With the highly anticipated arrival of Ange Postecoglou, there has been a tifo proposed for the first home game of the season.
When the Tottenham Hotspur stadium opened in April 2019, the result of years of design and construction had finally been revealed. The 62,300-seat venue was ready for matches and for fans to return to N17.
The centrepiece was the South Stand, formally known as Park Lane. This 17,500-seat wall was set to be the beating heart of the new stadium and due to it being a single-tier stand, the developers wanted it to be a “wall of sound.” (Populous).
The club has encouraged the use of tifos (stadium visual displays), and the club have produced three of their own for the most momentous games.
For the first champions league game at the new stadium on April 17, 2019, the words ‘to dare is to do’ were plastered along the south stand by fans holding up pieces of card.
The next one came in the 3-0 win over Arsenal in May 2022, three years after the first. The atmosphere needed to be electric and the fans delivered, with every fan playing their role in keeping the volume constant.
After the game, Garry Neville exclaimed, “That atmosphere, I’ve not seen in a stadium in this country” (Sky Sports).
The last club-arranged tifo was done to mark Harry Kane becoming the all-time leading goal scorer for Spurs. ‘Harry’ was the word of choice to be displayed on the South Stand, and every fan held their card high and sang “he’s one of our own” when he walked onto the pitch.
THFC Flags are looking to bring the atmopshere
These, however, have not been the only tifos that Spurs fans have seen in recent years. THFC Flags are a fan-led organisation that was set up in March 2022 in the hope of lifting the atmosphere at the stadium even more. Their goal was to create displays that the fans design and pay for.
Within 7 months, they had arranged for there to be a tifo for the Sporting Lisbon match in the Champions League. This was a must-win game, and they felt that it would be a great occasion to have a fan-led tifo. The tifo read “THFC” with the club emblem in the middle.
This was paid for by the fans and Rapper AJ Tracey, who is also a big Spurs fan. There was no funding from the club, as they wanted to “keep it very separate. So it makes sure that we can be fan-led”.
This was an important aspect of the organisation, as it was an outlet for the fans and not a portal for the club’s messages.
THFC Flags told The Spurs Web that “it showed that fans can just crack on and do something, and they will have an impact”. This has worked as a catalyst for the atmosphere at the games.
The south stand is now engulfed with flags for every game that THFC Flags organises behind the scenes. THFC flags told us that the whole operation usually has “about a couple of people handing flags out. And then there’ll be roughly 30 people holding flags”.
The first home game this season will be against Manchester United on August 19. THFC Flags are currently collecting the funds so there can be a tifo to make the arrival of Postacoglou a special moment. It will be a card tifo that reads: ‘Welcome to N17’.
THFC Flags are working hard to keep this going and reach the four-week deadline set by the manufacturers. They have told Spurs Web, “Yes, we are on track so far.” Most of the money to fund the tifos and flags comes from donations on their site from fans.
When asked what the plans are for the rest of the season, THFC Flags explained: “We’ll get more flags. We’ll probably try for more tifos as well. But I think the big thing for us is trying to get more monthly donors. Because that gives us the flexibility to do stuff at a quicker pace.”
Fans have been asking for a surfer tifo; this is a tifo that is a solid construct rather than individual cards. This would be passed around the south stand instead of being a still-motion display. THFC Flags have noted this and now have a surfer coming –“this time a proper surfer.”
The atmosphere for the first home game will have to be fantastic to welcome Postacoglu. Getting the manager to form a relationship with the fans is a must, and hopefully, a stunning tifo will do just that.
You can check out THFC Flags here.
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