American Sports Fans Could Learn Something from the Genoa Ultras

There are a few things that are as universal as a town or city's love for its sports teams. People identify with them; they give people a common cause to rally behind. Dads look forward to taking their sons to their first game. Moms look forward to having the house to themselves during those games. People absolutely love their teams.

The bad thing for fans of  American teams (NFL, MLB, and NBA especially) is that the teams are fully aware of the deep affection fans have for them. While you would think that would give fans some modicum of power it actually does the exact opposite. Teams hold all the power and they know it.It is not uncommon for a team to threaten to move if the city did not find some way to have taxpayers foot the bill for a new stadium (or at least part of it).  Ticket prices make games no longer affordable to the average fan. If you happen to go to a game, God forbid you want to buy a beer or a hotdog! The sad thing is that even with the economy being in the tank like it has been for the last few years many teams are raising prices and finding other ways to fleece fans for all they have.

Maybe what we need to do is be a little more like soccer fans from Genoa in Italy. These guys were so tired of their team absolutely sucking every time that they took the field that they finally had it during a recent match. With the team facing relegation (which would be like the Kansas City Royals being demoted to Triple A...hint, hint MLB) and down 4-0 in the second half against Siena they revolted.

Fans threw smoke bombs on the field and basically took the game hostage (for 45 minutes). They demanded that the players take off their jerseys because they were not worthy of wearing the team's colors. The captain tried to negotiate with the fans, but ended up taking off his jersey along with most of the other players.

(The video is in Italian but you can still get the idea of what's going on; plus the chick at the end is pretty hot.)

Article by Travis Pulver