Culture is the customs and beliefs of a particular community who shares the same ideological values and are bounded with certain norms to run the society smoothly. Wendell Pierce an American Actor mentioned culture as the intersection of people and life itself. He has viewed culture as the way to deal with everyday emotions in life (Pierce, n.d.). Cultures are the way of life which distinguish community with each other. It is the sum of learned behavior of people which are transferred from generation to generation.

People within the same culture can carry different traits. The perspective of people to see certain things can differ within an individual so different culture can be concealed within a community. There can be sub-culture and counter-culture within a society. Sub-culture is a practice which exists within the mainstream culture. Whereas a counter culture is a perspective which sees mainstream culture as pure opposition. In this subculture, people go against the norms and traits created by mainstream culture. We can also say that sub-culture and counter culture are the subcategory of culture and exist as a minority.

Being said I categories myself into vocational sub-culture. To further simplify, I am into “Football (Soccer) Fan Culture”.  This culture drives me to follow Premier League giant Manchester City. From the early days of soccer fan culture, people have divided it into two groups i.e. Traditional Fans and Consumer Fans. Traditional Fans are the fans who support one particular team based on Bloodline, Geographical Location, Ethnicity and Nationality, Religion and Socioeconomic Standings. Consumer Fans further have been classified into Direct and Indirect form. Direct fans are those fans who attend games physically whereas indirect fans are those who support their teams through online media and from the source of information (Jenkins, 2018).

I started following Manchester City since 2008. Although historical giant clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United dominated the domestic league and world football. I was fascinated by the home kit color of Manchester City. The transfer of my favorite player at that time Carlos Tevez from Manchester United to Manchester City was cheery on top for me to get attract with this club. With all these interest and passion, I got myself engaged with like-minded people. Ultimately we formed a group named “MCFC NEPAL” which is now officially recognized group. To utilize our free time doing what interests us we organized an official screening of the game. By viewing our responsibility for society, we also organized different social events like Football Workshop in “Melamchi Village of Nepal” targeting local youths. I feel that “MCFC Nepal” gave us the platform to connect with different people. Getting to know each other, wishing for a particular team to success, contributing our time on same ideology empower us to further grow as a group or as an individual.

Typical footballing fan culture considers us global fans as “Consumer Fans”. Although the definition of traditional fans doesn’t consider global fans as “Real Fans” I think the subculture I follow is counter culture. Though there is no physical presence, we global fans are as passionate as local traditional fans. I think we global fans are more enthusiast than them, due to different time zone we are compelled to watch games at midnight. We global fans don’t hesitate to support our team under any circumstances. So, under the view of typical footballing fan culture the subculture I follow is counter-culture but in my view, we fans of football across the world are under one culture.

WORKS CITED

Jenkins, R. (2018, March 19). The isthmus. Fan, Culture, Pride, Passion, and Money in UK Football, 1. Retrieved Jan 13, 2019, from http://www.theisthmus.com.au/2018/03/fan-culture-pride-passion-and-money-in-uk-football/

Pierce, W. (n.d.). Wendell Pierce Quotes. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from Brainy Quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/wendell_pierce_488898

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