Language Vulgarism and Inter-Club Conflicts amongst Football Fans: Critical Analysis of Arsenal and Chelsea Football Clubs

Abstract

Globally, football activities have assumed strong factor that promotes inter-state relations. The
desire for entertainment that is derived from football activities promotes cross-border movement
of people all over the world and while we appreciate the importance of football activities in
promoting inter-state relationship, the use of abusive words among football fans have become
cataclysmic and nonetheless contributed to inter-group violence that have plagued football fans.
This is evident among the Arsenal and Chelsea fans who have derogatorily engaged each other in
one abusive word or the other particularly when the two teams take on each other. These vulgar
words have come in form of “Ndi Owo, Arsene Wenger onye owo, Eze ka Udele, Wenger Onye
Ara, Wenger Homoo, Wenger ora ashawo, visionless Wenger, trophiless Wenger and Wenger, a
philosopher of loser”. In reciprocity, the Arsenal supporters would call Jose Mourinho “Ajasko,
dancing master and Michael Jackson” which sometimes could lead to group skirmishes. Against
this background therefore, this study tends to investigate language vulgarism and inter-club
conflicts in Nigeria with the aim at unpacking why football activities that suppose to be
promoting human relations have become the bane of conflicts among its supporters. Data for this
study were collected from personal interview and secondary sources while Group Theory was
adopted as theoretical foundation for the study. Preliminary investigation revealed that vulgar
words are self-attacking, capable of translating cordial relationship to violent relations. The
position of the paper is that inter-club conflicts often occur as a result of language vulgarism.