The Whitecaps claim to have the “best sporting atmosphere in Vancouver”. However, the few games this European exile of considerable soccer-watching experience has attended have, from the European viewpoint, been odd affairs.

The first thing that strikes me is the singing—it’s constant, loud, and, for quiet, reserved Vancouver, pretty impressive. But look a little closer and it becomes clear that it does not arise from the terraces, as it does back home, with someone starting a song and everyone else joining second time around. Rather, it is directed by a small team of perpetually pogoing fans who stand behind the goal, backs to the action.

This is very telling: the very people directing the chanting aren’t actually watching the game. This has the effect of creating a disconnect between the fans and the game—the match takes various twists and turns yet the songs remain the same, failing to reflect what’s happening on the pitch. 

The second thing that strikes the outsider is that Whitecaps fans like their merchandise: almost everyone is wearing a white home shirt or the snazzy navy away number, often with matching hats and scarves.

Flags and banners are also equally pristine—well made, well presented, and unequivocal in their message: Go Whitecaps! Again, impressive, until someone fails to follow suit, as happened on Saturday during the game against New York City FC. A small group of fans unfurled a “Refugees Welcome” banner and were ejected for their trouble. These banners have been common in the German Bundesliga in recent weeks, signifying the fans’ reaction to the global refugee crisis. Indeed, similar banners turned up at a Toronto FC game last week. 

In an email to the writer, the club’s senior media-relations and broadcast manager, Nathan Vanstone, said that the banner was confiscated as it had not gone through the “correct pre-approval process” and the group had been ejected due to “fan misconduct unrelated to the banner”. He also questioned whether “our matches are appropriate venues for such expression”. 

A “pre-approval” process for banners? It appears to this outsider that the “best sporting atmosphere in Vancouver” is rather contrived—a cauldron of carefully controlled merriment featuring disconnected singing and officially sanctioned flags and banners. It is top-down and rather corporate, a franchise out to protect its brand and not risk riling its customers rather than a club with a fan base with opinions.

To the European observer, this seems sanitised and airbrushed. Football fans have opinions and they want to express them, be they supporters protesting against the gentrification of the sport (pricing out its traditional working-class support), signs and banners critical of the way in which their club is being run; or even outright political statements, such as anti-Thatcher banners during the 1980s or anti-austerity ones today or “refugees welcome”. 

By muzzling this political expression, the Whitecaps remain a franchise providing an experience to customers rather than a club with a heart and soul. The confiscation of the “Refugees Welcome” banner and the ejection of its owners signifies what’s wrong with the “best sporting atmosphere in Vancouver”: it shies away from any potential controversy and, in doing so, seeks to depoliticize the sport.