Wonderful World Cup / Dan Fitch / 01 June 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

With the World Cup almost upon us, Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch takes a look at which set of fans are likely to make the most noise.

The amount of drink consumed can result in unpleasant bouts of violence (England) or just harmless buffoonery (Scotland). Unfortunately for the people of South Africa, Scotland haven’t qualified for the World Cup, but England have.

Every World Cup features a team that are labelled as the tournament 'dark horses'. Almost without exception, they buckle under the weight of expectation, while a completely unfancied team emerges as the real surprise package of the tournament.

I've seen several pundits name Serbia as the dark horses of this forthcoming World Cup and it seems that they have decided to take the unprecedented step of imploding before the tournament has even started.

Over the weekend they conspired to lose to New Zealand, which angered their fans to the extent that they started to throw missiles and flares from the stands. They then tried to invade the pitch and it looked as if the match would be abandoned.

It took Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic to calm things down, as he grabbed a microphone and placated his nation's fans. He probably said something along the lines of: "Come on guys, the Kiwis aren't so bad at football. That Ryan Nelson bloke plays for Blackburn." Serbia are [1.92] to qualify from Group D.

The incident got me thinking about how we tend to categorise the fans of the different nations in much the same way as we compartmentalise the teams into groups of contenders, dark horses and also-rans. Here's the lowdown on the types of fans you can expect to see in South Africa.

The Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know

This is the category for your Eastern European, Balkan states and the Italians. It is obligatory for fans of any of these nations to bring at least one flare each into the stadium. Strangely, the authorities tend to overlook their in-match pyrotechnics, because they're too busy making sure that no one is drinking beer or smoking a fag.

These fans make a lot of noise and seem more comfortable when consumed with anger, rather than euphoria. Watch out for fireworks if Serbia lose to a minnow.

The Drunks

This group consists of any country hailing from the British Isles and select Scandinavian nations. Basically, the football is a conduit to allow these supporters to go on a massive bender.

The amount of drink consumed can result in unpleasant bouts of violence (England) or harmless buffoonery (Scotland). Unfortunately, for the people of South Africa, Scotland haven't qualified for the World Cup, but England have.

Where the Brits can be proud of themselves is their ability to create brilliant and witty terrace songs, though this is, I suppose, what you'd expect from a small island that gave the world roughly 50% of all listenable popular music.

The Beautiful People

If you're watching a game that involves Brazil, you can have some fun by having bets on how long it takes for the cameraman to turn his attention away from the pitch and onto some rather foxy looking young lady in the stands.

This also happens during Sweden's games, although as they haven't qualified, I expect Denmark will prove to be able substitutes.

Watch out for the commentators making feeble jokes when these lovelies make their appearances. "The match might not be the most attractive, but there are some things worth looking at..." Shut up, Clive.

The Little Drummer Boys

Brazil also fall into the category of bongo-slapping, colourfully-dressed eccentrics who prefer to conga up and down the terraces, rather than actually watching the game. There's normally at least one bloke at every Brazil game dressed up like Condorman.

As well as the South Americans, we can look forward to the commentators making slightly patronising remarks about the drum-banging fans of any African side. It's not a 'unique atmosphere' - it's a racket.

Tags: brazil, england, new zealand, serbia, world cup betting, world cup groups