Miscellaneous: A story about ‘camp followers’

"If you take a closer look at the crowds around the pitch watching the Sunday football matches then it is not too difficult to immediately identify a certain sort of so-called 'sports people' where the term ‘camp follower’ hits the nail on the head. I mean the people who have never had a football at their feet, never experienced the benefits of personal hygiene on their own body and obviously have no idea of the meaning of football and its rules. Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the fact these sports people have a certain interest in sport, particularly in football, even if this interests sometimes is expressed copiously and in a less than pleasant manner. If you hear shouting and noise, interjections and swearing then you can be sure that the camp followers are at work here expressing their interest in the match and sport in this somewhat special way.

Pity the referee who runs the game not according to the wishes of these brothers. The slightest infringement, that the referee should enforce according to them, unleashes limitless howling and protest. There is swearing and mocking and it has been the case that the poor referee has been made clear of the reasons for protests physically. Thankfully those elements are not to be seen at our ground but I do think it is fitting to talk about it once as it could be the case that there may be one or the other reasons for future camp followers to feel they have to turn on themselves and feel like real sportsmen."

Who recognises that? It appears to me that things over the last hundred years have not really changed that much at least at the football pitches in this world.