Flying pigs, tennis balls and sit-in protests: 7 tales of football fan power

The supporters for both clubs came together to display their frustration against the two League One teams’ owners. They are both unhappy with the way their clubs are being run and are desperate for a resolution.

So, after a joint protest down the street, they followed it up with an act of defiance. Flying oinkers were launched in the first minute of the game. It made the headlines and rightly so, the footage was spectacular. There’s something special about seeing pink pigs pouring down.

So what other acts of fan power are headline worthy?

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Charlton and Coventry. Again.

‘Piggate’ wasn’t the first time the two teams have shown their displeasure at their owners. In April, when playing Birmingham City the Southeast London team, brought the game to a halt when throwing hundreds of stress balls onto the pitch.

Meanwhile, when Coventry temporarily moved to Northampton’s Sixfields ground for the 2013/14 season the fans were furious. It came about due to a long-running row over rent between the company in charge of The Rioch and the owners of the club. Fans showed their displeasure by turning up to away games in their thousands but refusing to go to ‘home’ games. Often fans travelled to the game, to protest outside of it and then walk to the nearby Jimmy’s Hill and watch the match from there.

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Anyone for tennis?

Fans of Swiss team FC Basel were furious. Train tickets had been booked, perhaps even time off work had been taken, only for outraged fans to discover their table topping clash against FC Luzern was postponed due to the tennis.

Ironically, Basel fan Roger Federer playing Novak Djokovic was deemed a priority on the TV so the football game was swiftly moved. So in fitting fashion, when the game eventually kicked-off, fans showered the pitch with thousands of tennis balls. Stopping the game for 40 minutes. ‘Love 40’ the Basel fans probably said.

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Take the bull by the horns

You might not have heard of SSV Markranstadt, a little-heard-of club plugging away in the fifth division of the German leagues. But in May 2009, everything changed.

One of the first things to change was the club’s name: they became RB Leipzig, with a new kit, a new crest, and most importantly, a vastly increased transfer budget. The source of this largesse? The energy drinks company Red Bull.

Fast-forward seven years and millions of euros in new players, and RB Leipzig are now in the Bundesliga. But fans of rival clubs are not happy with what they see as rampant commercialisation of their beloved sport – and over the years of RB Leipzig’s ascent, these fans have certainly made their displeasure known.

Early protests included Red Bull adverts being defaced and even weed killer used to destroy the pitch. When RB were in the second division, a ‘No to RB’ movement was started, and over 180 supporter groups and 29 clubs are members.

The club suffers most at away matches. In one infamous match in 2014, Berlin home supporters wore black ponchos and were eerily silent for the first 15 minutes of the game, holding aloft a banner saying ‘In Leipzig, the football culture is dying’. In other matches, whole stands of opposition fans have remained outside the stadium for some of the game, or even refused to attend at all.

Violence has been rare, but the RB bus was once pelted with bottles and the players required police escort to avoid the anger of fans who were spitting and throwing beer cups onto the pitching. The most striking moment in the upheaval came just this year, when Dynamo Dresden fans threw a severed bull’s head at the RB Leipzig contingent – a very visual icon of the fury felt by some at Red Bull’s actions.

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Blackpool on the rocks

The relationship between Blackpool fans and the club's owners (the Oystons) has become somewhat of an unhappy marriage. There have been one or two legal cases (oh ok there may have been more), and chairman Karl Oyston was fined and banned from football activity for six weeks for sending abusive texts to a fan.

Why the hate? The fans believe there hasn’t been enough investment into the club and team. They have made their feelings towards their owners clear in other ways too.

In a game against rivals Burnley (back in April 2014) they launched tennis balls and tangerines onto the pitch – the fruit also happening to be the club's nickname.

They’ve also had numerous protests, including an airplane banner reading ‘Oystons Club killers get out now’ which flew above Bloomfield Road prior to their 4-0 defeat at home to Wigan – which essentially confirmed their relegation to League Two in 2016. Yet perhaps their most memorable protest was on the last day of the season when in the second half of their game against Huddersfield they left the stands for a sit-in demonstration on the pitch’s centre circle.

After an hour without them budging, the game had to be abandoned.

Did fans even manage to get their message lit up on the Blackpool Tower or is this Photoshop handiwork?

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Feeling blue…

The clue is in their nickname: The bluebirds. Cardiff City are blue and proud. That is until 2012, when their superstitious new owner Vincent Tan, decided to change the strip from their beloved blue to red. Why? Well the Malaysian businessman stood strong in his belief that it would bring the club good fortune.

He didn’t stop there. The club’s badge saw the bluebird replaced with a dragon. It’s fair to say this did not go down well. Protest after protest came and went. Fans promised to stay away from the ground, banners were held high on marches. And yet the blues sorry, reds marched on.

Tan tried to smooth things over and give free (red) scarfs away to fans, it wasn’t overwhelmingly successful and in the build up to the two year anniversary of this generous gift, fans were planning a Blue Tuesday protest at a home game against Brighton where fans would be encouraged to turn out in their finest blue hues.

Tan retaliated by delivering a Christmas message (yep actually on Christmas Day, 2014) telling the fans, they would be sticking with red. Yet just a few weeks later – and before Blue Tuesday took place, fan power eventually won out, with Tan doing a U-turn and finally reverting back to blue.

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Refugees Welcome

It’s late August 2015, and the height of the refugee crisis in Southern Europe. With tensions high, and opinion polarized on the best way to manage the huge humanitarian and logistical challenge at hand, Germany’s football fans made their opinions clear for all to see.

Supporters from various Bundesliga clubs held up banners that read “Refugees Welcome” at their teams’ matches, with Borussia Dortmund even inviting 220 refugees along to watch the game. But it didn’t stop there. Bayern Munich soon announced it would raise €1 million to help refugees arriving in Europe, and it set up a training camp for the many refugees arriving in the city.

This show of solidarity spread to other countries, with English clubs at all levels from Arsenal to Bacup Borough in the North West Counties League participating in a ‘day of action’.

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Kids at heart

Think fan power only comes into force when people are angry? Well, to finish things off we’ve got a couple of altogether more warming stories for you.

In January 2016, nine-year-old Everton fan George Shaw, was allowed onto the pitch at half-time during Everton’s game against Swansea. The superfan has cerebral palsy but that didn’t stop him getting hold of a ball, seeing the goal mouth in sight so taking aim, firing and scoring at Goodison Park. The fans celebrated as it if was a winning goal. Then just a few weeks later he was awarded the club’s goal of the month award beating Aaron Lennon, Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley in the process.

Elsewhere, when it comes to the Football League’s Fan of the Year award you might think it would go to a fan that had spent the previous 50 years following their team through thick and thin. Instead at the 2016 event it went to an eight year old.

Bristol City obsessed Oskar Pycroft found himself was awarded the trophy, yet that wasn’t the only time he’d been able to celebrate. The school boy with cerebral palsy was told that if he was going to be able to walk he'd require surgery in USA. Which would cost £70,000. Fans came together to help raise the funds - including not only the red half of Bristol but their rivals Bristol Rovers too.

Post operation, he was back at Ashton Gate, leading his favourite team out and this time walking.