1. No alcohol allowed inside the stadium

In the US, drinks are allowed and very common inside the stadium. People in the UK, however, are expected to drink outside of the stadium before the match and during halftime. The UK seem to treat their football ground like a haven where everyone is expected to sit and watch a story unfold on the pitch, whereas the US mostly treats sport as an entertainment experience. 

2. Very passionate fans

Football fans in the UK are very passionate about their team because the sport culture is stronger here. In the UK, there is crazy support for even lower division teams (2nd division side Sunderland have an average attendance of 25,000), whereas you will need to win games to get loyal support in the US. At West Ham, I found myself getting ridiculed for wearing a matchday scarf with both teams on it by multiple West Ham fans, which was shocking to me because there are away fans in American stands all the time. People in the UK are very straightforward and cold, which was a part of the culture that I was introduced to at West Ham. 

3. More focus on the sport, less focus on the entertainment

British fans do not mess around. They aren’t focused on pyrotechnics and flamboyant displays. They come to the ground to watch the football. The concourses offer very limited food options and do not allow drinks inside the stadium because the fans’ focus should be on the football. In the US, the focus is on entertainment. There are cheerleaders, t-shirt tosses, and a wide variety of food selections on the concourse. 

West Ham fans were generally positive. They were proud to support their team, and they cheered the team on to a 1-1 draw against a decent opponent in Tottenham Hotspur. The match was thrilling, as both teams played free-flowing football and there was rarely a moment to catch a breath. It was a wonderful experience to watch football while also taking in little bits about British culture.

Unfortunately, luxury always comes with a little bit of snobbery. We found the Chelsea fans to be way less fun than the rest of England, as most of the fans sat and silently watched the game with the occasional complaint directed towards a certain player. My suitemate also got told to put his phone away when he was recording a play. The fans were clearly not happy, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Chelsea fans were also strong royalists. They had dedicated a section of their stands to a banner for the Queen, drawing a possible connection between affluence and connection to the Royal Family. This can be contrasted with Liverpool F.C. fans, who went as far as to boo the moment of silence for the Queen’s passing. 

Tottenham Hotspur have a historical association with Jewish supporters and they have fully adopted the Jewish identity. You can often hear Tottenham supporters chant “Yid Army'', a Jewish term that Tottenham supporters have proudly adopted. Stern junior Josh Finklestein compares the chant to the Black community’s use of the n-word (though on a much smaller scale), as Jews have taken what is an offensive phrase and owned it for themselves. In a conversation with my suitemate, Stern junior Dylan Nijankin, he gave me some intel on the history of Tottenham’s Jewish influence. His uncle was a Jewish Tottenham Hotspur supporter in the 1970s, and this was a time when football was much more localized. It was also a time when people were more overtly racist towards one another. Therefore, the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Tottenham was often met with away fans coming to the ground and calling their fans Yids. In response, the Tottenham fans would call themselves Yids, giving away fans no power to try and insult them with the phrase. Nowadays, football has become a far more global game, and Jews have mostly moved out of Tottenham, but the tradition of the Yid Army lives on. Finklestein comments on this globalization by saying that Jews in our generation do not support Tottenham because of heritage anymore, and you can find Jewish Premier League fans from all different clubs. Nijankin, meanwhile, has expressed a desire to go to more Tottenham games to feel more closely connected to his Jewish heritage while in London. 

The pubs that show football matches often do not serve food. This is because the pub is utilized fully as a congregating space, and serving food would give less space on a table to those who come to drink. It is expected that you either bring your own snacks or eat before coming to the pub, as the pub is meant to be a place where you can watch the match with friends, not a restaurant. This part of pub culture draws parallels to the limited food options at stadiums, as it is expected that you get your meal at a proper restaurant or eat at home before the match. 

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Sport has always been a language that has come easy to me, which is what has made exploring London through football a rewarding experience. I was born and raised in the Boston area, so I’ve also noticed a lot of similarities between Boston culture and British culture through sport. Boston has a lot of European and British influence (baked beans, identical city names, first colony in the US) and this influence is often reflected through fans of sport. Boston takes a lot of pride in their teams, as we have the most successful franchises in basketball and American football. In a conversation I had with Harvard student Noah Tavares, he said that “Boston fans are different from the rest of the country because they actually try to understand why their teams lose”. I always knew that people said that Boston had British influence, but I didn’t really feel it until I experienced it first-hand through sport culture. I appreciated seeing these similarities in cultures because it made me feel more at home here. Looking forward, I’m going to be able to watch football in Manchester, Liverpool, Barcelona, and Paris, and I hope to come home with many valuable experiences that will shape my worldview. After all, that’s why we go abroad, right?