Half-and-Half

[davieG]

Anyone care to admit they've  got a half and half shirt or scarf?

 

 

Why do half-and-half shirts offend football fans?

BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why

• 7 hours ago

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Image copyrightJames Marsh / BPIImage captionA fan sporting a Brighton-Arsenal "half-and-half" shirt

Why do "half-and-half" shirts offend so many footy fans?

If there's one subject guaranteed to divide the global public, it's the beautiful game.

But if you look at social media chatter, an emerging trend seems to be uniting thousands of football fans: a shared animosity to the emergence of the "half-and-half" football shirt.

These mysterious garments are essentially two half-kits, from two different teams, stitched together. They don't seem to be mass manufactured, but rather sewn together at home. Pictures of these one-off half-and-half kits keep emerging on Twitter and Facebook. Sometimes they commemorate both sides in a particular match, but often they simply show two different sides a fan supports. And some writers have argued that they represent a turn against tribal loyalty in football.

On Twitter, the term "half and half" has been tweeted 35,000 times in the last three months - and associated tags indicate that most of those tweets have been in the context of football.

Attention on half-and-half shirts seems to spike each time a new picture of one is posted online, or appears in the media, and the sentiment is largely negative.

Image copyrightTWITTER

Conversation in the UK spiked on September 13, when an unknown fan was spotted in TV footage at Sunderland's home ground, the Stadium of Light, wearing a shirt that showed both Sunderland and Arsenal colours. On that day, Sunderland were actually hosting Tottenham Hotspur. Online, some Tottenham supporters saw the shirt as a gesture meant to taunt them (given their rivalry with Arsenal).

Image copyrightTWITTERImage captionThese TV pictures were widely shared and retweeted

Before shirts started to emerge, half-and-half football scarves caused much debate over divided loyalty. These scarves are usually meant to commemorate individual fixtures and sold at grounds. Last month, one Manchester pub even went as far as banning them completely.

The next day, a Twitter account mocking "half-and-half culture" was set up anonymously - aiming to shame half-and-half wearers by sharing photos. On this feed, blurred and grainy camera phone images show mostly unsuspecting members of the public sporting a variety of novel combinations: Liverpool-Cardiff City, Manchester United-Chelsea and Liverpool-Hull, to name a few.

So what does the online animosity towards the half-and-half shirt tell us about football culture?

John Williams, an expert in the sociology of football at the University of Leicester, thinks these shirts cause offence because they hit at the core of how most football fans identify themselves. "It makes people look like consumers," he says, "the opposite of how most football fans like to think of themselves. Most fans still think support is an accident of birth.

"Where you are born or the influence of a parent connects you with a particular club. No matter how poorly they perform, you can't shake that," he told BBC Trending. "The idea that that's no longer important and that you can just choose a second club is really difficult."

Despite the visible online anger towards them, it seems that half-and-half shirts are growing in popularity. Supporters go to great efforts to have them made. Arena Scarves in Leicester makes the hybrid match scarves on sale at grounds. "We started doing them for international rugby, and it spread into English football. Our competitors picked up on it," partner Claire Dolan told BBC Trending. To her, the criticism of scarves and shirts shows an "outdated" approach to football fandom.

"Fans should get into the 21st Century," she says. "The old days of it being quite so tribal… we need to get away from that."

Blog by Alex Dackevych

 

[kingcarr21]

Why would you want to wear the colours of the opposing team?

 

Even if you supported 2 teams you wouldnt have a half and half shirt. Just looks plain wrong.

[The Railway Man]

This is only going to become more common with the globalisation of the sport, I bet we are less than 50 years away from most people picking a different team to support each season.

[Voll Blau]

They're an abomination. I could *maybe* understand it if you get to a European final but who the fvck wants a Leicester/Watford half-scarf.

 

That said, I do have a half-scarf of VfL Bochum and Fiege (the local brewery).

[Fox92]

I wouldn't touch anything half and half. Should be banned.

[davieG]

I used to have half and half shandies after playing football before the days of chilled lagers.

[Stevosevic]

I picked up a Leicester v Real Madrid half and half scarf.

Doesn't mean i support Real Madrid, it's just a souvenir for a fixture we'll probably never see again.

[RowlattsFox]

I can understand half-half scarves at times. For big games or for supporters who don't get to games as often I can see the benefit as a souvenir. Half and half shirts are another thing all together.

 

Enjoy collecting scarves of other teams, I try and pick up a scarf from every foreign city I visit, even if I don't get to an actual game.

[Hollism]

I picked up a Leicester v Real Madrid half and half scarf.

Doesn't mean i support Real Madrid, it's just a souvenir for a fixture we'll probably never see again.

That was probably a once in a lifetime game, but it was also when HalfScarves were a new thing. Now we see them every week! I don't understand how there can be a market for Leicester vs Norwich scarves.

Have these shite things trickled down to the championship yet? Step right up and grab your Half-Preston North End, Half-QPR scarf

[Finnegan]

It's just so ****ing tacky.

[DB11]

I agree with the quote about it shows consumerism, when football fans don't like that

[Crinklyfox]

It's marketing.  Instead of selling one scarf to a fan that they can take to every game they now sell a scarf that needs to be replaced every game.

 

If some fans want to collect scarves to remind them of matches they've attended then fine, the programme always did that for me though.

 

Personally I wouldn't want to wear a scarf with opposition colours co I'll never buy a 'half-and-half'.

[AKCJ]

I'd get one for sure if Leicester got to an F.A Cup final or something.

 

Not that i'd ever wear it but it'd be a good momento.

 

 

But you just know there'll be a load of tourists with half and half scarves with their cameras on saturday. So depressing.

[Captain...]

I'd get one for sure if Leicester got to an F.A Cup final or something.

 

Not that i'd ever wear it but it'd be a good momento.

 

 

But you just know there'll be a load of tourists with half and half scarves with their cameras on saturday. So depressing.

 

Surely you just buy a Leicester FA Cup final scarf?

 

I have 3 Wembley scarves, none of them have the opposition on it,  just Leicester, Wembley, date and occasion.

[Captain...]

I can kinda understand the half Brazil half Argentina one, he could have dual nationality.

 

Likewise Leicester vs Real Madrid, the occasion was that it was Real Madrid playing Leicester, but I would rather have a Leicester scarf with Real Madrid smaller, than a half and half scarf, mainly because I think they look shit.

 

I have a badge from the Leicester vs Red Star match that has both their club badges on, but that's not the same, is it?

[Fox92]

Surely you just buy a Leicester FA Cup final scarf?

 

I have 3 Wembley scarves, none of them have the opposition on it,  just Leicester, Wembley, date and occasion.

 

Was going to say the same thing. They always have the special cup final scarves without the need for the opposition included.

[AKCJ]

Surely you just buy a Leicester FA Cup final scarf?

 

I have 3 Wembley scarves, none of them have the opposition on it,  just Leicester, Wembley, date and occasion.

 

 

I'd get a Leicester one for wearing.

 

But I think a half and half cup final scarf is a good memento to show the grandchildren one day.

[davieG]

I'd get a Leicester one for wearing.

 

But I think a half and half cup final scarf is a good memento to show the grandchildren one day.

Only if we win though so I hope you don't have to wait as long as me, still waiting

[AKCJ]

Only if we win though so I hope you don't have to wait as long as me, still waiting

 

 

Yeah I wouldn't get one if we lost haha

[RonnieTodger]

It's just weird isn't. Imagine paying for 2 football shirts, then going through the trouble of sewing them together and wrecking them. The scarves are mince but you have to be a real oddball to do that with shirts. 

[Nick]

I notice a lot of Leeds fans now having a 'second team'

 

[ScouseFox]

salt an pepper chicken half an half is my go to order 

[goose2010]

Went to Romania to watch Fc Cluj Vs Chelsea with a Romanian mate, I brought one then as it was a good souvenir and it was bloody freezing, great experience that was!

[BrummieFOX]

Yeh as usual the companies/individuals making these half and half scarves/shirts have taken it too far. Most football fans would accept them in a unique one-off game like a cup-final, but they're selling them at basically every game now which as it states in the article just makes us look like consumers and people going for the spectacle as opposed to support our team.

[David Guiza]

Wouldn't buy one personally, but I can't say it bothers me. Each to their own.