The top 6 best football Tifo displays
Football Tifos are a common site across Europe & South America, with fans fully embracing the art. They became popular in the late 60’s in Eastern Europe alongside the emergence of ‘Ultra groups’. They come in all shapes and sizes, different colours and presented in different ways. Some are a cheap laugh at rivals, others become political but they are all a work of art! Here are our favourites from across the globe!
Dortmund ‘watching’
The Yellow Wall is a sight to behold whether it’s flags, flares or tifos they are world rebound for the atmosphere they create week-in-week out. Although in this article we are only focusing on one from Dortmund, 90min.com covered the top 8 displays from the BVB fans.
Their unrivalled support was no different on a Tuesday night in April 2013 when Malaga came to town. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the Champions League, the fans knew home advantage, and more importantly their support, was going to be game changing. As the teams came out of the tunnel and lined up the Yellow Wall revealed an intimidating looking character with binoculars. This was also accompanied with text reading ‘Auf den spuren des verlorenen henkelpotts’ which loosely translates to ‘On the trail of the lost Cup’. This is in reference to the club not winning a Champions League for over 15 seasons.
They went on to beat Real Madrid in the semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate, including a 4-1 win at home before losing at Wembley Stadium to their German rivals, Bayern Munich. The game ended 2-1 and without home advantage they were unable to perform the same fate a third time.
There are a few Dortmund tifos we could have chosen, but this one is probably our favourite and the most well known tifo in all of football!
Galatasaray & Graeme Souness’
In Turkish football Galatasaray vs Fenerbahçe is one of the fiercest rivalries around. Over the years there have been some great tifos but this one is next level ‘shithousery’.
In 1996 Graham Souness famously, and controversially, planted a flag with the Galatasaray stripes in the center circle of Fenerbahçe’s stadium. Unsurprisingly, this caused a full scale riot in the stands and added fuel to the fire between the two clubs.
Fast forward over 15 years and the Galatasaray celebrated this iconic moment by presenting their rivals with a new tifo!
Brøndby ‘gladiator’
Brøndby are a cross city rival to Copenhagen so when they faced each other in 2015 they didn’t hold back with their tifo. It showed the head of a Lion (Copenhagens badge) in the hand of a Gladiator.
This tifo was presented as the players emerged from the tunnel.
Barcelona ‘Gracies Johan’
Barcelona don’t often have tifos in and around their ground but when they do they make sure to get the whole stadium involved. In 2016 before their game with Real Madrid the Catalonia club presented a spine-tingling tifo to the great Johan Cruyff who passed away just a week prior.
The incredible tribute showed the legends shirt & number along with the message ‘Gracies Johan’.
Legia Warsaw ‘Guess Whos back?’
In 2016 the Polish Giants displayed this masterpiece before their first group stage game in 21 years. It depicts a ‘Teddys boys 95’ Ultra fan holding up a card from the Champions League draw. As if this celebration wasn’t enough they filled the remainder of the stand with bright red burning flairs to intimidate their opponents for that cold evening.
Portsmouth ‘Our Club’
Moving from Champions League football to then league 2 outfit Portsmouth. This is in contrast to the others in our list, its not intimidating to the opponent but simply celebrating their own achievement. After years of uncertainty over ownership and the stability of the club the fans saved their team from liquidation in the last hour.
The fans responded with this tifo to celebrate their new ownership as they looked to breath new life into their beloved club.
Well there it is, our list of our favourite tifos! Let us know if you agree with any of our choices or let us know which ones you would add by tweeting us @thehalftimepint.
