Friday 9 December 2011

How 34,000 Napoli Fans Watched My Wobbly Video


There's been an incredible response to that video I posted on YouTube showing the remarkable reception the Napoli fans gave to their team in the Champions League match against City.

It's low-res, iPhone and shakey but so far it's had 33,977 views, 56 comments and 88 thumbs up. It's been shared 122 times, favourited by 42 viewers and disliked by two.

The stats say 86 per cent of the viewers were blokes and 72 per cent of them found it when it was embedded on Napoli's website at www.calcionapoli.it. 

Unsurprisingly, 30,753 of the viewers were in Italy when they hit the play button.

Some of the comments have been quite touching:

"Maximum respect to Manchester City supporters, all of you will always be welcome in Naples."

"You too have great supporters... In Naples we are so, we live for football. :D"

"GO GO NAPLES! RESPECT FOR CITY IN PREMIER LEAGUE!"

"Thank you for coming! We loved having you there and hoped that you enjoyed it too!"

And my favourite:

"You're my mast of work!!! But the real mast have to pass a big truble in the middle of legs."

He's got a point.

Good luck to Napoli in the jauntily titled Round of 16. I'm genuinely looking forward to our own Round of 32 in the Europa League, no matter who we get and where it takes us.

The derision that competition gets is baffling. Would fans really prefer their team to be scrapping away for the top four in the Premier League rather than going gung ho for a place in a major European final in Bucharest in May? And we wouldn't have the Poznan without it.

Bring on those Thursday nights on Channel 5.