Talk:Sunderland A.F.C. supporters

List of Celebrity Fans - make sure references are reliable

Hi guys :-)

Just a small clarification. When you add people to the list of celebrity fans, make sure the reference is credible, a quote or someone testifying to them being Sunderland fans.

Don't rely on blog lists or fan websites simply listing people, because very often they assume celebrities to be Sunderland fans simply because they're from Sunderland.

For example, this link: [1] - People like quoting it, but it's inaccurate. Olga Korbut... I haven't seen any reference to her supporting Sunderland; Gina McKee said she doesn't follow football or support anyone, even though she voiced a documentary about SAFC; Neil Tennant, never saw any reference to him supporting Sunderland; Lord David Puttnam supports Tottenham; yet in this link, they were presented as Sunderland fans, which isn't really true.

Make sure you find reliable references! I've listed the following celebrities, and all have reliable references:

Athletes

• Paul Collingwood[2] - cricketer.
• Steve Cram[3][4] - track and field athlete, silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games.
• Tony Jeffries[5] - professional boxer, bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• John Lowe["Legends of Darts". Legendsofdarts.com. 20 June 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2015.] - darts world champion.
• Martin O'Neill[6] - Northern Irish football manager and player.

Business

• Peter Vardy[7] [8] - businessman, automotive retail business.
• Tom Cowie[9] - businessman, Arriva Group.

Comedians

• Alfie Joey[10] - comedian, radio presenter.
• Bobby Knoxall[11] - comedian.

Film

• Melanie Hill[12] [13] - actress, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Coronation Street.
• Peter O'Toole[14][15] - stage and film actor, T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, record for the most Academy Award nominations for acting without a win.
• David Parfitt[16] - Oscar-winning producer.
• Richard Short[17] - stage and film actor.
• Gabe Turner[18] [19] [20] - One of the founders of Fulwell 73.

Music

• Don Airey[21] - keyboardist, Deep Purple.
• Thomas Allen[22] - operatic baritone.
• Tasmin Archer[Freeman, Sarah (20 September 2006). "High expectations for singer Tasmin's return". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 23 August 2012. I needed to do something creative which had an end result. If you have writer's block, obsessing about it is the worst thing you can do and I knew that whatever else happened I had to get on with things. My partner John is a massive Sunderland fan; I went with him to a game and, that was it, I was hooked. Turning to football didn't cure the writer's block, but it helped. In the end there was no Eureka moment, it just gradually lifted. Suddenly I was able to finish all those half-written songs.] - pop singer.
• Peter Brewis[23] - Musician, Field Music.
• Alex Kapranos[24] - Scottish musician, Franz Ferdinand.
• Lauren Laverne[25] - singer, Kenickie.
• Alan Price[26] - keyboardist, The Animals.
• Tim Rice[27][28] - lyricist and author.
• David A. Stewart[29][30] - musician, Eurythmics.
• Frankie Stubbs[31][32] - punk musician, Leatherface.

Politicians

• Ian Lucas[33] - Labour MP for Wrexham, Wales.
• Сhris Mullin[34] - Labour MP for Sunderland South, journalist, author.
• Jonathan Reynolds[35] - Labour MP for Stalybridge and Hyde.

Television personalities

• George Clarke[36] - architect, television presenter, lecturer and writer.
• Glenn Hugill[Safc mad celebs Archived April 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine] - television presenter and producer.
• David Jones[37] - sports presenter for Sky Sports.
• Denise Robertson[38] - writer and television broadcaster.

Writers and journalists

• Kate Adie[39][40] - journalist, Chief News Correspondent for BBC News.
• James Herriot[41][42] - veterinary surgeon and writer.
• Terry Deary[43][44] - children's author, Horrible Histories series.
• Kevin Maguire[45] [46][47] - political journalist, associate editor at the Daily Mirror, reporter for The Guardian.
• Jonathan Wilson [48][49] [50] – Author, editor of The Blizzard and sports journalist for The Guardian.

Maxim.il89 (talk) 14:32, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Does the "nickname" section belong to this page?

User:ChrisTheDude, hi. I saw you removed it because you don't think it belongs to this page, I think it does, because fans get this nickname, too.

Anyway, starting a discussion here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maxim.il89 (talk • contribs) 11:59, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Sunderland A.F.C. supporters/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: REDMAN 2019 (talk · contribs) 11:15, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

I'll be taking a look at this. REDMAN 2019 (talk) 11:15, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

lead

• "Sunderland A.F.C. have one of the oldest fan bases in England, starting from its creation in 1879." Needs a reference.
• Most of the supporters groups mentioned are very small, might want to remove some of the smaller ones.
• "It was discontinued in January 2017. " Source?

Politics

• Ref 26, while written by the Guardian, appears to be a humorous article about fans of premier league clubs and is from 2014. A more reliable and up to date source may need to be found.

References

• Ref 3 needs a author.
• Ref 14 doesn't appear to be working.

Comments

I am not sure that this article meets GA criteria. So I will be asking for a second opinion. REDMAN 2019 (talk) 15:46, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

General observation of the lede is that it doesn't summarise the actual article. Instead it seems to be a place where information has been shunted never to be referred to again. Meanwhile there is information in the main article not summarised (as much as it's just a glorified list further on). There is an issue of poor English throughout, for example:

1. "Sunderland A.F.C. have one of the oldest fan bases in England, starting from its creation in 1879". The sentence is intended to state that Sunderland AFC was founded in 1879, but the sentence infers the fan base was created in 1879. Meanwhile "one of the oldest fan bases" is fundamentally a POV and misleading. Firstly it doesn't qualify it as a football fan base (rugby teams pre-date most soccer teams) and as Sunderland is far from one of the oldest clubs in England it's unlikely anyone will be able to source the claim formally. Further the wording can be read to infer that the fan base itself is old (i.e. pensioners) rather than the support has a historic background.
2. A lot of the sourcing on the fan clubs is supported only by a blog (Roker Report, items 3 to 11) which is not a reliable source, nor does it indicate notability or completeness.
3. "The club had an official quarterly magazine, called the Legion of Light, which season ticket holders received at no cost.[13] It was discontinued in January 2017." This sentence is written in reverse, and doesn't identify when the magazine started. Sourcing is directly to an archive of the club shop which is blatant Original Research, and doesn't say anything about when it ended or it being free to season ticket holders.
4. "One of the club's current fanzines is A Love Supreme." source given is a link to itself. Primary Sourcing is fine for facts so I fundamentally have no issue with this basic observation, although a better source would be nice, but it also mentions other fanzines but doesn't say who or what they are - so unclear if ALS is the most senior, oldest etc. I know the ALS page has more sources to support it.

There are issues throughout the remaining sections, but not breaking them down right now but suffice to say the issues above are prevalent again. Individual sections are confused about the order of events, and the significance / notability / relevance of certain things, and sentences often have sources that do not say the thing that is being ascribed to them. For example (but not exhaustive):

1. The demographics have no links to any actual demographic information (Durham is mentioned once by The Telegraph and it says nothing about "across the north east" or "particularly" anywhere.
2. Nickname is about the club, not the supporters.
3. Politics starts with history, moves to Di Canio, switches back to history. Di Canio may have been significant in the short time he was there, but his overall historicity is less relevant to an article about Supporters.
4. Songs; seems to be in a random order between a popular song, a song made popular for a short time, a longstanding political chant, and then the chants that everybody knows. Section probably needs reversing. Koncorde (talk) 13:18, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

@Maxim.il89: How's everything going here. It's been over a week. REDMAN 2019 (talk) 11:33, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Failed due to nominator being unable to complete. See Maxim's talk page for more. REDMAN 2019 (talk) 16:53, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Rescued links

Because the sourcing is generally poor I have started trying to replace existing sources where I can. In the process I am removing unreliable and self published sources. However I am going to put those sources removed here.

• - "including North America, which started in 2013" not supported by the article
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - self published blog
• - "Support is drawn from across the North East, in particular County Durham," kind of obvious, but also not supported by the source.
• - "The club has many supporter branches across the world, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Cambodia, and Greece." Dead link and there should be a section on official supporters branches. "Demographics" doesn't mean anything in this context.
• - "Sunderland fans often sell out allocations for away games: in the 2013–14 season, 9,000" source doesn't make any claims about how often they sell out.
• - "often sing "The Red Flag" during games" - source is a match report of one instance.
• - single instance of song.

Any questions let me know. Koncorde (talk) 02:04, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

"The Black Cats" is NOT a new nickname

Right, User:Koncorde - I get it, you want to edit war, but try use some common sense.

Just because some Guardian link said it was a NEW nickname, doesn't change the fact it wasn't. What do you know, sometimes journalists get it wrong.

First of all, it couldn't be a new official nickname because Sunderland didn't have an old official nickname... so it implies like the "black cats" wasn't a nickname before, which is nonsense, because writing "black cats" and "Sunderland" together finds loads of references showing this nickname has been used for over a century. Maxim.il89 (talk) 22:10, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

I have no intention of edit warring. I am asking you to use reliable sources that say the thing you are claiming. More importantly, I am asking for reliable sources that:

1. Don't repeat Sunderland AFC as the source for the claim (promotional)
2. Don't exist only after 2000 when the stories were propagated (as your source, Dave Hillam, says)
3. Actually says "Sunderland have been known as the Black Cats" or words to that effect. Not "had a black cat at a cup final" or "they have used pictures of the black cat".

A search of books available online for instance shows one hit. But it's unclear in what context (it may be referring to the vote, for example).

A search of generic google results brings up a lot of forums, and amateur historians, but no reliable source that I can see.

What I can find is, for instance, a reference to "Sunderland 1990 Annual. Black Cat Publications" (and subsequently 91, 92) with the name Alan Brett associated with it, and an online publication (no idea what it is) but that is from 1996 and repeats the same black cat being found story and it being a mascot appears to be the only pre-2000 usage.

Any other such references to Black Cat, such as this article on a fan site was written long after the fact.

Any book I have makes no mention of it - or even the mascot element. Koncorde (talk) 23:14, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Sunderland literally had a black cat on their logo originally [51].

It's always been a Sunderland symbol [52].

Go edit war somewhere else. Maxim.il89 (talk) 00:31, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Neither of those are reliable sources, neither say the nickname of the club, or fans, was ever Black Cats officially or unofficially. At this point I will be, again, reporting you. You have been warned, reliable sourcing has been explained to you repeatedly and you choose to ignore it. Koncorde (talk) 00:50, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

@The Rambling Man and Ritchie333: you view of the above would be appreciated. I am trying to avoid further action, but it is clear Maxim will not accept normal sourcing requirements (literally any link on the internet will do for him) and was editing as an IP for at least part of this exchange.[53][54][55][56]

The user is again trying to use unreliable sources that do not say the thing he is trying to insert into the article. For example, Hillam does not say that The Miners or others were actual nicknames, only that the available alternative names were "The Mackems", "The SOLs", "The Miners" and "The Light Brigade" as options in the poll conducted. He has also tried to insert this at the main Sunderland AFC page which is an FA.

I went through this article previously to clean up all sourcing, and where no reliable sources could be found I rewrote, refactored or removed the sentence in question. This has continued with his recent addition of the "Sunderland til I Die" show. I have no issue with relevant reliably sources information, though it should be well written and relevant to the article in question.

I have looked for any evidence saying, clearly, that the nickname was used (either in the press, media, or by the club or fans) but there is nothing concrete. Personally, I have no memory of the nickname prior to 2000 which is a sample of 1, but I am happy to be proven wrong. But so far I have drawn a blank and have explained above what I could find and what would be suitable sourcing for it to be added. Koncorde (talk) 01:16, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Have you heard of Ogden cigarette cards? It was a big thing in England in the first half of the 20th century, guess what? For Sunderland, they had a black cat in a Sunderland uniform.

The original Sunderland logo had a black cat on it! That nickname maybe wasn't as much in common use then as in the 21st century, but it was there, and that is the different.

This guy here insists on including the world "new nickname"... what was the old one? It was the first time Sunderland adopted an official nickname, and they went for one in use. Maxim.il89 (talk) 23:58, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

An animal being associated with a club is not evidence of a nickname. The "old nickname", was the ones used by the fans and press. You can argue about the wording of "old" "new" vs "first official", but you need reliable sources to back up those assertions. Nobody denies Sunderland have used the image of a Black Cat. The question is can you PROVE through reliable sources that it has been used as a nickname. Koncorde (talk) 00:05, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

"Sunderland's alternative name of the Black Cats is one which is known up and down the country, but it has only been the club's official nickname since 1997." - [57]. Literally one of the sources I've added ages ago to the article and you choose to ignore! LITERALLY states how the name was known since before it was made official. Maxim.il89 (talk) 00:20, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

This is fascinating conversation. First off, we go for WP:V not "truth", i.e. if we have reliable sources stating something, that trumps the perceived or promoted "truth", especially from unreliable sources. In that sense, we should at least acknowledge The Guardian noting it came about around the turn of the millennium. In other news, I did a cheeky little n-gram search in BritEng for "black cats" which was relatively static until 2000 when it climbed to more than double its residual baseline. Coincidence? Perhaps. But I doubt it. But that's WP:OR, interesting nevertheless. This source says it was "official" nickname from 1997. And The Observer concurs. Hope that helps! The Rambling Man (Hands! Face! Space!!!!) 08:05, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks RM. That mirrors what I generally found. Any use prior to 2000 was either informal (such as someone starting a publishing company for Sunderland with the name) or mentioned in passing as the name of the supporters club or club magazine (no date given, seems contradicted by lack of corroboration elsewhere so likely apocryphal or short term) or the black cat being used as an image on cigarette cards and various paraphernalia in the early parts of the 20th century before disappearing for decades, reappearing in the 70's post the '73 cup final, then disappearing between '77 and '97 when it started being used promotionally prior to / around the time of the poll (unclear if egg came before chicken). Koncorde (talk) 08:45, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Have you heard of Ogden cigarette cards? It was a big thing in England in the first half of the 20th century, guess what? For Sunderland, they had a black cat in a Sunderland uniform.

The original Sunderland logo had a black cat on it! That nickname maybe wasn't as much in common use then as in the 21st century, but it was there, and that is the different.

This guy here insists on including the world "new nickname"... what was the old one? It was the first time Sunderland adopted an official nickname, and they went for one in use. Maxim.il89 (talk) 23:57, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Prior to "Black Cats" the club was known as "The Rokerites", that's what the RS say. Your anecdotes are fascinating, but Wikipedia uses reliable sources (like The Guardian), not your personal research and thoughts. However, this may soon be academic as you seem determined to edit war yourself to a block. The Rambling Man (Hands! Face! Space!!!!) 07:55, 18 December 2020 (UTC)