Football fans across the world make brilliant visual displays, why not Leeds United?

So the controversy over the flags and cards spelling out “Together” for the Leeds United match against Middlesbrough has ignited a bit of a dispute on Twitter, with fans on both sides of the debate having their say. And since it’s Twitter, it’s a perfectly rational debate, right?

Now, it’s easy for both sides to lose perspective on this issue pretty quickly. Having the club provide clappers or going the NFL route and having loud music and/or crowd noise piped in would be terrible, but it doesn’t seem that the club is interested in doing any of that. They do seem to want to put on a show like Celtic FC in Scotland does with their displays, or maybe even have what are called “tifos” in the United States and elsewhere in the Americas, Italian football, and Eastern European football. And while everyone should be able to agree that maybe flares aren’t a good idea, some of the displays that have been on display at different clubs around the world are actually pretty great.

And maybe having the club provide the flags and the cards to try and add to the hype of the Garry Monk derby might be a little, well, cringe-worthy, the club has been playing poorly lately, so whatever it takes to lift the spirits of the club and the fans, right?

Maybe instead of having the club use cards or provide flags for people to wave, how about the club encourages supporter groups to do these kinds of things? As KC pointed out on the Might Whites Pod Twitter account, these kinds of displays are really, really incredible in MLS between the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders. Even clubs like the Philadelphia Union, which don’t always have the best support, can still have some really, really nice tifos at times. After all, part of the reason to go to see the home team is to be part of the experience that you can’t get from watching the match on TV, right?

So instead of calling these efforts tinpot and dismissing them, or claim that the club-provided displays are the greatest, can Leeds fans come up with a way to have fans make the displays with the permission and encouragement of the club, instead of the club providing them? It’s been done for years overseas, and adding some flags or banners or even more complex tifos would be breaking a bit with tradition, but it can also be a way for fans to feel more of a part of the club, not just a “customer” but as part of the club.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or Twitter.