[Jimmy]

I have always wondered this ever since I stepped into the world of cyberspace. I have seen several types of forums kind of like Xtratime. I have posted and still post on some too, whereas there are Swedish too. One thing these forums have in common:

The Inter forum is the biggest!

Why is this so? Here on Xtratime we all know it´s the biggest and the most active. Other unmentionable forums it´s also the Inter forum that is the biggest. The Swedish site where I write sometimes, it´s also the biggest. Whereever I go where it´s forums for several football teams (like on Xtratime) it is always the Inter forum there that is the most popular.

And still we aren´t considered to be the most popular team in the world. Man Utd is, I guess. Even Juventus is considered more popular in Italy than we are. And still on the forums we are bigger.

It´s very strange I tell ya. We seem to have the most fans that visits forums, but still not close to the likes of Man Utd and Juventus.

It´s weird...

 

[Glen]

I don't think it's that weird actually .

Domestically- Juventus is just by far the most popular for whatever reason, and thus Inter won't get near that for many years. It makes a very significant difference in the charts when there's 3,5 million Inter fans and 12 million in Italy alone. Internationally the discrepancy isn't that big at all, and regarding messageboard- there's also Italian ones which are almost exclusively doinated by Juve fans, which is logical by the numbers.

When you look at it in an International perspective- exposure means alot for the "masses" and since Inter hasn't really been involved in CL to a large extend, and hasn't really racked up a sustained run of big results Internationally or domestically- then it's not that strange that the "usual suspects" will be deemed bigger. Really. Add to that the fact that some teams like Man.U, Juventus and now also Real Madrid have for a long time tried to establish themselves commercially across the globe. Milan is a vast thing in Europe as well, because so many remembers the Sacchi/Capello powerhouse teams fondly.

One of the things that contribute to getting many people going to the Inter forum is also the appeal of your stars. Inter has for many, many years had a fine selection of the biggest stars in the game, and they've represented a multitude of different countries. Just like Milan became even more popular in Denmark when Helveg and Laursen signed- Inter will be a bigger thing when guys like Ronaldo, Zanetti, Seedorff, Recoba etc. sign, because they bring interest from a broad spectre of the world. Add to that that you have propably the biggest number of different Natioalitites in your squad- many people are curious about Inter.

It's true that the first part doesn't necessarily comply with the attention given to Inter on web forums, but people in many ways grow up liking the dominant teams more, and thus I don't think it's that strange that the numbers will show less Inter fans than some other teams.

Btw. Just to comment on the thing about United being the team with the biggest following. A recent survey said it was Juventus, but again- it's because of the domestic support. If a survey was done excluding the domestic results- I think it's clear that Man.U would be the most popular team.
On the other hand- Man.U would propably also be the most unpopular, just like Juve besides having the most fans, is also the most unpopular team in Italy.

Ciao.

 

[Shanie]

Media coverage. Promotion. Propaganda.

That's part of the reasons why we can "create" some real big teams, like Man Utd.

Manchester United are believed to be the team having lots of fans around the globe. Are they really that big? If you talk about the financial aspect, yes, indeed they are. They're the richest football club in the world.

I would say that they're actually some very good businessmen who are good at promoting the team and creating such a big hype. They won the title several times in a row in 1990s. They have got the advantage. I don't know what it is about in other countries, so let's take what I see in my city as example.

We're able to see live EPL games on TV every weekend in recent years. What come next? We're told repeatly that Man Utd are the best in England because they win this and that blah blah blah... you probably know what could happen then. Owing to these "promotions" (I would better say, propaganda) for making Man Utd to be the greatest ever team on the planet, the number of fans keep increasing. For example, magazines with posters of Man Utd attached to can attract more readers. We can get Man Utd merchandises much more easily than the things of other clubs. I even experienced that from my father, who starts watching more games in these years (mainly because I'm watching! ). He buys the idea and believes that Man Utd and Beckham are the best he sees in football... :dazed: Man Utd is the most popular team here. It's a FACT.

Apparently it's the best and easiest way to attract a huge "fanbase": a few real hardcore and passionate fans (we can't deny that there should be cool people among them, right?), some fans who care but are not too crazy for the club, some fans who admire several footballers of the club, plus some (or even worse, "a lot of") glory-hunters who might switch to support other winning teams after a while, especially if the team starts losing games and stops winning different titles.

Posting in a forum is something different. We need Internet. We need the knowledge. We need the wit. We need to be passionate enough, or we wouldn't spend that much time here. And we choose, i.e. NOT everyone likes writing and/or reading some real large posts about football and such on Net.

Having the biggest and busiest forum doesn't mean that you have LOTS of fans. It indeed shows that you have MORE fans WITH GOOD QUALITIES.

We should be happy to realise that.

 

[Jimmy]

Two long replies on a topic I didn´t even wrote that seriously. Cool!

Glen

I belive you that Juve forums are being dominated in the Italian forums. I never check them out nor know where they even exists. I would be pretty surprised if also there, the Inter forum would dominate. Though these numbers can lie sometimes. Here in Sweden, Lazio are probably the most popular team along with Milan. Still, looking at the Swedish forums along the net it is once again the Inter forum that is dominating. Even though we aren´t considered as popular among Swedes, such as Juve, Milan and Lazio who tops the list here (in no particular order). That is one of the things that amazes me...

I agree about the stars thing too, BUT we have to acknowledge that the Inter forum here carries many people that has been Inter fans for many many years, without Ronaldo etc. etc. in the team. So it is on the other forums I read or have read on too. I understand that Ronaldo brought a lot of fans with him, when he joined us. But so far, I can only see one "Inter" fan at this forum that cares more about Ronaldo than Inter itself. But isn´t the numbers of Inter fans be showed everywhere then, depending on how many jerseys we are selling or any other merchandise with Ronaldo´s name on it? Maybe it becomes covered because of the lack of success Inter have had the last years, and no one really bothers to check up how many Inter fans there really are, because they don´t think they exists that many. I don´t know. :undecide:
But looking at the net and the various forums that exists, it is the Inter forum that are being dominated when it comes to activity and the number of fans.

In the current stage around the forums, I don´t think the number of stars have had such an influence on the people. There are so many veterans around here and other forums that have been Inter fans for years, and yes perhaps they became Inter fans because of certain players. But how many haven´t become Juve fans because of Platini or Del Piero for example? I think these type of fans exists everywhere.


Shanie

When it comes to media coverage, we are though covered as much as many other teams, such as Juve. BUT we are more famous in a negative way and media are using us for a laughing stock. That might be a reason for why we never get the real picture of how many Inter fans there actually are and how popular we are. Media makes a picture that Inter is a chaotic team, that has a lot of fans because of Ronaldo. There is some truth in it, but not the entire truth. We might have been chaotic, but that doesn´t mean that our fans have becomes less and people have "jumped ship". I´m not saying that you are saying that now. The media!
We also have a lot of fans because of Ronaldo but most of them has left that Ronaldo passion that they first had and became a fan of the whole team. So there the so called media angle becomes a bit surreal.



I just wonder why the net seems to be the place where we can see that Inter fans are dominating the International forums on the net? Glen perhaps have a point with the numbers of foreigners in our team and that people get curious. But we are FANS and not curious about the team. It´s passion and love for the team that have existed for years. That curiousness doesn´t exists anymore and most people along the forums on the net isn´t new fans. They have been around for the years that we have struggled and still are Inter fans. I have now witness three seasons on Xtratime. The first two seasons we were crap and didn´t win anything and we still had the most active forum and the most fans that posted. And this season has been the same. There has to be some pattern here that isn´t officially. The Inter fans are existing in a MUCH bigger scale than what we are hearing. I wouldn´t be surprised if we have more numbers of fans (not counting those who doesn´t care for football, but say that they root for this and that team) than Manchester United. Looking purely at the net it´s definetely that way. Then perhaps where the most Man Utd fans exists, they don´t have access to the net as easy as we do?? I don´t know...

I just find it very weird that the Inter forum is dominating the forums on the net, and we aren´t considered to be among the most popular teams.

 

[Glen]

Jimmy: I just wanted to say that I did not mean to imply that the Star attraction of Inter is the be all end all of fans here.

You are perfectly right in making the connection to Platini-Del Piero, and I personally became a Juve follower when Platini played there, and a fan when Laudrup joined.

Then it moves on from player preference to caring for the team. This is true for most any International fan who isn't brought up supporting this or that side.

I cannot explain why the Inter forums are more active than others on the net, but I don't think you can really dispute that the surveys made reflect the reality. It's simply polls being made and people answering on "What is your favourite team".
Why Interfans seems generally more active participants on the web forums is very difficult to explain.

Ciao.

 

[Neil Down]

Inter.it is the Official Football club site with more internet Traffic, second comes Liverpool's.

I guess Inter is so famous online because of WC98 and the big Exposure Ronaldo had, and Many people who werent Real football fans or Just fell in Love with Ronnie became Interista, on top of that Inter signed Baggio there.

Thanks to this all those fans who didnt have an Identidy, at least when it came to european soccer, began to fallow Inter, and Took them as their #1 club, and felt as if they needed to learn more, and fallow Inter Closer. Other Teams like Juve might have a bigger fan base but an older one in terms of fallowing the club, so there is not that Internet Craze about it.


I mean you dont see many 30 yr olds or many Italian supporting Inter on this Forums, it's mostly International fans, yes other clubs have International fans as well but if you compare local and european Inter fans to the rest of the world, you will see Inter might have a bigger ratio of International Fans, than other clubs.

 

[Ammar]

I only know that Inters T-shirt is the most popular in Australia where eva you go you will see it

 

[bj2008]

In China have a lot of Interfans but IMO AC milan have more fans :depress:

 

[kaiserh]

Inter.it is the Official Football club site with more internet Traffic, second comes Liverpool's.

I guess Inter is so famous online because of WC98 and the big Exposure Ronaldo had, and Many people who werent Real football fans or Just fell in Love with Ronnie became Interista, on top of that Inter signed Baggio there.

Very true,
Ronaldo,Vieri,Jorkaef,Zamorano,Baggio,Seedorf,Blanc,Keane,Sukur,Mutu,Pagliuca,Zanetti,Cordoba,Most of the foreign players are really big in their own land.

 

[Tommy]

Why aren't you the most popular team? Maybe because you have won f*ck all during the 90's Why don't Coventry have more fans too

Sorry if i offended anyone by these true comments

 

[leeds_utd_lad]

Very True TJK. If u win the Scudeto that will make u alot bigger and alot more popular. Glory Hunters mainly will follow you... They will fall from the ranks of Roma and strap onto you lad's...

 

[JKris]

It is mostly an age thing. But remember at with Milanmania, milan have an forum with an very big following and that have really brought down the posts in this milan forum.

 

[Carson35]

very interesting topic...

i've been to several football discussion forums b4 including XT...i've also been to a chinese INTER board...surprisingly, many INTER fans in china post a lot there...same thing here on XT...this is something that we can not explain...

IMO, INTER is one of the biggest teams in the world..no doubt about that...but is INTER the most popular team in the world?? i don't think so...as i have not seen any stats that prove to me that we are the most popular team in the world...if Man Utd is more popular than us, then why we have much more posts than they do??? maybe u can say that we have a lot of young fans who can spend a lot of time at home/school and post...but i believe that Man Utd also do have a lot of young fans as well...i don't know...every team has a lot of different age of fans...some of them go to school...some of them go to work...but why INTER forums are the most active??? i really don't know...