In a recent Friday night conversation with a fellow Football culture enthusiast over a beer, the question came up as to which of the thousands of the world’s professional and semi-professional Football clubs were the FBTG writers planning on dedicating blog posts to next. Such an obvious conversation caught us off guard. Our approach to culture blogging in the opposite to what many similar writers do. We research the topic before watching the Football, not the other way round.

Of course, when you delve deep enough into the history of any Football club, its fans and its respective city, region and neighbourhood, you’ll definitely find interesting stories and narratives worth sharing, except Leeds United. In the subsequent half an hour we plucked an enormous list of names from the top of our head before narrowing it down into a shorter list of Football clubs that we really wanted to write about in the near future. Having realised it would make an interesting short post, we present that list here.

Beitar Jerusalem FC

This is not Israel’s most successful or well-known Football club, but the highly politicised fans of Beitar are among the country’s most extreme.

Besiktas JK

The game-day atmosphere begins as soon as your eyes open. On the metro journey to the Vodafone Park, the driver shouts the word “black” across the tannoy, to which fans reply being screaming “white”. A day with these guys must be a wild experience.

Bohemians Praha 1905

Prague‘s most colourful outfit took inspiration from a tour of Australia decades ago.

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas

Not just one of Rio de Janeiro’s strongest sides, but also the name of a specific dance move associated with samba. Are the two related?

Celta Vigo

The name of this La Liga side reflects the cultural links that much of northern Spain has with the Celtic traditions in the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe.

Christiania SC

A semi-professional Danish club that represents the autonomous community in central Copenhagen who are permitted to sell narcotics.

Club Atlas

The second team of Mexico’s second city, Club Atlas is known domestically for its links to the middle classes of Guadalajara.

Club Deportivo Palestino

Probably the club that we are most desperate to watch and write about. Santiago’s Palestinian community remain very visible and relevant to date thanks to the existence of a Football club dedicated to them.

Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota FC

The only club that groundhops internationally. Owned by the Brunei Sultanate, DPMM FC has competed in leagues and cups in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and now the Singapore Premier League.

Espérance Sportive de Tunis

Espérance has recently emerged as a leading African outfit in terms of support, and could probably be a great introduction to Tunisian fan culture.

FC Carl Zeiss Jena

There are a number of qualities that make this East German club one of the most unusual in the land, and we want to do this club justice.

FC Rubin Kazan

The city of Kazan is culturally distinct within the Russian Federation thanks to a population that is predominantly Tatar and Muslim, rather than Slav and Orthodox Christian. Does the fan culture of the local team reflect this in any way?

Legia Warszawa

The Biggest. The Boldest. The Baddest. Speaking to Legia’s ultras would be tricky, but we really want to learn more about Football in Poland’s capital.

Persipura Jayapura

The largest Football club on the island of Papua, we’d like to investigate whether or not the Papuan culture means that fans of Persipura Jayapura behave differently to other Indonesian Football fans.

Portland Timbers

The Timbers Army is quite possibly one of the most colourful and raucous fan groups inside the MLS. Getting there might be difficult, but we’re sure it wouldn’t disappoint.

Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña

Back in the 90’s, Deportivo was one of the big names in Spanish Football. As such, this is the biggest club in Galicia, one of Spain’s most culturally distinct regions, and we absolutely want to get to the Abanca-Riazor at some stage.

Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras

The founders of Palmeiras were members of the Italian immigrant community to Sao Paulo, making it another large name in the way in which Brazilian fan culture is defined along ethnic and class lines.

Vasco da Gama

Named after a 15th century Portuguese maritime explorer, this club is probably the best introduction to the remarkable history of South American Football culture.

Wydad AC

The city of Casablanca has Africa’s wildest ultras, no question about it. We wanna get on the ground and take a look around there.

1 FC Magdeburg

Probably the highest profile club of the former GDR that we haven’t yet watched. We want to change this and experience Magdeburg’s epic atmospheres.

Of course, ticking off so many boxes in such a wide variety of places will take a lot of work, time and sacrifice. If anybody associated with these sports teams should read this and want to help us out in any way, feel free to drop us a message and we’ll be in touch.

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