I wonder if football is as important in other countries as it is in turkey . in Turkey especially men are supposed to be interested in football

people would find it very strange if you are not a fan of any team ( generally fenerbahce, besiktas, and galatasaray). on mondays 90 % of men talk only about matches played at weekend. they tease eachother until next weekend.

for example today fenerbahce and besiktas will play matches with teams from belgium and switzerland to join the champions league. and everyone talks about those matches in my office ( except girls)

i remember when i was a child my brother and uncle were trying to make me a fan of fenerbahce so they bought me a fenerbahce tshirt and i did the same to my nephews it is like a religion here

i know all stadiums are full in england, germany and other europen countries in match days but they just watch match as if it is a film but when we go to the stadium we shout like animals until we lose our voices. do they see that as only a game? or something very important in their lives?

i know people take football so seriously in latin america just like in Turkey. does this mean poor countries like it more becasue of some social reasons? or are we just more passionate about everything

Ouh Ciko, I can assure you that it's just the same in the UK. Conversations at work centre around teasing eachother about forthcoming matches. I always like to check the results of teams my colleagues support so I can tease them on Monday mornings when they have lost We are VERY passionate about our football and certainly its impossible to watch any game "like a film" here!!

For big matches, most people like to meet and watch them in bars on big screens rather than sit at home, so they can cheer and shout with their friends. When I go to watch matches with friends, we all lose our voices afterwards from shouting hehehe!

I am proud to be a supporter of the club with the official "loudest fans in England", Portsmouth FC! Turkish football is also very popular here - my Turkish team being Fenerbahce too (who else?) !

Certainly!Football is life style for us like in England..

football (or soccer as we call it in australia) isn't as popular as it is in the u.k. or turkey.

we have australian rules football and rugby league, which are more popular and which people are more passionate about.

it depends which areas of australia you go to. in melbourne and the southern areas, australian rules football is popular.

in sydney and brisbane, rugby league is more popular.

these 2 football codes are like a religion to the people of those areas. people go to the matches and scream their lungs out, or go to friends houses or pubs and watch it on tv.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league

I have a good example of our passion for football. We recently had a new (male) member of staff join us.

We were all sat talking one morning and one colleague asked him "what football team do you support?". The new guy replied "I dont like football". There was an awkward silence and then everyone started to work.....later that day, one of them said to me "I just don't know if I like that new guy...he seems strange"

Purely because he didn't like football !