Foreign fans are relatively common in the world of football. Roughly $1.8 billion is spent on football tourism coming into the United Kingdom per year, and it is often a mixed bag in terms of opinions. Criticism enters the fray from natives of the clubs, expressing their anger to the lack of loyalty that fans from outside the country display, and how people from within the club’s communities deserve to be in attendance instead.
After doing some rushed maths, I discovered the average premier league attendance during the course of a season is roughly 40,000 fans. 1 million fans a year are said to be attending top flight football from outside the country, divide that by 38 (the number of games per season in the division) and you get 26,315 people. In conclusion to this statistic, approximately 65% of the premier league attendance is made up of tourists, further highlighting it’s paramount significance financially to the game of English football.
But of course, these clubs garner major international attention, boasting some of the biggest names in the sporting world, and it is often regarded as one of the greatest leagues the game has to offer. Understandably, viewership is high, online and in person from those outside of the United Kingdom. However, what you don’t see often, is people from outside England, opt to go for a team lower than the Premier League. Sure, some premier league teams often sink into the 2nd tier, and attract their tourists upon their imminent return to the topflight… but that is not even close to the reference.
Argentina, a nation which currently hold the FIFA World Cup, and have produced some of the worlds greatest players and has one of the most fiercely watched leagues in all of South America, with crazy fan’s and unmissable derbies that in some cases is a matter of life and death. As a football fan, options are not limited as to who to choose to support in the Primera Division.
So when Rosario born, Ivo, displayed his love for English 4th tier club Bradford City, eyes were surely raised as to who on earth was behind this account, and why? Ivo Soboleosky, who identifies under the social media alias BCAFC LATAM (abbreviated To Bradford City Association Football Club Latin America) has amassed over 5300 followers on ‘X’ since forming his account on the app. He is known for reposting the goals scored by bantams using replays from EFL’s broadcasting service ‘iFollow’ and keeps fans up to date instantly on the club news and matchday feed when fixtures are taking place. Ivo’s clear emotion and connection to Bradford is displayed through the usual “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL” on his match feeds, as he attracts close to millions of views per month across social media.
He first attended a City fixture on Bradford’s final game of the season against Leyton Orient, during the 2022/23 season, which is commemoratively a game in which Bradfordians come together to remember the lives that were lost on the 11th of May 1985. The game ended 1-1, booking city’s place in the play-offs against Carlisle, a game he also managed to attend, where sadly the Bantams crashed out after an extra time defeat at Brunton Park.
Just 2 days ago, @KiwiBantam on ‘x’, another Bantam based outside of the UK in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, highlighted that Ivo’s attendance throughout the season was that of a good luck charm. In the games he had attended, he has averaged 2.6 points per game, sparking the idea to start a GoFundMe for him, to be in attendance for the last 3 games of what could be an interesting promotion race in Sky Bet League Two.
As I planned to write this to hopefully help the Argentinian reach the financial goal, I was blown away, as within 36 hours the target goal of 1,500 pounds being smashed, with help from current Bradford City defender Romoney Crichlow with a generous donation.
I had the opportunity to ask Ivo some exclusive questions, breaking down why on earth he chose Bradford City, and what it would mean to be apart of promotion with the club:
A Bradford City Interview: Meet Ivo
Q; What connected you to Bradford City?
Ivo : “The Chelsea game. I was a little boy in 2015, watching what seemed like a random FA Cup draw between a 3rd Division team and top of the Premier League Chelsea. At that time, I wasn’t a big fan of Mourinho, mainly because I was, and still am a huge Messi fan, and he was a big character when the ‘El Classicos’ were played. So when City turned it around and defeated Mourinho’s Chelsea, 10-year-old me was buzzing. At first, I just followed the results from time to time to see how we were doing in the league, but then I started paying to watch the games, opened the twitter account to show the fans that there was someone on the other side of the world that supports the club and it became bigger than I had thought. Now Bradford City means for me more than I can put into words.”
Q: How do you feel the season has gone?
Ivo: “Pretty well to be honest, we’ve dropped some points but so have the other teams that are fighting for promotion. We have been quite lucky in that aspect. I’ve been in England for 3 months and my first game was 3-0 down to Notts County. When you compare where we were after that match and where we are now, I can guarantee that not even the most optimistic fan out there could have thought this was going to happen. Hopefully, we win our last 3 games and get promoted without having to suffer so much.”
Q: Boca Juniors and other major Argentinian teams are on your doorstep, why 4th division Bradford?
Ivo: “I support a club in Argentina as well, Newell’s Old Boys. It has a huge British background and at some point, there was some sort of Bielsa connection with Leeds, which used to bother me a little. I don’t know how to explain my fanatism for the Bantams, it just happened. Football plays a massive part in my life, more than it should many would say. Probably I wanted to multiply my suffering, so I started following City. Now Newell’s (old boys) and City either make or ruin my weekends.”
Q: What are you up to in life? University, education, work?
Ivo: “I’m a Business student at Universidad Abierta Interamerica in my hometown, Rosario. I’m currently in my second year and got another two left. I did a fair share of travelling after finishing high school, so it was time to sit down and start studying. I Will definitely start working this year as well, so that’s more or less what im up to at the moment. Gym, uni, football and hopefully a job.”
Q: what would it mean to you to be there for the promotion games coming up?
Ivo: “It would mean more than I can put into words. The years I’ve been following City haven’t been the best to say it in a soft way, and promotions are scarce throughout our history, so finally getting a moment of pure joy and me being there would mean the world to me and everyone else involved.”
Q: Do you have final message for Bantams’ reading the article?
Ivo: “To all the fans who are reading this, I would like to thank them for the continued support and all the love the show me on twitter. I won’t have enough words to thank you for raising money so I can travel. I’ll never be able to thank you enough. I hope it happens, I can see you, and we can celebrate promotion together”
The commitment Ivo has shown to the football club has been truly remarkable and joins the collection of a few EFL fans from outside the UK, that despite all the glitz and glamour European footballs pinnacle has to offer, lower league clubs are still their preferred method of emotional connection on a Saturday. This situation further enhances ideology of the community in football, and when everyone comes together in the beautiful game, special things can happen
