express their opinions.
By Massimo | April 14th, 2006 at 11:52 am The best fans are the most ferocious hooligans, so I have to go with Poland and England. It wouldn’t be football without them.
Posted from United States
By LUIS GONAVLES | April 14th, 2006 at 3:57 pm poland lol poles polacklol
CROATIA HAS THE BEST FANS
PROOF 98 and 2002 n euro 2004!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh ya nices jerseys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted from Canada
By Kapcro | April 14th, 2006 at 4:53 pm I like to think of most of Croatia’s fans as devoted and positive to the game. Samba and bikinis how do you compete with that? Luis Gonavles I’m assuming you are Croatian and I’d like to say to you- clean up your act and stop making Croatia’s fans look like immature, foul-mouthed losers who can only insult others to prop themselves up. Croatia and the team doesn’t need that kind of total BS!
Posted from United States
By Euler | April 15th, 2006 at 12:17 am Hear me out: Massimo is an imbecil idiot. Hooligans are the scum of the earth and they represent the rotten sad side of human nature. Football is about party and peace, healthy rivalry and sporting tallent. I wish I was God to erase that behaviour out of humanity.
Another thing: what I understand as “best fans” I avoid looking only at the ones inside the football arena. My vote goes to us Brazilians. We are made from a great mixture of lots of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. Most tourists, when asked about what they liked the most about Brazil, usually the answer is “The Brazilians”. We like to make friends, we like to party, we like flertation, we like to smile, we like good and bad jokes, we like to hug and to be hugged, we like to call new friends ‘old brothers’, in a strange faith that humanity is basically good. Many people have the disposition to yell, to spend, to be crazy, but I’m not sure about how do they see each other, as if brothers, or as if enemies.
In this scope, bikinis are a small part in that. The smaller the better, right?
By soze | April 15th, 2006 at 11:36 am I have gone to several England games in the past and I have to say that they are the WORST fans I have ever seen. They do not know how to enjoy a good game without getting drunk and violent towards the opposite team fans.
At one game I saw a 30ish year old man yell and swear at the top of his lungs at a 10 year old boy who disagreed with a call made against his team. It was awfull. And it does not seem to be only a few of them, alot of the England fans are rabid, drunk hooligans that sour the enjoyment of the game.
I agree with Euler that the fans should be judged not only by the ones inside of the arena. Again, in EC2004, the English are the only ones who needed to be dispursed by riot police and the only fans that ended up with jail sentences.
I wish I could say Croatia has the ‘best’ fans…we have one of the most ‘enthusiastic’ fans..but unfortunately that includes alot of hooliganism.
Euler, well said about the Brazilian people, they are exactly how you describe them and make their country proud with their celebration. And so do the bikinis.
By Pedro P | April 15th, 2006 at 12:07 pm If I must chose from one of the 5, I’d say Brazil - Yeah, that’s right: Samba & Bikins & a lot of Caipirinha 
and etc… Nobody in the world comes close to this mentality + the love for their team… I remember in 94 being in a concert in Lisbon, before the WC, and a huge flag already in the concert hall “Brazil ao Tetra”, which they did get!
I’d remove the english (”fans”) from the list.
The dutch are very good supporters, with a lot of fair-play and a lot of beer drinking - very good mix. However, I feel thery do it for the fun. For what I’ve seen, they lack some passion for their team. Maybe that’s cos I’m from a southern (european) country, dunno…
I’m portuguese, so I feel kinda strange talking about portuguese fans.
Posted from 
Netherlands
By soze | April 15th, 2006 at 3:46 pm Pedro, it’s funny you mention that the Dutch seem to go overboard more for the fun that because of the passion for their team.. I was thinking that same thing when I was with their fans. They loved to be happy and drink and have fun and sing, but there seemed a lack of passion. It’s hard to sescribe. They are wonderful people though.
You know, I wish that FIFA did institute the ban on England from international competition that they were talking about a few years back. Maybe this would prompt England to try and clean up their ‘fan’ base.
By soze | April 15th, 2006 at 3:49 pm Oh and by the way Pedro…you feel strange talking about Portuguese fans, so I’ll do it.
A great fan base with alot of passion for the sport and their team. But for the love of God…get some more support songs. That ‘Portugal ale’ thing at every game, all the time gets really annoying…I bet even for the players.
By Kiko | April 15th, 2006 at 4:52 pm The English fans are for me the best fans. Forget the hooligans and you will find the most noisy and passionate fans in England.
Posted from 
United Kingdom
By pablo | April 16th, 2006 at 8:29 am I cant believe this discussion nobody will name argentinian fans??? jajaja its funny… its seems to be that only exist europe and north america, here in argentina there are tv programs of fans!!! and like someone wrote before you dont know what is futbol until you go to an argentine stadium (more passion like that you ll never see in you life, with this i dont have to say more…
Posted from 
Argentina
By RED DEVIL 4life | April 18th, 2006 at 10:56 am The best measurement of fans is the away support, ie: Celtic’s army of 80,000 fans for one single match (uefa cup). England in france 98 had problems with hooligans, yes. You look at 2002 japan and 2004 euro and you will see that the hooligan ‘phase’ is all but forgoten. Instead you saw @ (2002 w-c) japan and S korea the 3rd largest support of a team at the torniment from a nation who are on the other side of the world. In the 2002 euros england fans took over huge areas such as the 300,000 offical fans staying in the Al Garve , another prime example of the ‘true’ fan is highlighted in the match aganist portugal in which england supporters paid off portugal fans for there tickets (i was one of them)which in turn created a ‘home’ atmosphere with 2/3rds the stadium very load and english. The issue can be rasied about the latin american countrys such as argentina which as a whole is poor’er then most thus supporters can not afford to travel . However the example of japan which is significantly nearer to these countrys compared to england agurbule addresses the balance. However the underlining factor for my views that engalnd has an untoachable fan base is simply; continental fans do have a very hard core element, for British fans football is so wraped in our culture we are less the ultra type instead fans for life.
‘England till I die…’
Posted from United Kingdom
By Pedro P | April 18th, 2006 at 11:10 am Soze,
about the dutch: I live in Holland and, although I like them as people, this lack of passion is a feature of their culture. We have fun and drink. They drink and have fun. For me. Try and explain this to one of them, and yeah… I mean, they are north europe. Portugal is south europe. How can you explain these differences? But they DO lack passion (also for the team).
about the portuguese: I’d say if they’d all be like the average Sporting Lisbon fan - with even a CD of the countless support songs, some of the best there are with multiple lyrics ;-), OR like the SL Benfica who is probably one of the teams in Europe that drags more fans to away games, or like the FC Porto supporters, of who the FC Porto players are affraid (when they loose), I’d say we’d have a good support.
But it’s more like you say… It took Scolari for ALL the people to place a flag on their window, during EC04. Everybody would think POR fans suck… Like in almost everything, Portuguese tend to be (too) discrete. If “sparked”, then it’s another story.
Posted from Netherlands
By dzoni | June 28th, 2006 at 9:22 am please do not put croatia and serbia in the same boat. The serbs done nothing at this world cup, in fact when was the last time they did put on a show? Where as the croats were no doubt one of the best fans at this world cup, big numbers, very loud chanting with many different chants and they even managed to light a few flares.
As for the top 5 please, where the hell is argentina? Along with croatia they have been the best fans at this world cup, these guys chant for the whole 90 minutes, they have big numbers and germany isnt exactly close for them. Even the great diego is shown many a time chanting and singing for his team.
vamos vamos argentina!
Posted from 
Australia
By matt | June 28th, 2006 at 6:12 pm ok tthere is a team called FRANCE any1 herd of them…. wen they won in ‘98
Streets were crowded
Posted from Canada
By Earlefan | July 3rd, 2006 at 12:43 pm The best fans were not at the tournament - Scotland’s Tartan Army. Best I’ve ever met were the Dutch, followed by the Brazilians. Also great are Republic of Ireland and Denmark.
As for the English, they have a big support which is commendable but they have no idea how to have fun. They know one song ‘Engerland, Engerland, Engerland’. The fact is they had 700 fans arrested and this is being swept under the carpet by the English media as they want to host the next World Cup to be held in Europe.
Posted from United Kingdom
By ThriLL^ | August 28th, 2006 at 5:40 pm as dzoni said, please dont put croatia and serbia together in a cathegory!
for me the croats have the best supporters in the world.
after then the dutch and england.
Posted from 
Austria
By Jessica | September 8th, 2006 at 6:28 am I actually think that this year as the australians weren’t expected to make it into the world cup, we had the best and most supportive fans around. Just as our t-shirts here say with the aussie flag in the middle, “support it, or f**k off!”
True statement
Every team pretty supported us as thier second team by the end of the world cup.
When it all comes down to it, you just gotta love Australia.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie OI OI OI!
Posted from Australia
By I Love Sweden | September 29th, 2006 at 8:48 pm Hi!!!
I love sweden and their fans!!
But Did you see the croatian fans i the WC!! when they sang the anthem against brazil.
whole the stadium sang.
Croatian fans were the only who had bengals with them. I like croatia and their fans. THE BEST FANS EVER!!!!
Posted from 
Sweden
By toon army | March 10th, 2007 at 11:07 am i think croatians have the best fans but to those who say england fans arent very good because of hoolaginism well there just wrong. I think our fans are very loyal, loud, and allways travel in numbers and also the english media dont try and sweep hoolaginism under the carpet if anything they exagerate it
Posted from United Kingdom
By Monika | October 30th, 2007 at 8:50 am I apologize for the way some Croatians (immature and young probobly) approach this topic. Please don’t judge all Croatians by some of the Croatian comments posted here. I am Croatian and I have to agree though that Croatian fans are awesome and stand behind their team and country whether they lose or win! There are other fans who are also awesome like Argentina and Brasil. But to me, because I am Croatian, and because it is such a small and recently independent country..I think it hits the Croatian people and fans deeper to see the team compete in the biggest tournoment of the world…and do really well! Croatian fans I think win the competition by the big flags and cheering and singing through the entire match…oh, and definitely because of the flares.. World Cup rules.. : )
Posted from Canada
By smallTEAspoons | November 5th, 2007 at 11:34 am BESİKTAS fans are the best… they are in first step in FIFA ranking… they broke the loudest fans record… 132 decibel… BESİKTAS are the best fo course… BESİKTAS/TURKEY
watch this:: and their related vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FnnpMsRiOM
By the bhoy | November 9th, 2007 at 3:55 pm what about Ireland im too young to remember but ive seen videos of Italia 90 it looked amazing and the recent wc we were in too!!!!!!!!
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