Maybe it is just me, but I cannot stand the sight of the following:
(It’s nothing personal to those fans, they’re just the images I could get hold of – although as a side-point of interest, those Arsenal scarves you see there came with instructions as to how to hold them!)
The problem here isn’t with scarves, the problem is with clubs who hand them out to “generate atmosphere”. Chelsea do it with flags, as do Arsenal and as have done Spurs. I’ve always maintained that the day West Ham hand out free scarves to “generate atmosphere” would be a sad day for our club.
However…
I was so relieved, despite my original gut-wrench, that when I clicked on ‘Get your free scarf’ on the West Ham Official Site this morning that the reason we are handing them out is not too “generate atmosphere” or to encourage fans to get behind their team (yet staying within the confines of a dictated and controlled level of enjoyment), but the reason is to raise a little bit more awareness of the Bobby Moore Fund, whilst also celebrating our partnership with SBOBet. Which although is a peculiar thing want to do, they clearly have a good working relationship with both the club and the BMF and fully support and agree with where we’re going as a club. Which of course I’m fully in support of
For those reasons, in this instance a free scarf on Saturday would be welcomed, it’s a quality thing to do….just please no notes encouraging to conform to how an atmosphere should be generated and please please no instructions as to how to get the best out of your scarf waving experience. I’d be gutted.
Three points Saturday
IRONS
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Wore these to every game this year. They may not be lucky, but they're comfy:
it isnt west ham handing out scarves, it is our sponsor! i will be happy with the free gift which i will also be happy to “fly the flag” for the awareness of a great charity. clearly different to the ones you are showing in the pictures too! bad blogging!
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spot the person who didn’t actually read the article.
It may not actually be the club who are providing the scarves, but they of course have to have agreed to have them handed out. It’s obvious that it’s an SBO initiative.
However, that’s not important.
It’s clear, when you actually read the post, that Sam is saying that he was relieved to find out that it wasn’t just the club attempting to generate more atmosphere. That in fact he’s happy that we have a close working partnership with both SBO and BMF.
Yes it’s clearly different to the scarves in the pictures, and that’s the point in the aerticle. That he hates it when clubs give out free scarves so fans look like they’re having fun…and that it’s good that we are getting these scarves for an entirely different reason.
bad commenting!
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If I didn’t get across that I am infact in favour of the support of the BMF and the work that SBO are doing to support it, then I guess bad blogging.
I am happy,, more than happy in fact, to accept a free gift like this – it’s very generous. Which is exactly why I was relieved to see that the free scarves were not an attempt from the club to machine some atmosphere. Upton Park doesn’t need that
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It’s f*cked me right up because I’d asked Mum for a scarf for Christmas cos mine is knackered. She’s gonna be livid.
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Publicity vs Social conscience Sam.
A year ago this week they became our sponsor and it was amid some wrangling by fans who after the previous sponsor going out of business were calling for the club to use the Bobby Moore Caner Research UK logo for the rest of the season. The club *compromised* and to some degree even publicly acknowledged the fans requests and brought in SBOBet but had the BM6 logo on the kids replica shirts (due to the fact that any responsible company wouldn’t advertise gambling on a kids shirt)
It’s a massive game down at the Boleyn this weekend v Man U and we may even be first on MOTD (but I wouldnt hold my breath on that one) so SBOBet will be hoping for some good positive free advertising on TV with the scarves, the Bobby Moore Fund gets some positive free advertising on the TV and the fans get a free scarve.
On this occasion I think everyone is a winner.
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what a pointless article
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And an equally pointless comment to match.
If you didn’t know that we were all going to get a free scarf on Saturday and the reasons why, then I guess it wouldn’t be so pointless.
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Personally, I would love the club to give out a free scarfor flag to all fans, it adds a bit of fun.
I presume the writer of this article is new to west ham, only 3 or 4 years ago, the club gave away free blow up tubes to anyone who wanted them & our stand ‘The Bobby Moore stand’ was full of them.
It was great for the kids & just about everyone had one & was clattering them together.
Like I said, probably before your time
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If I’m honest fella, I can’t stand those either! Perhaps it’s just a personal preference….if I remember correctly, Preston had those tubes in the playoff final that we won and they did my head in.
I just kinda see it as fabricated atmosphere, which I don’t see any need for
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“it was great for the kids”
not for everyone else when they’re making a load of unecessary noise and you’re trying to a) watch football and b) generate some genuine atmosphere.
i’m with SamH on this one – if there’s anything worse than plastic flags it’s plastic noisy tubes
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Personally i also hate the plastic atmosphere the free stuff generates. Talking of which i noticed those oh so lucky mascots Herbie Hammer and Bubbles were missing from the Burnley game. Have they been sacked or maybe Gav Hammer has kidnapped them and will be creating a really special atmosphere in the Bobby Moore stand ( i’m guessing Upper tier )sandwiched between his plastic mascots and his inflatable tube!!!
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Got my free scarf and as mentioned in the article on the website it was to promote our sponsor & the wonderful Bobby Moore Fund. I couldn’t find anyone moaning about the scarfs at all.
We’ll have to agree to disagree, I personally think any promotion of the Bobby Moore Fund is a good thing, but as I said earlier, we’ll agree to disagree.
Shame the players didn’t have some of our passion yesterday … Up the Irons !!
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I’ve done regular fundraisers through my site to generate money from the BMF. I am fully in support of what they do and anyone who attempts to raise awareness of them…as SBO did at the weekend with the scarves.
Equally, you’ll see in what I wrote in the post above that had the scarves been an attempt of the club to generate a plastic atmosphere, *then* i would have been miffed. I was however delighted that that was not the case and the scarves were to raise BMF awareness.
You’re very right that it was a shame the players were lacking in the same passion – there were calls for big performances from certain players and they just unfortunately didn’t produce
IRONs
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