Wayne Rooney’s outburst at booing England fans at the end of the 0-0 draw with Algeria prompted a tidal wave of online debate. Lots of England fans felt the striker should be dropped after his post-match antics, but a rather lame apology on his behalf was released by the English FA and that seems to have calmed the situation somewhat. More interesting than Rooney’s actions, though, were the debates that raged on afterward about the rights and wrongs of booing your team. I have cherry-picked a couple of my favourite online comments from the BBC user forums that I think best reflect the opposing views amongst England supporters.

This was by ‘ipswichvilla’ from the BBC 606 forum:

England fans are the best in the world. No matter where the world cup is, we have an immense travelling support. The people who booed were probably regular followers who literally spend thousands to SUPPORT the team. And they were supporting the whole game, it was only at the end where frustration boiled over, and they were perfectly right to show their disgust with that abject performance.

Rooney showed a complete lack of respect for the people who travelled 6000 miles to support England. Maybe when he watched the game back he saw how rubbish he really was.

One of the main reasons that England fans have cited in vindication of their ‘right’ to boo is that they have spent a lot of money and made a lot of sacrifices to go and watch their team.

This is undoubtedly true. Tickets, airfares, hotel costs and time off work all add up to a lot of money. A lot of England’s most hardcore travelling supporters aren’t on particularly high incomes, and supporting their team takes a significant chunk out of their wage packet. Whether it is right or wrong for them to spend so much money on watching football is debatable, but what is irrefutable is that they have sacrificed an awful lot to follow their team. To then hear Rooney literally spit back their dedication in their faces must be truly hurtful. It was a miscalculated outburst on his part and it did show a real lack of respect. However, I don’t think Rooney was questioning their dedication, just their support. For me, booing can never be an acceptable form of support. It breeds negativity and won’t help England turn things around at a time when they need positivity the most. If the England fans want their team to succeed, they must encourage them, not denigrate them, no matter how annoyed they were with their team’s performance (which was admittedly absolutely dire). If those England supporters really do love their team, then they wouldn’t boo them. Consider the following (albeit rather facile) example:

Two parents have a twelve-year-old son who is remarkably good at table-tennis. He has the talent to be one of the best in the world, but to see him reach his potential they have to shell out a very significant amount of money taking him to international tournaments in far-flung places as the government gives them no funding. He’s playing in the most important world tournament of his life, but for some reason forgets his training and slumps to a disappointing defeat in the first round. His parents are saddened and frustrated by the way that he played and decide to boo him off the court.

Parents booing their child whom they love and support - how embarrassing. Whilst clearly the England football team are not the children of their supporters, nor lack any funding, I believe the same rules about support apply. No matter how much you have invested in an individual or a team, if you want them to go on and succeed, booing them is clearly not the way to go about it. Yes, you have the right to boo, but it really doesn’t get you anywhere, and it shows a distinct lack of support, which is surely the reason why the England fans are there in the first place. I also don’t agree with the excuse that the booing came after the game had finished. England need their fans’ support as much off the field as when they are on it. There will be more than enough criticism from the media to make them retreat further into their shells without their fans making it worse.

The lack of support seems to be something that Luke Stephenson goes along with. He made the following comment in response to BBC’s ‘World Cup Have Your Say’ programme on 19^th June entitled ‘Is it ever OK to boo your own team?’:

“Is it OK”? Yeah, of course, everyone’s entitled to. I just don’t think much of those who do, personally. I always thought if you supported a team the idea was to support them, not boo when they fail to win glory on your behalf.

I’m spending a lot of money to go to my first ever British Grand Prix this year. I’m a Lewis Hamilton fan, and will be cheering for him. If he has a bad race, makes some mistakes and crashes out, I’m not going to boo him. What would that say about me? That I’m a bit of a fair-weather fan I think.

If you spend hundreds of pounds for a match ticket, that doesn’t entitle you to anything other than a seat. Football is a sport, not a show. And sometimes sport is boring, sometimes it doesn’t go as you’d like. England had a bad day, and the players will feel as bad about that as anyone. Why boo them?

There seems to be a feeling that the amount of money you spend on a ticket is directly proportional to the validity of your opinion. This is not the case. Opinion is free. My opinion, watching the game in a pub in Hertfordshire is just as valid as that of a hardcore England fan that has made his way to South Africa and is sitting in the stands. Above, Stephenson states that ‘If you spend…doesn’t entitle you to anything other than a seat’. I disagree. Spending money on a match ticket entitles you to be there and make your opinion heard, should you so wish. If you want to boo your team because you don’t think that they’re living up to your expectations, then that’s absolutely fine – it’s your choice. More importantly, though, that ticket in the stands also affords you the opportunity to support your team. That support is truly invaluable. What the England team needs now more than ever is their loyal fans roaring them on with encouragement, not battering them down with scorn.