When The Booing Has To Stop

So come on, when was the last time you went Boo? And I don’t mean when you tried to scare the life out of your Sister’s insufferable offspring at their 4th Birthday party, which you had to attend or cause a major family rift…

When did you actually go Boo with any real conviction? When you were either tired of throwing expletives at the inept recipient of your Boo? Or maybe you just don’t do abuse from the terraces but prefer a more monosyllabic expression of anger, rage or disgruntlement.

In sport, Booing is an interesting concept and generally tends to divide people down the middle. Remember we’re not talking about a language based verbal blast. That’s a debate for another day. We’re talking about that gutteral, throaty noise that you can only enunciate by making an oval shape with your lips and pushing outward from the lungs. Booing in different sports is often aimed at different types of behaviour deemed unnaceptable to the viewer. In boxing, two fighters not getting stuck in or one behaving in a way that is outside the rules often gets the Boo brigade at it. In cricket, an unfair or ill advised appeal or a dangerous tackle in either code of rugby. Even horse racing joins in when a jockey gets too slap happy with the whip.

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And it’s not just sport of course, I once went to a rock concert where a guitar legend – nameless here – was so out of it, my nine year old could have strung more coherent notes together. He went on to play one of the most painful, both visually and sonically, solo’s my ears and eyes have had the misfortune to witness. He left the stage to a cacophony of Boo’s and a bit more besides.

The problem is, Booing is complex. Some of us will just shake our heads sadly at the madness of the world and peoples behaviour and how we might have been short changed, before going off to have a beer and put it down to one of those things. Some of us though, will take another view. We’ve been short changed, cheated, it’s a personal affront to my senses. Our sense of fairness or decency has been violated in some way, and we want to let whoever has done all of that know about it.

No one’s version of the world is the same, only similar sometimes, so what might make you go mad with rage might actually make me laugh, albeit in a sardonic way but on another day I might experience something that makes me jump up and down where you might just shrug your shoulders. So there can’t be a simple formula around what a Boo is, what is means, when we should do it, should we do it, and most of all, what do we possibly hope to achieve by doing it?? 

Football probably raises more emotions because of the variety of things that can happen in a match which can potentially lead to one or a group of people deciding that they need to make ‘that noise’. Ironically it can often have more of a negative affect on the people around the ‘Booer’ , particularly if they don’t agree with that persons view. Plus, the object of that person’s ire is blissfully unaware because the noise is coming from row Q inside a crowd of thousands. So what’s the point? Some years ago I can remember a friend of mine virtually coming to blows with a ‘fellow’ fan after said moron decided to Boo the efforts of a former Hammer who, despite not being blessed with the skills of a Tevez, the guile of a Peters or the genius of a Di Canio, nevertheless put in what we now call a ‘shift’ whenever he put on the shirt. Not good enough for our season ticket holder sat opposite who spent every home game continually Booing the poor guy who couldn’t hear it but the rest of us could. The Booer was eventually told to pipe down or get out (that’s the parental guide version) which after much complaint he did. The point was, he didn’t understand that he was destroying the atmosphere around him, not being heard by the player anyway and, most curious of all when asked what the player was doing to deserve the booing could only say ‘well he’s crap ain’t he?’. So that’s okay then. Except it wasn’t and isn’t.

Watching a certain Premiership team from West London not too long ago I was stunned to hear the Boo’s of some of their crowd when they lost at home for the second time in about 300 years. How on earth could they do that I thought?! It would never happen at West Ham. But d’you know what? I think it would. Even if we did go on an unbeaten run stretching 50 odd games at home, give it a couple of indifferent performances and the Boo boys would be puckering up. Only their therapist could tell you why.

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Someone said recently and I’m sure they speak for many thousands of fans up and down the country that it was their ‘right’ in a free society to vent their displeasure. Let’s face it, compared to some of the incidents of crowd displeasure in other parts of the globe, you know, player crucifixion, kidnapping, being forced to watch a whole series of Will & Grace, that players get subjected to for poor performances, a bit of gutteral Booing is pretty tame stuff.  BUT. And there’s always a but. Whenever you challenge a Boo boy to give you one positive action that comes out of their Booing they can’t actually give you one. Not one. Oh yeah other than it makes THEM feel a bit better about whatever it is that’s got their goat. Trouble is, when you see someone actually ‘doing it’, they don’t actually look any better afterwards at all. In fact after letting go of all that hot air, some look a hell of a lot worse.

 

Last weekend West Ham topped a division, something we haven’t done for a very long time. It didn’t last long but there are still many games to go and we have a large and talented squad. The team looked tired after 3 ridiculously tough games played in the main with 10 men, and put in a poor performance. Notice however that was ‘performance’ rather than ‘effort’. 

In looking at what people Boo ‘for’ the final analysis would suggest that people react most when they perceive a lack of effort, cheating or incitement. There is an argument that suggests that some form of reaction in the negative is understandable. There ‘s a counter argument though that says that it doesn’t achieve anything positive therefore is pointless or misguided. 

I don’t know the answer. All I do know is that where football is concerned, and West Ham in particular as that’s my Club, I have never, ever, witnessed an improved positive atmosphere, a team or player trying harder, making less mistakes, looking less nervous or getting an adrenalin rush by being booed. Oh and of course, as the players are professionals and therefore bereft of human feelings, they will have forgotten about it completely the minute they get off the pitch, go home to the family and turn up for training on the Monday. And of course that Booing will certainly make them play that much better the following week, for fear of upsetting the faceless Boo boys and girls in the stand. We know this to be true of course because people that Boo say that they would certainly do this if it happened to them. Oh yes, defo. And of course they would deserve it too. Only to be expected. Normal. Errrm…

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At the end of the day, Booing is a social or human disease. The idiots, or those who have a right to their opinion by making a stupid noise will argue forever that it’s a free country and in a way that’s right. But some of those are probably also the people who park over your drive, grow 98 feet leylandi next to your house or are a generally obnoxious twit (parental control again). Conversely they might genuinely be a really nice person who just feels the best, or only way, to express themselves when the result doesn’t go the way they want is to pucker those lips.

Myself, I learned how to Boo at the Christmas panto when I was 8 and that’s where it’s stayed.

That said, it doesn’t mean I haven’t called Player XYZ over the years a useless so and so. But then that’s because they were. Probably.